I always looking for more ways to improve my ability to keep my home as maintained as I can. People are different. Different levels are clean, tidy, and at being organized. I have tried to create habits, routines, and even tried cleaning like my mother in law. Doesn’t work. So how do I keep my home the way I want it? Great question. Let me ponder the answer for a moment. See this is what I want:
I want it clean enough to be able to be comfortable, tidy enough to say, “Welcome, come in.”, and organized enough to find the things at a short notice. Please Note: We don’t have little humans running around. I don’t have little feet that piddle paddling on the floor, running, or creating messes. Everyone one is different, motivation, and what I got to do to keep the house clean, tidy, and organized.
.
Key Note: Know everyone is different.
Everyone is different. Some plan, others make plans, and there a person like me. I take action. I failed miserable at keeping my house cleaning planned. I tried the schedule cleaning. Doing a room everyday, and even tried doing all at once. Nothing.
I tried everything from Flylady.net, Organizing Queen, to Martha Stewart. They are all awesome. I didn’t fit in. I tried each one every year or so. And failed. I even followed advice from blog posts, to watching videos, and advice from family/friends. Nada! Nope, not a thing.
I finally realized, “I’m my own person, this is my place. People don’t know me. My friends and family do. They have their own place. They have their own way to be clean, tidy, and organized in their own home.”
An Aha, God bless me, moment.
I realized, “I don’t live with them. I don’t live with the people from the blog post, the people in the videos, even family and friends.”
Yes, I’m the homemaker. So within some kind of reasonable logic. I should create my own way to do things. Its a hard realistic thing to know, and probably not what you may expect. To know I don’t live up to anyone’s expectation on how to live, is glory in its own present.
Key Note: Motivation.
Make some sense that everyone is different. They motivation would be different also. I enjoy cleaning and tidying the house listening to Christian Rock. Light a few candles around the house. Even put some water down vanilla extract in a pan, and let it simmer on low for a fragrant peaceful smell. Dancing is a good exercise, I dance while listening to music. It has a distressing presence. However, there are times I forget to put the water down vanilla extract on the stove, and light the candles. I don’t forget to put on my Christian Rock music and dance.
Some people listen to music as they clean, tidy, and even organize. They music may, may not be the same as mine. I’m like blessing my house with music, that moves my soul and encourages me to be the best I can be. Finding the motivation is the key to any success story. To any story.
What is the number two things people lack when trying to tidy, clean and organize their home? Energy and motivation. Find something that keeps you keeps you going. My is creating the energy with the music, the candles to set a certain mood, and the fragrance of peace with the water down vanilla.
Then the energy is converted to a level of motivation on, “I’m going to create a place I love, cherish, clean, tidy, and be organized.”
Please note: My home is no near perfect, my level of organization isn’t either.
Questions to ask yourself:
- How unique do I want my place to be?
- What levels are clean enough for you?
- What creates energy so I can get motivated to have my home, “My home.”?
- Is it clutter or is it lovable?
- What suites me with my home?
- *What is bothering me or holding me back from being clean? (Is it trauma related? PTSD, Depression, etc…) (If yes, go see a professional therapist. It would be so worth it.)
*Realizing that your energy can make or break you having motivation. Get help, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Even friends can cheer you up. Talk to someone, and see where you can start.
I am OCD Perfectionist. You can ask my friends, my hubby.There is no music, no candle lit, and no smelling good fragrance on the stove; and there is trash on the floor and it doesn’t get picked up, its perfect where it is.
I have to make a choice, a conscious choice to tell myself, “NO~ that doesn’t belong there, ” I pick up the trash and throw it away.
It is wracking hard, really hard to pick up the trash off the floor. Same with dishes, laundry, and cleaning the home in general.
I had literally trained myself to listen to music, have at least one or more candles to be lit, and have something sweetly good in the home to be able to clean. Sad, isn’t it. That’s my mode of energy, of motivation, of let’s get it done and over with.
Key Note: I got to do what I got to do.
Train yourself. Its hard, to believe. You can say create habits, routines all you want to. How to do that though? By training yourself. Be your own boss. Your home is your business, you have to teach kids right? To get up and to do stuff. Note: I have no kids to teach. Teach, is similar to training. I have liked I typed above to train myself to create the energy before I get started to clean, tidy, and organize the house.
It take me about a few minutes to set the mood to clean. Energy must be able to be created so motivation can be started. After that I pick a room, any random room in my home. Here are my rooms:
- Kitchen
- Living Room
- Small bedroom converted, into a closet room
- Hallway combo laundry room
- Bathroom
- Bedroom
I pick a random room for a day and sweep the ceiling, dust, de-clutter, and clean surfaces; and sweep/vacuum. I don’t have any particular day for a particular room. It doesn’t take that long to do a room.
However, there are some daily cleaning that is a must. This must happen in the day:
- Pray
- Collect the dishes (only wash them through out the day on my day off)
- One maybe two loads a laundry a day, (wash, dry, put away).
- Wipe and clean the bathroom surfaces.
- Sweep the floors
- Make the bed, (attempt to)
Part two, this must happen at night to help unwind me:
- Wash dishes, and surfaces
- Pick up trash or do a min de-clutter of surfaces in the living room
- Put shoes away
- Put the rest of the laundry away
- Gather laundry and put in hamper
- Read Scriptures
- Pray
Yes, I break it down daily into the day (morning), night. Some says its a routine, or habit. Frankly, there are some days and nights that this isn’t possible to do. It seems impossible to do. I do what I got to do to keep my home, at the level I love. My home is my business, I’m the boss of it.
So on a random day, I pick any room and clean it. I have six days, six different room. I write down what room I did clean, and the day beside it. I move on to the next day and pick a different room. Not every week on the same day is the same room.
That to me would be really boring, to do. Sorry, for offending you. You may do it the same room on the same day day of the week. Guess what? That is okay. You do what you got to do to keep YOUR place the way you love it. I do mine, my way.
Training yourself, to do what you got to do. Is hard, well may not be hard for you as it is for me. I don’t do to do lists. I tried. I tried to schedule certain days for certain rooms. The only thing I can say, house cleaning starts when you start. Start with something very simple, take out trash everyday, or pick up and de-clutter a room any room for a few minutes a day.
Some start with making their beds in the morning. I attempt to, sometimes its an epic fall. I know how to make the bed. Its rather hard when I haven’t set my mood to do so. Some shower and clean their bathrooms before even getting ready for the day. Some clean at night so they don’t have to do it in the morning.
My advice is try something totally different from what you are used to. Train yourself on doing something everyday. Know that you are different from friends, family, the web, and the people of the world. Nothing fits everyone, and if it it did, nothing fun will come of it. Find your motivation, make it fun. Make motivation your slave. And do what you got to do to keep your place of love.
Let your place be clean, tidy, and organized by your standards. Let your home be clean enough for your family, tidy enough to be simple enough to do each day, and organized enough to find things on short notice. You can only fail if you don’t apply yourself into keeping your home clean, tidy, and organized.
How do you keep up with the daunting tasks on keeping your home clean, tidy, and organized, with and without kids?
