I used to have a clean house
By MelodyGross | Category: Creating a Home, Organize Me!, The Journey of Motherhood
Back in the day when I had just two kiddos and a 700 square foot house, my home was super clean. To the point of being annoying to others, I am sure : ) I was very much ‘Type A’ and that definitely came through in my housekeeping. I cleaned my entire house once a week. Top to bottom. Rain or shine.
Fast forward to present time. We’ve added another little one to the mix, and have relocated to a home more than twice the size of our cozy, little, cottage. And while I am still ‘Type A’ in many ways, the size of our house and the number of small people have won out over my love of a clean home.
I am an all or nothing kinda gal. If I can’t enjoy a perfectly clean home then why even bother. Plus it’s going to be dirty again in 7 seconds anyway. So these days I really only clean something when I can’t stand it anymore. Or when company comes over. And believe me, I avoid that at all cost : ) So yes, this means my toilets get scrubbed when mold starts to grow. My mirrors get cleaned when I can no longer see through the hundreds of tiny fingerprints. And my floor gets mopped when my feet begin sticking to the linoleum as I pass through the kitchen. Surely there has to be a middle ground. But truly, most day it’s all I can do to get 3 meals on the table, and stay on top of the laundry and the dishes.
I read a quote from a fellow blogger, months ago that resonated in my heart. The quote was this, “I am not a full time housekeeper with a part time job as a babysitter.” Such a simple statement, but it so succinctly puts her priorities into place. That is how I want to view my job as a mom. But I can tell you that there many times when I value getting the laundry done over spending time with my children.
And the truth of the matter is there are things that just have to get done. Our kids have to eat. Dirty clothes won’t wash themselves. And mold in the toilet is just disgusting : ) So how does one reconcile the deficit between these two needs? Our children need to be our top priority. Absolutely. There’s no disputing that. But the other part of our jobs as ‘mom’ is keeping our home. So how does one do both well?
So fellow mommas, I’m asking you. What do you do? Are you super organized in your housekeeping? Do you have a schedule? Do you try to tackle one room a day? Do you have a certain day you clean? Or maybe you’re in my camp and your bathrooms have turned into a science experiment…please, please tell me I’m not alone! Let’s talk. Maybe we can help each other out!
Melody, I am an organized person as well and it stretches my personality to have a messy house. I am challenged often to try to figure out if I am cleaning too much or too often. Your quote, “I am not a full time housekeeper with a part time job as a babysitter.” is a good one to hold on to. For me, I find it very helpful to have a productive evening routine (something I talked about here: http://blog.mom4life.com/lets-organize-our-day-the-evening-routine/) so that each night when I go to bed things are in place and the kitchen is clean. Waking up to a clean house makes a huge difference for me.
Since the time that I wrote that post, we have also created “responsibility lists for our 6 and 8 year old. They have morning and evening responsibilities that they need to do each day and these include things like brushing teeth, making their bed, cleaning their room, taking their Cod Liver Oil;) along with some weekly jobs such as taking out the trash, cleaning their bathroom, etc. At the end of the week they can turn in their lists and each job they marked as completed earns them a small amount of money or a small amount of technology time that can accumulate to equal a few toys at a yard sale or thrift store or some time on the ipad etc. We do this instead of an allowance as we want them to not feel entitled to money without having to do anything for it. If however we have to remind them more than once to do a chore, they do not get credit for it (but they still have to complete it). This has helped cut down on constantly asking “have you brushed your teeth yet?”
Another thing I have done that has helped keep my bathrooms under control is that I have a small basket under each bathroom sink with rags and window cleaner. This makes it easy to quickly clean the mirror and wipe down the countertop and sink . This takes maybe 2 minutes and if you get in the habit of doing it before washing your hands when needed it can really help.
I hope some of those ideas help!
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Melody Reply:
July 25th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
@Heather Ledeboer, Thank you for the tips! I do pretty good as far as keeping things picked up. I do always tidy up before going to bed. It’s just the actual ‘cleaning’ part, that I never seem to get around too!
I think my kids are finally nearing the age that I can start involving them more. Yay!
I love your idea about keep a cleaning basket under the bathroom sink, but ack! I have pedestal sinks and so little storage!
I think I’ve just gotten to the point where my house overwhelms me so much that I lack the inspiration to even try.
Thank you for the ideas. I think I just need to start small : )
Melody recently posted..Yesterday vs. Today
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Heather Ledeboer Reply:
July 25th, 2012 at 4:15 pm
@Melody, Ok yes I see what you mean about the actual “cleaning” part. I am afraid I don’t have a lot of advice here. My husband and I have budgeted such that we have a lady come to do the deep cleaning for us. To me this has been a HUGE help. I can keep up with the surface stuff but it is the deep cleaning that I find hard to work in right now as well.
Pedestal sinks eh? Oh boy, those are really nice looking but not much storage as you said. . . !
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Melody Reply:
July 25th, 2012 at 8:09 pm
@Heather Ledeboer, But really it’s more than just the deep cleaning I am struggling with. I really need to come up with a way to regularly work in things like cleaning the bathroom and mopping my floor…and not just waiting until they are so gross I can’t stand them anymore : )
Melody recently posted..Yesterday vs. Today
A couple years ago I made a list of all the home cleaning chores that I want to accomplish in my home. I kept it realistic (so I left out things like ‘dust the tops of the fans’ because tis not a high priority for me). Then I broke the list down into certain tasks that are either daily, weekly, and monthly. Lastly, I assigned a day of the week for each task and I entered it into my iPad app “Home Routines” so that the tasks I need to do for that day will only show up when assigned. It took a lot of work (am I type-A or what?) but now, if I work hard for only 30min a day, I will have a house that has been thoroughly cleaned in a month’s time. It took a few weeks to complete my list, but it has been well worth that effort!
The only other thing that has helped immensely is that I have involved my kids in daily chores…they are 9 and 8. I am also training my 4 yr old on small tasks. This has really helped me too! Otherwise my floor would never be swept or my bathroom counters cleaned, I’m afraid!
. It helps me to focus on the things they can’t do.
Oh, wait! One more thing that has transformed my home. I try to take just 15 min each day to focus on an additional ‘problem area’ in the home. This has helped me reorganize the entire house…it took a few months to complete it, but with just 15min a day, it was amazing!!!
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Heather Ledeboer Reply:
July 25th, 2012 at 5:29 pm
@Jen Jamal, great tips Jen! I am impressed at the organized way you approached it and super glad to hear it is working for you.
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Melody Reply:
July 25th, 2012 at 8:12 pm
@Jen Jamal, thank you for the ideas! I think I could do a modified version of this to start off with, and just keep things super simple. Maybe I will pick three things to work at being consistent about, and then slowly add in more, if all goes smoothly : ) And I also really like the idea of tackling problem areas 15 minutes at a time. Good stuff! Thanks for sharing!
Melody recently posted..Yesterday vs. Today
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Melody, I sure appreciate your honesty! You are not alone. It’s hard to juggle so much! Not too long ago, I read an excellent book entitled ‘Large Family Logistics’. The author gives some wonderfully do-able tips for keeping on top of everything. Here’s a little taste from her blog: http://largefamilylogistics.blogspot.com/p/every-room-in-house-is-mess.html
I’ve implemented many of her suggestions, and boy have they ever made a difference in our home.
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Melody Reply:
July 26th, 2012 at 5:23 am
@Amanda P., thank you! I am remembering that I have heard friends talk about this book…Prehaps I will get myself a copy! I think I just need to arm myself with SOME sort of plan. Any plan. Sitting here being overwhelmed about what I am not getting done, surely isn’t helping any thing! Thank you for sharing!
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I have absolutely no suggestions since my house is in general a mess. We moved in the fall, and I’m still unpacking, rearranging, etc. I also find it difficult to clean since there are some rooms, which I want to gut and redo, since they’re so ugly. I know cleaning them won’t change how they look, so I’m not motivated. I’m definitely leaning towards Heather’s suggestion of a housecleaner since I work full time from home and so does my husband.
I do try and keep in mind that this is a stage of life as my kids get older and able to help, as we get more unpacked, as the farm (we run and live on) gets more settled and productive, things will get easier.
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Melody Reply:
July 26th, 2012 at 7:51 am
@Sarah, I can so relate to having ugly rooms that won’t help to clean : ) We are s-l-o-w-l-y remodeling our house that is over 100 years old. When we first moved in 3 years ago, is when I kinda gave up on keeping a clean home. Because, as you said, cleaning did not improve the overall look of the home! As we update room by room, the house is slowly becoming less ugly : )
I definitely think there are times and seasons when some things just have to take a back burner. And moving and adjusting to a new business definitely falls under that category in my opinion : ) And if you can find room in your budget for a housecleaner…DO IT!
Thank for chiming in.
Melody recently posted..Yesterday vs. Today
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Sarah Reply:
July 26th, 2012 at 9:16 am
@Melody, Our house is also 100 years old and was last remodeled in the 60′s I believe. You’ve given me hope that eventually my house will look the way I want it too.
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Well, I can relate to this… I am actually one lazy lad when it comes to keeping the house clean and I really want to hire someone to do it for me. But I want to save money!
Aric Jorgan recently posted..Buy the Wonder Wheeler
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Melody Reply:
July 28th, 2012 at 6:17 am
@Aric Jorgan, I too would love to hire someone to help out with the cleaning…BUT when I sit down and really think about it, there are other things I would much rather spend that money on. So I guess I have two choices….be ok with living in chaos or start making small, reasonable goals to work toward a cleaner home.
Thanks for joining in the conversation!
Melody recently posted..Yesterday vs. Today
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I’m right there with ya! The only thing I can keep on top of is my toilet and sink bc I clean those when I’m getting ready in the morning lol it does help to have cleaners in arms reach, for me. Also, for deep cleaning, I heard this awesome idea: you and a another mom get together to clean each others houses. One week (or every other week) she comes to your house, with all of her kids, and y’all work on something big you’ve needed to get done -cleaning out the cupboards, deep cleaning the kitchen, organizing the closets etc. And the next time you go to her house! I loved the idea and want to find a mom to do that with me because I need the motivation and the chatting would make it
Bearable lol
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Melody Reply:
July 28th, 2012 at 10:53 am
@Alexia, I love the idea of having another mom pitch in! Although, I’m not sure how much one would get done with all the kid interruptions…but at least it would be more fun! I’ve also heard of friends who swap cleaning houses for each other. One mom will come to her friends house and hang out with all the kids, while the other mom goes to her friends house and cleans for her. I guess the advantage there, is maybe it’s more fun to clean someone else’s mess : )
Melody recently posted..Yesterday vs. Today
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[...] home (it is now a mess) and asked for tips and feedback from other moms in her post titled, “I used to have a clean house“, it started a conversation on our facebook page about what we do in our home to involve our [...]
I understand how you feel, it can be difficult to keep your house clean with 3 little ones.
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We all used to have a clean house… but sometimes you don’t have enough time to clean all the mess inside the house especially if there’s a child or children to attend to.
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