I love cleaning and making a neat and orderly place. But when my own house is out of order and things don’t seem to have a set place, I tend to avoid getting to work and making my own home neat and tidy. The problem with avoiding the mess is that it just keeps growing. If I never start cleaning, I will only continue to create more chaos and discontent in my home.
The only solution I have is to clean. If I want a clean and orderly home, I have to clean it every day, over and over again. This is one of those adult things that many of us dread and prefer to not have to deal with. But if we make food and eat food, we will have a mess to clean up. If we wear clothes, and change our clothes, we will have laundry to wash. If we have pets, children, a spouse, or room mate we will have their possessions and belongings, as well as, their messes too. Life is messy, and someone has to clean it up.
As a homemaker, that person is me. I am a wife and homeschool mom, and a homesteader. This means there is lots of messes. Some weeks, I have to run more errands than others, or have more appointments, or need to volunteer to help someone else, there is so many things that can keep me busy and help me avoid dealing with the messes at my house. Like this blog post, I probably should be folding the laundry, washing the dishes, or sweeping the floors right now. But I have decided to write a blog about how to get started when your overwhelmed and avoiding the mess you need to clean.
Let’s talk about some simple things that I have learned that help me stay sane and keep my house clean even when life is crazy busy. Things that help when your kids are super demanding and it is hard to get anything done.
- DO ONE SIMPLE CLEANING TASK FIRST THING IN THE MORNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!First thing when I get up (after I talk to God, and get out of bed), I put a load of laundry in the washer. This is my first task. But I will tell you this doesn’t have to be your first task. I know a lot of women make their bed first thing. I usually don’t because usually someone else is sleeping in my bed still. But choose a small simple cleaning task to start your morning. It will set the tone for your day.
- KEEP YOUR DINNER TABLE CLEARED OFF FOR CONSTANT USE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a large dinning room table, and it is in my big open floor plan main living area. We use it all day to eat meals, do school, play games, do projects, etc. But we clear it off after every single task. We clear it off and wash it off after every meal. Before I go to bed each night I check to make sure the table is cleaned off and ready for the day. This simple task of always clearing the table sets a precedent of cleaning up after ourselves.
- HAVE CHORE TIME DAILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. At our house, we do this twice a day. We clean the main living space before lunch, while one or two people prepare lunch. We also pick up again every afternoon around four o’clock.
These three simple tasks help bring order and promote a clean environment in our home. These might not be the things that help you each day. When I was mentoring a mom many years ago, she loved using flylady.com to help her get organized and clean her house. Two of her favorite tips are: Put on your shoes every morning even if your not going anywhere, because it will make you feel ready to work. The other is keep your kitchen sink sparkling clean. My friend struggled with doing dishes and keeping her kitchen clean, so this simple task of keeping the sink clean helped her feel better, and often helped her continue to clean more of the kitchen.
Recently my friend, Anne Elliott, shared a post about fighting laziness. It is an old post, she wrote in 2012, but the advice is still excellent today.
Being a Godly woman is easier if we begin in a orderly, safe, and clean environment. Start today. Just do one thing to make your home more orderly, and tomorrow do one more.
May Yehovah give you strength and courage to do the hard task ahead of you each day.
Shalom
The boys bed room is cleaned up and in order again.
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