My parents are neat and tidy people. They have always kept and clean house with belongings in their proper places. Apparently, this is not a genetic trait. As much as I enjoy a clean house, I’ve never been consistent about keeping my space picked up (despite my ever-patient parents’ best efforts). I always thought this would be something that came naturally to me as I got older or became a mother or purchased a home, but it never did.
Not too long ago, I watched Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up on Netflix and was envious of the neat spaces the show participants wound up with at the end of each episode. While I don’t love her method of folding clothes, I can agree with Marie Kondo’s belief that a tidy home can do wonderful things for your state of mind.
For the past few months, I’ve made a concentrated effort to maintain the parts of my home I spend the most time in and these chores have become a comforting part of my routine.
1. Pick Up Your Room
I am notorious for having a pile of not-clean-but-not-dirty clothes on the floor of my room. I was always rifling through the pile to find a piece of clothing, just to find it was too wrinkled to re-wear.
What is the point of the pile?!
I found the main clothing items I wear multiple times between washes are the lounge clothes I change into when I get home from work. I cleared out space in one of my dresser drawers to put my current rotation of lounge clothes. If I wear something that doesn’t need to be washed, it goes straight back in my closet or dresser, not on the floor. Each night before crawling into bed, I force myself to clean up any stray clothing items. Having a clear bedroom floor leads to a clear mind!
2. Clean the Bathroom
One of my friends posted on Instagram that she cleans all the homes in her bathroom once a week.
“Once a week?” I thought. “I clean my bathrooms when I can’t remember the last time I cleaned them.” (I know, Mom. I’m so sorry.)
Reading her post made me realize my family deserves clean bathrooms. Around that same time, I stumbled upon the Clean Mama Instagram page (how did people parent before Instagram?). She has an amazing cleaning schedule that is actually realistic and customizable. After reading through her method for quick but thorough weekly bathroom cleanings, I was fueled with what I needed.
Now that I maintain the cleanliness of our bathrooms, I can clean our two bathrooms in twenty minutes total. Granted, our bathrooms are small and I do the floors on a different day, but my point is that shiny tile and sinks are totally attainable!
3. Do the Dishes Daily
Again, my parents taught me better than this, but doing the dishes after making dinner is awful and it’s even worse your dishwasher is already full of clean dishes that need to be put away first.
Staying on top of the dishes makes cooking (my true love language) so much more enjoyable. I can find the utensils and dishes I need in the cabinet instead of dirty in the dishwasher. I run the dishwasher practically every night and empty out the clean dishes first things every morning. Now that I’ve made emptying the dishwasher a daily habit, I can do it very quickly which makes it more attainable during busy mornings.
