Simple Housework Recap

I've thrown a lot of pictures & information out the past few days. I wanted to recap and explain a bit more how the five principles I outlined on Wednesday helped me get the housework done so quickly and efficiently in Thursday's post.

1. Have less to clean.
I'm sure some of you were shaking your head at my "disaster" house, thinking it already looked pretty good. I know I would have thought the same thing several years ago, and I had fewer kids back then. Though my kids got out nearly everything that was accessible to them, the total disaster wasn't so bad, because there wasn't much accessible anyway. They did get into things they would not have if I had been monitoring a bit more. There would not have been yogurt left out for the baby to get into, or snips of paper all over the floor in the girls' room. They also could have gotten more out, like the DVDs that would have created a bigger problem. So, it could have been worse.

My twins getting into baking ingredients several months ago... 

But, it would have been MUCH worse if we'd had more "stuff." Or a bigger house to spread out in more.

2. Have a place for everything.
A lot of time can be wasted wondering "where does this go?" Honestly, those questions should be answered in a more in depth organizational setting, and not during standard housekeeping. When we know where everything goes, it is simply a matter of sorting what is out, and putting it away.

One of my twins "making sandwiches" at a children's museum about a year and a half ago. Notice that it's easy for him to find the "food" he needs, because it all has it's own place. In this children's museum, even young children can keep things semi-neat, because everything has an obvious place where it belongs.

3. Create a daily routine.
It can be quite daunting to stand and stare at a huge disaster and wonder where to begin. I used to wish my mother was around more often so she could just tell me what to do. Somehow, it seems easier when I don't have to think. Creating a housekeeping routine can make things much easier. Then cleaning is simply going through the list. I have found it is best for me to have a list that I can use daily, and sometimes multiple times a day... the same list, so I don't have to think about it, or check a chart. I've done the same list in roughly the same order so many times now that when I did the house pick-up from yesterday's post, I didn't look at any chart or list at all. It becomes automatic, and clears up so much mental space. :)

Simple things often become habits that are difficult to break.
Like my son's finger sucking.

If we create intentional routines, and repeat them often enough, they can
become positive habits that require little very little mental energy.

4. Keep your servants working.
The first step in the house pick-up was to start the machines. Laundry & dishes. Later, though it wasn't officially part of the routine, I moved laundry again, since the machines were finished, and I still had more laundry that could be washed. If/when I re-do this experiment with the kids' help, you should hopefully see how enlisting the help of little "servants" can simplify things even more, even when the little ones are still very little.

5. Don't clean more than necessary.
Remember my disclosures from yesterday? There was a whole list of things that I did NOT do during the cleaning. If something needs cleaning, then clean it. If it's "good enough" (a whole post on "good enough" is in the works... watch for it in the next couple weeks), then let it go. Even during my list of dailies I skipped a couple because they were not necessary during that clean-up (emptying a garbage, and folding the laundry). Later, when you have more time, you can get to the extra cleaning.

Notice my "clean" cooktop from the experiment still has crud on it.  My mom came to visit shortly after my experiment day, and she helped me really clean my cooktop.

This level of cleaning was beyond the scope of the experiment day. 

Your turn - What is your housekeeping routine? Can you simplify it? Are you trying to do too much, too in depth, all at once? Are you stuck on where to even begin? Are you using your servants effectively? Do you waste time wondering where things should go?

Challenge - Use my list of dailies (listed in both Wednesday and Thursday's posts), or modify it to fit your own home & family, and see how long it takes you to do each step. Remember #8 and #9 (clean-up pile & put away stray items), will take the longest, and will take much longer if things don't have homes. At least try to get things off of surfaces like counters & end tables and off the floor so it is accessible for sweeping or vacuuming. You can use a laundry basket to hold "homeless" items during your cleaning challenge. Then take a few minutes to find homes for at least some of those items.