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Do you want to clean house with me? No, not YOU come clean MY house! But YOU clean YOUR house and I will clean MY house! I’d love it if you came and cleaned my house though…just saying! Want to do it together? I will share my plan and tips and you can then share/teach me yours!? I am ALWAYS looking for great tips and tricks to make cleaning go FASTER and easier. I love a clean house but I hate the process of getting it there. I really need a clean house and and ORGANIZED house to make the packing and moving process go a bit smoother!
I call this my BUSY MOMS CLEANING PLAN! I don’t want to spend my entire day cleaning so this is how I make it fast and efficient for myself. One step at a time!
Step 1: Overall Pick Up of House
“Hold your horses lady! I thought we were going to take this step by step?!” I know that is what you are thinking but let me explain. My house is a DISASTER! There are toys everywhere…I am not even kidding you EVERYWHERE! Between being out of town, extra Christmas toys, Christmas decorations being taken down and two energetic boys, my house is out of control! Life comes before cleaning in my house so sometimes it gets a little out of hand!
Before I start really cleaning (like CLEAN, cleaning and organizing) I need to pick up first. I need toys at least in the rooms they belong, I need to be able to SEE through all the art and craft supplies to my actual kitchen table and countertops and need to be able to have a path from the bedroom door to my kids’ closets without breaking an ankle! I need to start to get a handle on my house! So that means it is Pick up Day!
I take one room at a time. Here are the things I bring with me and the things I do to accomplish Task 1:
Things I bring with me:
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plastic Wal-Mart bag for trash
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empty diaper boxes for large jobs or some small plastic shoe boxes for smaller ones. One box per kid’s room, one for our bedroom and one misc. (4) total
Things I do in each room:
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I start by picking up everything that does not belong in that room. I HATE making 8.82 billion trips to and from rooms putting things away…so I pick up all the the things that do not belong in that room and put it in its respective bin. Michaels room, Ryan’s Room, Our room and a Misc. box. Depending where you are in your house, I will make a couple trips to rooms next door. For example in my living room, if there are any drinking glasses or dishes, I will run them to the kitchen because it is right next door.
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I do this for each room. If your bin gets full then empty it in the appropriate room and carry on. I do not put all that stuff accumulated away until I am finished picking up each room.
THERE! Now, everything is at least in the room it is supposed to be! Small steps!
That’s it, I do not dust, vacuum, organize, or clean anything at this time. After I complete picking up each room, I then start back at the beginning and put away everything in the bins in the appropriate room it belongs (by away, I mean in it’s right spot, not just dumped in a pile in that room!). So I will take everything in Michael’s bin and he will help me put it all away in his room. Repeat for Ryan, ours and the Misc. box. Anything that is garbage along the way goes in the Wal-Mart bag. It is equally as annoying running to the garbage can as it is running to each room. Wasted time. With the bin method, I am not backtracking my steps every 2 minutes. The bins move with me from room to room and they save me tons of time.
So what do you say? Do you want to clean with me? Let’s do it together. I will be your cheer leader and you can be mine! I need some motivation also, I am cleaning in order to pack…two things I don’t care for too much! Let’s start the new year out clean and organized! Are you with me?????
(chirp, chirp…why do I hear crickets???)
YES you are with me, Right?
(please don’t make me beg!)
OK I am counting you in! I will see you back here tomorrow! You will thank me for this later! 
(and you can CERTAINLY reward yourself tonight for all your hard work with a nice glass of wine!)
See there are perks to cleaning! *wink, wink*
I’m with ya, kiddo! My daughter and I just moved into this house (“just” being in late October) so things are pretty well under control. EXCEPT….my craft room. Yes! I now have a whole room to myself for crafting. Unfortunately, I can’t DO anything for all the stuff! So, I’ll be cleaning ONE room along with you. Bet it takes me as long as a whole house.
Cheryl,
You are always so up to date on topics! How did you know that this is exactly what I want to do?
When we lived in Wyoming, I was completely organized and didn’t miss a thing and then we moved to another state (no pun intended, and it wasn’t the State of Chaos – though that is how we have lived since that move) and in this place everything fell apart. This was three moves ago and I have not been able to be on top of things since.
Friends and I here have discussed about “Trading Spaces – the Cleaning Zone” in which we would trade houses to clean. Somehow it is easier to clean someone else’s mess than it is to clean your own and it would be done on a room by room basis; ie. kitchen for kitchen, bathroom for bathroom… Nobody has implimented this yet but it has been considered. What do you think?
A great organizing system that I recommend is by Pam Young and Peggy Jones. They run SHE – Stay at Home Executives. Their motto is “We change lives with three by fives.” Chores are broken down, written on note cards, completed one at a time and then rotated and refiled to be used next time that chore comes up. This system takes all the guess work out of cleaning and yet guides you for the day. Check them out; they are on-line.
Another web site I also recommend is called Fly Lady and she starts you out on “Baby Steps” and if you sign up you can can recieve e-mail postings on what to do in your goal to get clean and organinzed.
Also there are lots of books on how to clean and organize. My favorite is titled “Speed Cleaning” and right now I’m drawing a blank on the author. I combined the organizing tips from the SHE ladies with the speed cleaning method from the book and it would take me only 1 – 2 hours daily to clean my entire house. The only exeption was laundry day where that was an all day process.
I so want to get back to the days where I actually considered getting a job because I had run out of things to do during the day because running my household was not taking up my entire life. At this point in my life, however, I need to work to make sure there is food on the table and working outside the home will not be successful if my home life remains the same. New Year, Old Goal, New Attitude!
Come clean with me!! :)
Maureen
P.S. Where are my adoption papers?
[...] also highly recommend that if it has been a few days since you did Step 1: Pick Up! Then you might need to do that again quick! It will save you time while cleaning because you [...]