How I Manage...to keep the house clean.
At the end of 2013 my family accepted a ministry position that moved us from our fairly small home into a house at least twice the size of what we were in. We also gained two live in teenagers and have had at various times anywhere between 1-4 extra people living in our home for months to years at a time. (See: Harvest House)
I was not a great house cleaner when we lived in a small house and now that we are here I've had to REALLY step up my game to make sure our house is clean. We like to be 15-20 minutes away from "company ready" at any given time so I try really hard to stay on top of things to meet that goal. The reason for that goal of course is because we want our house to be comfortable for the people in it, but because we also want to be available for hospitality. We also never know when someone new will move in so it's nice to be prepared.
The trick? Checklists. :) Right, you were expecting something amazing. I used to have a daily chore chart on my fridge at the old house. That worked out for very surface level things but it neglected any deep cleaning or areas that aren't usually thought of. I read on a blog about a year ago about an app called Motivated Moms and it has daily chore lists. It is divided into two sections - stuff that happens every day (make your bed, clean your sink, wash dishes) and chores that happen in intervals such as cleaning toilets once a week to changing air filters a couple times a year. The nice part is, it schedules it for me. I don't have to think of these tasks.
I don't use the daily checklist on that app. Some things I just know to do and I don't need to write down. The rest of it I copy by the week, instead of tackling it by the day, into a spiral notebook. Monday is usually my main chore day unless we have an out of the house activity. I just do what I can when I can. Sometimes the bigger projects wait until Blues Clues has the kiddos' attention. Other times if I can sneak in washing mirrors while everyone is happily playing, I do that. The goal is to have everything marked off by the end of the week. I don't stress about getting it all done on a certain day. Sometimes I'll carry over big projects from one week to the next if I just don't have time to get it done. This usually is stuff that isn't make or break for the house being clean, just one of those things that needs to get tackled eventually.
As the girls get older, they are getting assigned more and more tasks. They also get assigned "play with your brothers" which frees me up to get stuff done. It's a good system. My house isn't spotless and I often think about saving a Cheerio box just to see how long it would take me to fill up with Cheerios from the floor, but it is so much better than feeling overwhelmed all the time by everything there is to do. The checklist gives me the flexibility to do what I can, when I can. It allows me to see the big picture of what needs to be done in a week and, as things get checked off, lets me know I've accomplished something!
I was not a great house cleaner when we lived in a small house and now that we are here I've had to REALLY step up my game to make sure our house is clean. We like to be 15-20 minutes away from "company ready" at any given time so I try really hard to stay on top of things to meet that goal. The reason for that goal of course is because we want our house to be comfortable for the people in it, but because we also want to be available for hospitality. We also never know when someone new will move in so it's nice to be prepared.
The trick? Checklists. :) Right, you were expecting something amazing. I used to have a daily chore chart on my fridge at the old house. That worked out for very surface level things but it neglected any deep cleaning or areas that aren't usually thought of. I read on a blog about a year ago about an app called Motivated Moms and it has daily chore lists. It is divided into two sections - stuff that happens every day (make your bed, clean your sink, wash dishes) and chores that happen in intervals such as cleaning toilets once a week to changing air filters a couple times a year. The nice part is, it schedules it for me. I don't have to think of these tasks.
I don't use the daily checklist on that app. Some things I just know to do and I don't need to write down. The rest of it I copy by the week, instead of tackling it by the day, into a spiral notebook. Monday is usually my main chore day unless we have an out of the house activity. I just do what I can when I can. Sometimes the bigger projects wait until Blues Clues has the kiddos' attention. Other times if I can sneak in washing mirrors while everyone is happily playing, I do that. The goal is to have everything marked off by the end of the week. I don't stress about getting it all done on a certain day. Sometimes I'll carry over big projects from one week to the next if I just don't have time to get it done. This usually is stuff that isn't make or break for the house being clean, just one of those things that needs to get tackled eventually.
As the girls get older, they are getting assigned more and more tasks. They also get assigned "play with your brothers" which frees me up to get stuff done. It's a good system. My house isn't spotless and I often think about saving a Cheerio box just to see how long it would take me to fill up with Cheerios from the floor, but it is so much better than feeling overwhelmed all the time by everything there is to do. The checklist gives me the flexibility to do what I can, when I can. It allows me to see the big picture of what needs to be done in a week and, as things get checked off, lets me know I've accomplished something!
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