Home Sweet Home

Have you ever wondered what your house would look like if you had strep twice, and then mono and then gone out of town for a week all while staying at home with your 16 month old? You haven't? Me either. But I now know. And if you keep reading, you shall too.

Can you say clutter?

On every. available. surface.

Before you feel the need to call social services to come and take my child to a less chaotic environment, be assured it does not look the same now. It took me all of Monday to clean up the kitchen, but it looks a lot better now.

Most of the time I am a reformed slob. I do actually have a routine I do every day to keep the house presentable. It's not long and complicated, just the basic stuff that needs to get done so we can keep on living here without falling all over stuff. Or sticking to the kitchen floor. Not that that's ever happened to me. Nope.

With all the sickness and then the vacation I have let things go for a little too long. There are unfinished projects in every room of our house. I don't remember the last time I dusted. There's a lot of cat hair on the stairs. It is a bit overwhelming.

But the difference now it that I know I can do it. I can dig back out. I can keep up a house while raising a small child without cleaning for hours every day. I have done it before and I will do it again.

Because I like the house cleaner. I like it when I can find what I'm looking for. I like it when the counters in the kitchen are free of clutter. I like it when the unfinished projects are projects in process and not junk left lying around the house forever. I like it when my son can crawl around on the kitchen floor and not get really dirty. It makes me happier. Calmer. I feel a bit more in control. So, I'm taking back my house. I will set my timer and work my behind off for 15 minutes at a time until I'm back on track. "The house didn't get dirty overnight, and it won't get clean overnight either." (Quote from FlyLady.)

Getting out Cherry Stains

Usually when I wear a white shirt I eat spaghetti and get sauce all over it. This time I wore a white shirt and got cherry juice on it.

Of course we were traveling and the only clean shirts I had were buried in the trunk. And there's nothing quite like showing up at your in-laws with huge stains all over your shirt.

So I grabbed a baby wipe and cleaned it up as best I could. The stains weren't gone, but they were much lighter. When I washed the shirt I fully expected to see cherry stains on it. They had set for three days and I had no pre-treater for the laundry either.

But they were gone!

I had no idea that a baby wipe would prevent the stain from setting and it would come out in the wash. But hey, I like simple. And I really like that my shirt was not ruined.

Now where are the rest of those cherries...?

Check out other blogs linked up to Works for me Wednesdays.

Daily Cleaning

If I’m going to have a hope of getting my home cleaned up in an hour or so a week, it takes some daily maintenance.

This is what I typically do in a day.

º One load of laundry. This means washed, dried folded and put away.
º Wipe down each bathroom daily. Spot clean mirrors, spray counters and toilet, swish a little soap in the toilet bowl and call it done.
º Spray down the bathtub and shower after each use. I hardly ever have to scrub it this way.
º Keep up with the dishes. If I unload the dishwasher as soon as it’s done I have a place for my dirty dishes and the counters stay clear. I just clean as I go on this one.
º Every night I do a five minute pick up of each floor. Put away toys, clear my nightstand, put away stray items, and clear off the surfaces that always seem to attract clutter in my house. If I keep up with it, it really doesn’t take long.
º Clean up messes as they happen. If my son drops his fruit on the floor I pick it up and spot mop it. It takes a lot less time to clean up most messes as they happen rather than waiting to do it all at once.

Some other things that have really helped me out.

º Declutter. This is the single most important thing. How can I put things away if they don’t have homes? Who wants to spend 5 minutes trying to close drawers that are so stuffed with clothes they won’t shut all the way? Why do I want to store, take care of and look at stuff I don’t need any more?
º Take it in small steps. If your house is a wreck, it will take longer to get in shape. But don’t just throw up your hands and collapse on the couch. Work on it for 10 minutes, 15 minutes or even 5 minutes. Even if it’s only 10 minutes a day for a week that’s over an hour. You can get a lot of cleaning done in an hour.
º My home is not a museum. I have cat hair on the couch, rumpled towels in the bathroom and dishes drying on the countertop. I do not need to vacuum under the couch every week. I want it clean enough that my family can enjoy it and basic tasks are done regularly. Good enough is good enough.
º Know when to stop. If you’ve been vacuuming for 10 minutes and that’s all the time you have, stop. It’s okay not to vacuum the whole house if you are running tight on time. Ten minutes in the high traffic areas will do a lot more good than nothing at all.
º Figure out how long it takes you to do each task. I know I can thoroughly clean my kitchen floor in 15 minutes. When I find myself with a few spare minutes I know what tasks I can get done since I know how long they take.

How to Clean Your House in an Hour

If you know me in real life you would laugh at the idea I’m doing a post on house cleaning.

I hate to clean. Seriously hate it. I used to avoid it at all costs. My former roommate once told me I at least needed a path in my bedroom.

It was that bad.

I am somewhat reformed now. Not all the way, but a lot better. Our house is lived in, but we almost always have a pretty clean kitchen and clothes to wear. And the clothes usually come out of a drawer or the closet and not the dryer.

The first thing I learned was to make it easy on myself. I store basic cleaning supplies in each bathroom and the kitchen. Usually just a role of paper towels and some multi-purpose spray cleaner. If I leave to get those things I inevitably get distracted and forget I was cleaning the bathroom.

I have learned to clean fast. I don't want to spend my whole day cleaning, there are much more fun things to do. I wipe down the bathrooms every day. I try to do it while I'm in there anyway and since I do it daily it takes only a minute or two tops. I spray down any spots on the mirror, the counter tops, the toilet bowl and squirt a little soap in the toilet bowl. I swish the soapy water around the toilet, wipe up everything else and I'm done. Missing spots doesn't really concern me since I'm going to be back doing it tomorrow anyways.

You know the days you'd rather just sit on the couch rather than clean? I have those all the time and sometimes I totally give in. Usually I can get my butt up long enough to do something during the commercials. I can unload one rack in the dishwasher during one set of commercials. At the end of single TV show my kitchen is presentable.

I try to get all of my weekly cleaning done in one big spurt. The key is to get my husband and son out of the house for an hour or so. If I haven't been doing this regularly it takes longer.

The first thing I do is run pull my hair back, put on some running shoes turn on the music. I move when I clean.

The next thing is to run around the house and do a general pick up. Throw out magazines, put the toys away, get the dishes off the nightstand. Since we have two floors I finish one before going to the other. Instead of running every item up or down the stairs to its home I just throw stray items in a laundry basket and take them all up at once. I try to restrict picking up and putting away to 5 minutes upstairs and 5 downstairs.

Next I dust. This is does not mean getting out Pledge and polishing all the wood surfaces. I grab a feather duster and race around the house. My goal is to be done in 10 minutes or less.

Then I do the floors. I vacuum everything carpets, hardwoods and tile floors. I do not move any furniture, I just run it around the middle of the room. (The only exception is the kitchen.) My goal is 10 minutes or less.

Next comes mopping. I use a spray bottle and microfiber mop. I spray the microfiber cloth to dampen it, spot spray any stuck on dirt in the kitchen and then fly around the house with it. My kitchen takes 15 minutes total. (Move chairs, vacuum, mop, move chairs back.) The rest of the house is 5-10 minutes.

If I have some more time I vacuum the stairs, this only takes a couple of minutes.

All said and done my major cleaning is done in less than an hour a week and it doubles as a workout. In order to get it done that fast I have to focus only on cleaning and keep on moving. I also have to recognize that it won't be perfect, it's just going to be good enough.