5 Steps to Keeping A Clean & Organized House in Minutes a Day
1. Know Your Why.
Why do you want to keep a clean and organized house?
At first glance, you might think everyone wants a clean and organized to return to each day. The majority of people enjoy the fresh smell, clean energy, and look of a scrubbed and picked-up home.
Yet maybe you are secretly ambivalent about the clutter on your desk and the stuffed closets. The media and world are preaching an organized house, and well, you feel therefore that you should have one. Guess what? Your time and life belong to you.
You may want to scoop your clutter aside once a week and do a quick vacuum, disinfect bathrooms and kitchen counters, and call it good. Hey, you know it’s germ and bacteria-free under that clutter, right? So forget about what other people say your home should look like. Devout your time and energy where you want, or need to right now.
Or maybe you will only feel well and happy in a clean and organized house, yet you’re still not keen on the hours of work it takes to keep everything shiny and clutter-free. Instead of sorting and putting away, scrubbing and mopping, you would like to direct your energy and time somewhere else, like into deeper relationships, a healthier you, going for your dream, enjoying a beloved hobby, or reading more books.
The question you need to answer is, where exactly would you like to devout the time you’ll earn by changing how you approach keeping a clean and organized house?
Would you like to spend more time on the back of a horse, the wind blowing in your air, the sun warm on your skin? Or working in the garden, surrounded by the smell of lavender and rosemary? Do you envision yourself hosting more parties, and spending more time laughing over a glass of wine with friends?
You need to know why you are committed to earning back time away from chores. Knowing your why will spark motivation to make a change and follow through.
2. The 36-Day Asset Allocation Challenge
Now that you know you why, you will have fire in your belly to tackle the 36-Day Asset Allocation Challenge.
For the next 36 days, commit to not spending any money, not even a dollar, on anything but groceries. Do not cheat in what you include in your definition of groceries. Before the challenge starts be sure that your kids’ shoes fit them, because you won’t be going shopping for over a month.
What happens if you are invited to a wedding and don’t have a dress? Borrow one from a friend. What about if there is a home repair and you don’t have a particular wrench? Go ask a neighbor.
At the end of the month, you can use the money you’ve saved to invest in a joyful or purpose-centered experience. The ideas are limitless. Think through what you value, your dreams, and what causes you to light up inside. You could plan on throwing a party, going on a day trip, enjoying a day at the spa, signing up for a continuing education course, or learning a new skill, such as photography, wood carving, or deep sea diving.
3. Two Days Worth of Meals
If you truly want to change your life, you will start only purchasing groceries for two days at a time and only purchase food you need to create meals and snacks. You won’t go to the store until the fridge is almost empty. Since your fridge is pretty much empty, you will give it a quick wipe-down before going to the store again.
It may sound counterintuitive, but you will save not only time but money grocery shopping more often. Piles of food are thrown away each year that have perished in peoples’ fridges. That is money literally being thrown away.
Meanwhile, undertaking a cleanout of a refrigerator can take people anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour. Sorting through what is still good, and what isn’t, and placing everything on the counter so you can wipe down the inside of the fridge isn’t anyone’s idea of a fun way to spend time on a Saturday afternoon.
Still not convinced that shopping every two days will work? Shopping regularly and eating everything you buy before heading out for more will boost your health. Fresh fruit and vegetables lose their vitamins over time. By purchasing produce more frequently, you will be feeding yourself and those you love meals that are more nourishing and health-promoting.
4. Minimalize Down to Essentials.
Now that you have stopped the flow of new items into your home, it’s time to minimalize down to the essentials.
You don’t own your stuff- your belongings own you. It’s time to purge your house of every item that you do not use regularly or find joy in possessing.
Make a plan to tackle one room per week. Circle the same day of the week on your calendar and set aside two hours to pick up every single item in the room and make the decision to keep or give away.
Do not underestimate how difficult these hours of work will be for you.
The largest problem for me was my bookshelf and papers from school. I had invested hours into reading those books and writing those papers. It was heart-wrenching to throw them out and give the books away. In the end, the truth was that they were not something I regularly used, nor things I found delight in owning. Goodbye notebooks and binders. Hello, space.
Anxiety scrambled my nerves when I chose to give away expensive gifts or purchases, such as a window steamer. I thought that window steamer would save me time, but in the end, I discovered a squeegee and microfiber cloth did the trick with better results, and faster.
With each item you shed you will untether and unhook a little extra weight that has been holding you down and stealing your time.
With fewer possessions, you will earn back quality of life.
It takes energy as well as minutes of your life to pick up, clean, and put away possessions. The more things you own, the more time you spend searching for what you need while cooking, getting dressed in the morning, putting on makeup, or getting out the door. Your children struggle to find toys they delight in playing with once there are piles; it overwhelms them.
5. A Place for Everything, and Everything in Its Place
Once you have cleared away all the dead weight in your home, it’s time to give every single belonging a home. From your car keys and mail down to your handbags, everything needs a specific place it calls ‘home’.
If you find your closets, drawers, and shelves too full to give each item its own place, then you need to go back to step four and release more belongings from your home and your life. There should be space for each belonging to breathe, which will make it easy for you to return it to where it goes after each use.
6. Clean & Return Items ‘Home’ a Few Minutes EVERYDAY
Choose a specific time when you will complete a home pick-up and clean every day. In our house, it’s right after dinner. You may want to do it before going to work and school so you come home to a clean and organized house.
Set a timer for thirty minutes and run through the following activities:
Spray disinfectant on your toilet, sink, shower floor or bath, and door knobs. Leave to soak.
Vacuum for ten minutes in your high-use areas, such as your kitchen, entry, and bathrooms.
Return to the bathroom and use a damp microfiber cloth to quickly wipe everything down. Run a dry microfiber cloth over everything to polish.
Throw in a load of laundry in the washing machine.
Do a pickup and return of belongings in the remaining time.
After every meal: Immediately clean up the kitchen and leave it sparkling. Don’t have the time this once? Always be sure to wipe down all counters and do a quick rinse of dishes even when you’re in a hurry, or leave the dishes in the sink to soak. You will still walk into a clutter-free, clean-looking kitchen when you return, just with some dishes left to do.
Hit the Refresh Button
When you get right down to it, the reason the majority of people don’t value chores is because value operates in line with the monetary rewards. Cleaning is often a thankless task or one that earns little in salary.
Few people like to clean, but most enjoy the smell, feel, and look of a clean and organized house. You can keep a clean and organized home in minutes a day by simplifying, reducing your purchases, and investing in 30 minutes of ch
ores daily.