House Cleaning Tip #1

I am sure that my house is not the cleanest house on the block....yes, I am really sure about that. But I do like to have a clean house. I feel like I am always cleaning the house. My family is all about messing up the house. I guess I am not really talking about 'cleaning', but more about 'picking up'. Today, like most days, I was feeling overwhelmed with the 'picking up' part. I have learned to ignore the dust, crumbs, and fingerprints.....ok, that's a lie. I cannot really ignore those things. They do still irritate me but I must prioritize. "What can people see when standing at my front door or sitting at my kitchen table?" So I have come to the conclusion that on a daily basis, my goal is not to have a sparkling clean house but to have a house that appears orderly.

One thing I do to help me 'pick up' is to grab a basket for each person in our family. I used to use these white baskets that I bought specifically for this purpose but they always seem to be in use. Zachary uses his for all sorts of odds and ends. Emilie's is filled with her dress-up shoes. And Luke's is full of all the stuff I use when he has a diaper rash (Milk of Magnesia, Desitin, corn starch.....but that is a whole other post).

Zachary's basket

Emilie's basket

Luke's basket

So now I just grab whatever I can find. Today it was one laundry basket (for Matt and I) and three crates - one for each kid. I went through the family room, living room, kitchen, entry way and hallway and threw every one's stuff in the appropriate container. I also added the laundry that was in stacks (one stack for each person) on the couch. My house looked relatively clean in a very short amount of time.
Four baskets that need to be 'delivered' to their rooms.

Next on my agenda is to clean the bedrooms before I bring the baskets of stuff into the rooms. Baby steps.