Warning: this is a looooooong post.
We’ve been talking about Bittylutions – my series on mini, achievable resolutions.
KEEP ALL THE THINGS CLEAN AND ORGANIZED seems like a lofty and overwhelming goal. Especially if you’re busy and have children and baby pet chupacabras and a collection of Pez dispensers lovingly displayed on your fireplace mantel.
I am home a lot. I live here, I raise my kiddies here, and I also work here. My brain cannot properly function if my house is not in order. I had to adapt a little bit, because if I only got things done when my house is 100% clean, I’d be walking around the house with dust rags, being chased by naked and hungry toddlers. You know what I mean.
But if the space around me is cluttered, my brain feels cluttered. And at the same time, throwing myself into being 100% organized and clean all the time seems anti-bittylution. See my conundrum?
In the beginning of January, we had our floors replaced, which meant Jack and buds stacked up furniture in the kitchen, and boxes went every which way. Basically, junk went everywhere, and I was overwhelmed just looking at it. We plowed through, bit my bit, and even though furniture went back where it belonged, things were still askew.
WHO PUT DUCT TAPE IN THE BUTTER COMPARTMENT?
Know what I mean? Not only did I have the usual blocks and books shoved under the couch dilemma, but there was also just an explosion of THINGS. Stacks on stacks on stacks. So, I got a little extreme. If you’ve been stumbling around in a catastrophic mess, I think my crazy gameplan will work for you.
Pick a day where you have a block of time free. Kick all of the humans out of the house. While I can get stuff done with Rembot and Baby Shark underfoot, I am profoundly less productive. I called Lola one weekend morning, and she whisked the kids away for me. I had the house to myself, and I feel like (for me) that this was key.
Getting read-dayyyyy: Eat a healthy breakfast, because as tasty as doughnuts may be, they don’t provide me the energy I need to plow through some work for a few hours. I threw on workout clothes, mainly because they’re the only clothes that fit, and I am not at ALL productive in pajamas. Seriously, I peel those bad boys off the first thing every morning, otherwise I find that I drag until I shower and get dressed.
Snag some plastic bags for garbage and containers (I used some Trader Joe’s paper bags) for donations. I put some of the TJ bags in the corner of one room. When I find things that I need to donate, I drop it in that bag so it’s all in one spot. Get all of your cleaning supplies together. This is important: no television. No internets. No cell phone. I know, I’m a tyrant, but seriously if you don’t shut ‘em down, you’ll end up Pinning cute decor for your house THAT IS STILL MESSY. (I hear about two dozen of you yelling, “Hollaaaa” and “Mmhmm, I know that’s right.”)
Turn on some sweet jams. I get a playlist going on Grooveshark and plug my laptop into the stereo in my living room. I issue an apology to my neighbors via Facebook status if they hear an abundance of 90s hip hop and catch glimpses of me doing the Cupid Shuffle in my living room.
Hour #1: I know. Seeing the word “hour” may be a little overwhelming, but it’ll go quickly. I make my living room and kitchen priority since they’re the first rooms people see when they come in the house. (I have no formal dining room, and an open floor plan means people can see the kitchen/dining area the second they walk in the house). The first chunk of time is for picking things up, not dusting or mopping or sweeping, so don’t be tempted to start cleaning fingerprints off switchplates.
15 minutes – living room: I set the microwave timer for 15 minutes and get biz-zay in the living room.
- Throw any garbage away. (Baby Shark has not mastered the art of throwing her tissues in a trash can.)
- Throw any laundry in a hamper.
- Hang up coats and put them in the coat closet.
- Deliver shoes back to where they belong (for us, it’s a lidded basket in the living room).
- Clear off surfaces. Coffee table, armoire, couch, loveseat, sofa table.
- Pick junk up off the floor.
*IMPORTANT. Put things in their homes. If there are crayons and coloring books on the coffee table, I throw the crayons in the crayon cups and put everything in the cabinet where I keep the art supplies. If you’re not sure where the “home” is yet, just stick homeless things in a box, but don’t get hung up on organizing spaces just yet.
Stop when the timer goes off, even if you didn’t get past the first few steps. You’ve still made progress (YESSSS) and now it’s time to move to the kitchen.
15 minutes – kitchen: Set the microwave timer. Mine goes eee-eee, eee-eee when it goes off. In case you were wondering.
- Throw any visible garbage away. (But don’t start opening cabinets looking for expired Cheetos.)
- Empty the dishwasher/dish rack.
- Load the dishwasher and run that action. (If you have no dishwasher and all of the clean dishes are put away, just start washing dishes and enjoy the sweet melodies of Salt-N-Pepa while you do so.)
- When the dishes are done, clear off the kitchen table. (Send things to their homes. For example, right now I have a coffee mug, a dish rag, and some mail on the kitchen table. The mug goes in the dishwasher, the dish rag goes in a hamper, and the mail goes in the mail slot thingy that we’ve got on the wall.)
- Grab another rag and some cleanser and scrub down the table and push all the chairs in. Because now one section of the kitchen looks relatively clean.
- Start clearing off counters. I go from left to right and just send things home. Empty seltzer bottles get put in a bag for recycling, cereal boxes go back into a basket on top of the fridge, etc.
Stop when the timer goes off, and head to the bathroom.
5 minutes – bathroom:
- Throw any visible garbage away.
- Throw any laundry in a hamper.
- Ignore the shower completely. Seriously. Close the curtain and walk away.
- Pick up stuff and put it away.
Stop when the timer goes off.
15 minutes – living room:
- If all of the extraneous stuff in the living room has been sent back to their homes, then break out the cleaning supplies and start wiping down hard surfaces. Otherwise, keep working on decluttering. Surfaces first, then the floor (this is where I find mismatched socks).
Stop when the timer goes off. Look at you, champ. You just cleaned for 50 minutes straight. Your playlist should be still be going strong, so do a little celebratory step and give me a whatwhatt.
Ten minutes – ch-ch-check it out: I sit with a notebook and a pen and I reassess the situation. Usually at this point, my living room is shiny and clean, my bathroom is no longer cringe-inducing, but my kitchen still needs love. I start writing a list. Cater it to your needs – for example, if you have a large foyer, you may want to move on to that. I have no foyer, but three square feet of tile that just need a quick sweep + mop.
The next hour. Or two. Or even three: My list will look something like this:
- 15 minutes – kitchen
- tidy up the girls’ closet
- 5 minutes – bathroom
- 15 minutes – kitchen
- clean up my closet/Jack’s closet
- fold any clothes that are in the dryer and put them away
- 15 minutes – kitchen (Can you tell that my kitchen is tiny and that Jack hoards 30 jars of salsa all day long? Can you?)
*Note: Before I tackle any laundry, I do a quick peek in our closets and dressers to straighten things. It makes it easier to put little girl underwear away if the little girl underwear bin doesn’t have legos and juice boxes in it.
I keep splitting up kitchen time or I get overwhelmed. I don’t worry about organizing cabinets, drawers, or the fridge. Just cleaning off counters, putting things where they belong, and doing a quick sweep and mop.
When I move onto the bedrooms, I like to go in this order:
- throw garbage away
- deliver any water glasses to the kitchen (I am the biggest offender of this)
- make beds if they’re not made
- throw any dirty laundry in hampers
- hang up/fold any clean laundry
- put toys and books in their bins
- throw all of Jack’s stuff in one box for him to deal with later (if I don’t know where it goes)
Full disclosure: by the time I get to cleaning bedrooms and the half bathroom, I’m tired. I know it seems like it’s not productive, but I do five minutes in one bedroom, five minutes in another, etc., just to keep myself from sitting on a bedroom floor, going through a bin of dolls and then just sort of passing out. It’s less overwhelming for me this way.
I probably spent five hours cleaning, sorting through boxes, and doing laundry. BUT, I’m super pregnant and am a little slower to bend, pick things up, climb up and down basement stairs with baskets in hand, etc. And, when I’m on a roll, I keep going and then finally pass out.
Celebrate: No, really. I do. I celebrate hard. My house is clean. I eat a really good meal and then shop on the internets. (Slow your roll, Jack, I promise I don’t go overboard.) :) But, I do like rewarding myself after a marathon clean session. I bought fancy new cleaning supplies. Maybe not glamorous, but fun to order nonetheless.
The Bittylution Portion of This: This is just suppose to be a one-time marathon session. At this point, I’ve maintained the “cleanliness” <–I use that term loosely.
Once my house was mostly clean, I started listing tiny projects that I could tackle. Cleaning out the linen closet, organizing baskets in the kitchen, cleaning out the fridge + freezer, wiping down cabinet fronts, etc. I do this on top of whatever basic cleaning I need to do for the day – dishes, laundry, etc.
But I break it down into manageable steps. Oh, I’ve got an extra five minutes? I can get rid of the Tupperware containers that are missing lids. Oh, wait. That’s ALL of them.
Some resources for getting organized / scheduling daily cleaning:
- Flylady
I actually highly dislike the Flylady website, and I find a lot of the stuff to be a little too “fluffy” for what I need. (Be prepared for crazy acronyms all over the place.) I did read her book, Sink Reflections, and it was a lot easier to understand.
Got any other resources? Ideas? Tips for success? Candy?
Hm?
