The First Step to Having a Tidy Home

I was totally exhausted one day years ago. I still remember the feeling. I was trying to catch up with all my housework AND trying to homeschool my children AND work on personal business.

I felt like all day long I had to re-clean messes that I just cleaned yesterday. I was finally at my breaking point. I couldn’t homeschool effectively because my head was overwhelmed with stuff…laundry…piles everywhere.

I am a mother of six children. I love homemaking and home teaching. I have a vision for what my home should be…that vision was so hard to achieve will under the stress of constant RE-cleaning.

I’m not a lazy person, I like to move and see progress. However, time is valuable to me and for me, I felt defeated RE-cleaning everything all the time.

My heart gave up one week.

I just thought. I am so tired of this…

Of course, I knew I couldn’t just sit back and not lift another finger. I had a household to manage and things would just get worse.

THE FIRST STEP IN ANY PROBLEM…

The first step in any problem is acknowledgment. Is your home a place of relaxation or stress?

For me in those years…mine was STRESS. I didn’t feel relaxed at home because I had to constantly look at my work. There was no escaping laundry, meals, and messy bathrooms.

Once I realized this I made a goal to clean the entire house AND donate many of our items. We had way too much.

At that time we lived in a two-story home. I literally started with one corner of our bedroom and worked my way around the whole house that way. I made piles of clothes on our bed ( Master bedroom) and literally touched everything we owned that week.

At the end of that grueling ( but so freeing ) week. I remember going to sleep feeling a weight off my shoulders as I knew I wouldn’t be as overwhelmed as I was the previous week.

Peace.

The following week, I watched carefully to see how the house would get messy again.

Bad habits.

Clutter attracts more clutter. Have you ever noticed if you have a perfectly clean table it will generally stay clear of clutter? BUT if you have a table that is a “catch-all” it just attracts more junk?

That same progression will happen all over your house. Slowly but surely, room by room cluttered messes happens again.

This website follows the teachings of Charlotte Mason and is dedicated in her honor. Charlotte Mason taught mothers to train their children in “good habits” from an early age.

One of those habits is: “The habit of cleanliness”.

She believed in the early years of development, we should take the time to train our children a list of good habits.

Habits develop whether we work on them or not. For instance, if you would like your child to hang up his coat after he comes into the house. You will gently work on this habit and soon ( say 2 weeks ) he will have developed this habit. Now, that does not mean the habit is “solid” but it is developed. IF you start allowing him to throw the coat at the floor again…that habit will once again be re-established ( bad habit )

When it comes to our homes, it’s habits that have to change.

I drink a cup of coffee almost every morning at my desk as I work. As I finish my cup of coffee, I put the dish into the dishwasher and when I come back to my office, I clean my desk off completely. This has been a newly developed habit of mine. I noticed if I left paperwork scattered on my desk, my children would do the same and I would end up with a huge mess.

The one tip is: FORM GOOD HABITS

A list of good habits to establish in the ongoing care of your home:

Putting away clean clothes after they are folded
Cleaning the kitchen before you go to bed
A system for picking up and sorting dirty clothes
Putting toys away before moving on to another toy
A quick pick up of the house multiple times per day
For moms-If you have a toddler to supervise in the bath every evening like me, I pick up the bathroom while I am in the room. I organize drawers and just do a general clean up. ( safety first…never leave your little ones alone in the bathroom)
Baskets. Have multiple baskets that are for sorting. I have 9 baskets that are for each room. When you have to clean a room that has a large mess, bring your baskets, fill them with the items that belong in each area or room, then put the items away.
Sort mail as soon as it comes in. Remember: piles attract more piles!
Having a routine for cleaning the household’s bedding ( I have cleaned sheets on Tuesdays for a long time )
Train children to put dirty clothes into a hamper or basket daily
Make your bed and train your children to make theirs
Tidy up rooms as you go through the house
Limit social media and screen time…use those as a “treat” for yourself ( mom)
Have permanent places for your most used items (dog leashes, remote controls, keys, special paperwork, etc.)
Make a routine for cleaning and work hard to stick to it.
Keep an attractive storage basket or drawing in the kitchen ( or whatever room is used frequently). When you don’t have time to go through all the papers/random items put them in here to be sorted in no less than 5 days. Be punctual with this task.

The box I use right now to collect odds and ends to sort at the end of the week ( Fridays)

Recap:

The first step to a neat home is recognizing the home is not meeting you and your family’s need for rest/

Understanding that you can be as organized and clean as you possible, but still cleaning mess after mess UNTIL good habits are established.

Stay tuned as we keep the conversation going about cultivating good habits and home and learn to really manage our homes one step at a time.

JOIN OUR HOME MANAGEMENT CLASS

I believe we will NEVER truly change our homes for the better and establish GOOD habits until we first learn to add a new routine to our lives…time management. NOT strict scheduling, but a method that works!

Some of the lessons are: