Having a home that is clean and well-organized is a goal and a dream for many people. You want to live in your home joyfully instead of feeling stressed out by the mess and dust every time you enter a room. The good thing is that you can easily turn this dream into a reality just by taking action. Anyone can make some changes to how they approach cleaning and organizing, and so can you. Here is how you can get started right now.
Outsource Your Cleaning Needs
One of the first things you should ask yourself about cleaning is whether or not you have enough time to do it all yourself. If not (more on that below), you need to outsource your cleaning needs to the professionals.
If you have a pool, the cleaning is never-ending since the elements constantly rain down wayward leaves, dirt, and debris into the pool. Add chemical imbalances to the mix, and you may potentially find yourself cleaning your pool every day. Luckily, you have the option to hire pool cleaners to tackle this time-consuming task for you. Instead of spending your time cleaning your pool, you should be spending your valuable time in the pool.
Next, ask yourself how much time you put into cleaning your home. The act of cleaning is daunting. No matter what you do, your efforts will need to be reaccomplished in due time. Messes will magically appear despite your best efforts to keep them at bay. When you start to become too overwhelmed by the responsibility of keeping everything clean and in good order, it might be time to outsource to a professional cleaning company. Hire a professional cleaning service to clean your home, especially if you have the money to do so, and it is worth it to protect your valuable time. Consider a weekly cleaning to take care of the main tasks you would normally do on your own. Another option is a monthly cleaning to supplement your hard work. Alternatively, you can hire a cleaning service before a big event, such as hosting a holiday party at your home or having out-of-town guests stay for a while.
Finally, yardwork is another constant chore any homeowner must attend to more often than not. If you do not have enough time to mow the lawn at least every week, trim back the hedges seasonally, or prune your trees, especially the tall ones, why do it? That is what the professionals are for. Hire a professional landscaper to take care of all your lawn mowing and edging needs to ensure it is done right and looks great week after week in the warmer months.
In the winter, snow removal is essential for certain geographic areas. If you are cold averse or lack time in the morning before work or carpool duty to shovel the driveway every single time it snows, hiring out this job is the right move. Snow removal companies have the essential gear to keep your driveway, steps, and sidewalks clear of snow so you can walk and drive safely. If you have covered egress windows, it is also a good idea to hire them to clear the coverings for safety.
Enlist the Help of Your Family
The idea of enlisting the help of your family to keep everything in your home clean and organized is a wonderful idea, but think of what that phrase means. You are asking them for help. Repeat that. You are asking them for help. Now reframe that statement. Everyone should work together to keep your collective home clean. You can phrase that any way you like, but the point is that the mess is not yours alone, and neither is the responsibility to maintain your entire household.
Regardless of your children’s ages, as long as they are upright and ambulatory, they can begin learning how to help. Even the youngest kids can learn how to put their toys away, and your older teens can do a lot more. As for your partner, you need to sit down and have an honest conversation about the division of labor within your household. It is important to note that there will never be a perfect balance at home, and you should both try very hard to avoid keeping score. Instead, become a team and a partnership that works toward the common goals of peace, harmony, and cleanliness within your family and home.
Work on teaching everyone to put away anything they have just finished using. Embrace the One Touch Rule which essentially means you should figure out what you want to do with something when you pick it up. To illustrate, if you purchase a new pair of jeans, do not leave them in a bag by the door. Instead, take the tags off of it as soon as you return home, dispose of the tags appropriately, take care of the bag, and put the jeans into the laundry. This is much easier than thinking that you need to do something about your new jeans over and over for a few days without taking action.
Refocus How and Why You Clean
The idea of cleaning, or the how and why of it all, can become muddy over time (pun intended). Take some time to think about why you clean your home. Of course, you do it to keep yourself and your family healthy and prevent things like tripping hazards from causing preventable accidents. But beyond that, why do you clean? If it is for other people to see your home in its best light and attempt to show them that you have it all together, perhaps you need to look inwards and begin to clean for yourself and the people you live with instead.
Watch this video for a unique perspective shift regarding how you can approach cleaning your home. It might surprise you, but give it a try anyway.
Keeping a clean and organized home is an all-consuming job that will never end. Try to make this essential task easier by doing what you need to do to make it better for you and more successful. That way, you can make it a great place to be and actually sit down and enjoy the time you have in your home with the people you love.
