Today’s Easy House Cleaning Tip is great because while it depends on you to ‘set the trend’, once it’s in place the bulk of the load will shift to others in the house as well. (ok, stop laughing :0)
If you work on it and implement this little gem a little at a time, due to the power of habit, they may not even notice… according to plan…
EASY HOUSE CLEANING TIPS: #1
I was doing the dishes this morning and couldn’t help but notice carrot peelings in the sink – and on the counter with a few on the draining board for good measure.
And cookie crumbs on the cutting board.
And most of the cups were gone out of the cupboard.
Carrots, Crumbs and Cups
It was strange because I disntinctly remember doing the dishes and cleaning everything up last night.
Hmmm.
Of course I knew what had happened. My daughter made cookies, and apparently ate a carrot. Or maybe one daughter made cookies and the other one ate a carrot, that would make more sense. Who’s going to eat a carrot when there are fresh baked cookies?
Anyway, it got me thinking that on the nights I don’t have the counter wiped and the sink empty, the carrot, crumbs and cups may have been acknowledged in passing, without much thought. They would have just been part of the (sigh) mess that had to be cleaned up.
But I looked at them with a new eye this morning.
Having the kitchen clean makes it easier for me to tell them to be sure to clean up their mess when they are finished in the kitchen.
And I can even say…
Leave the kitchen the way you found it.
Without a solid baseline, that wouldn’t work so well some days.
A BASELINE IS: A constant. A standard. ie A constant standard – see example below.
So I decided today to create a new baseline for us.
A baseline that includes no messes after the dishes are done. Wiping up after ourselves. Washing our dishes as we use them – for the most part.
I have attempted such a thing in the past, it works well but I often fall off if I get busy with other things.
Here’s a great house cleaning article I wrote with tips about how to keep the dishes clean – that’s a great baseline to start with (in the article I call it a non negotiable – that’s another good way to think about it.)
Jumping Back On
But it never hurts to jump back on, does it?
How about you?
Can you create a baseline somewhere in your house so that the carrots, the crumbs and the cups stand out? A place where you can say, “Leave the (insert your new baseline focal point) the way you found it”..
Lets try using that as our new motto.
If you struggle with self discipline and think you will have trouble in creating and maintaining your baseline, try this article I wrote called “Housecleaning Tips: What Can You Do”
Do It Now: Your Action Steps
- Start with one room.
- Bring it up to reasonable standards – your family’s baseline.
- Enforce it – this may take some effort and time, everyone will need to learn new habits.
- Remember, baselines are all about maintenance, start with one very small area and work up from there.
PS: I’ve always wanted to know “the secret” to keeping things the way “natural born clean freaks” seem to do it, with seemingly very little effort. Then I saw an ebook called “Secret Confessions of a Clean Freak” written by Carole Pagan.
It was a must have, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Carole Pagan spills the beans in a very practical and down to earth style, it’s one of my favourite house cleaning ebooks.
She also has a great newsletter called.
