What is Your Secret to Keeping Your House Clean and Tidy?

Written by Jan Ferrante on Wed, Aug 26, 2009

If I had to sum up my best secret to keeping our house clean and tidy, I would have to say repetition.

There are other things that make it work as well, such as self discipline, routine, having a schedule, being consistent and organized but that all boils down to repetition.

You have to do even a little bit, over and over again.

EVERY DAY IS BEST

I wish that I had known all of this when my kids were small. Of course we did have some things that naturally got done every day about the same time – morning bath/play time, meal times, evening bath and bed time.

But I never had a regular housework schedule. And it showed!

Not only in the way my house appeared, but in the way I felt. It was quite frustrating when things went missing or I always felt like I needed to be cleaning something.

SELF DISCIPLINE IS FREEDOM

Maybe that's the biggest plus. When you have a schedule, after you've taken care of it, you feel finished. The rest can wait until tomorrow and you are free!

WHAT WORKS FOR ME

I've created a really simple system that I use that basically involves using a timer and working in 5 minute time pockets in selected rooms each day.

It's easy if you make a small chart that has each room or task you need to do regularly. You don't need to do each one every day, you can quickly choose the ones you want to do on any day.

I circle my choices and then rub them out and check them off as I do them, I put it in a sheet protector and use a dry erase marker.

This has really saved my house, nothing worked for me until I started doing this.

You can do more than 5 minutes in one area (5 min x 2 or what ever) and you can choose for yourself how many you want to do.

The really nice thing about it with young children is that you can do 5 minutes here and there throughout the day when ever you can – you can even make a game of it, with the older ones and give them little 5 minute tasks to do to help mommy.

The chart helps you to jump on track instantly.

Don't stress, do your best and enjoy everything – even the mess.

If you have small kids it's tough. But you will miss them when they are big, I promise :0)

The good news is that when they are big, you can get them to help you keep the house clean and tidy! (that is a whole other story ;0)

Get a BOOST!

If you want to use the exact system that I use to keep my house in order (as opposed to K.A.O.S.) as well as more in depth details on what and why it works, you can get it.

I have called it my BOOST Housework Circuit because every day it feels like it gives my whole house a boost.

Find out more about my secret to keeping my house clean and tidy – my BOOST housework circuit.

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