Good afternoon Steemians!!
For the past few years or so, I have gotten many people asking me about how I keep my house in order. I have a job that I work at about 38-40 hours per week, my commute is a little over 3 hours a day, I have a son who has homework every night that I have to assist with, I am an active member of the PTA at school, and last Fall I recently started back school to earn my degree in elementary education. I'm a very busy mom, but my home does not suffer, nor does my sanity (for the most part). LOL
But life wasn't always like this for me. Before Caleb was born I had no clue how to keep a house clean. I have in-laws who were very critical of my house keeping in the beginning of my marriage because I didn't keep it up to what they thought it should be and that was very tough for a newly married wife. I am fortunate to be married to a man who didn't care what his family thought and was fine with how I did or didn't keep our house. He knew I was trying, and to be honest, he didn't know how to clean either. His bed was being made for him up until the day he moved out. So we were both lost. But about 5 years into our marriage I found the Flylady. http://flylady.net/
While my journey with Flylady is another post I will share later, I wanted to give you (because the New Year is upon us) a glimpse of what my year looks like for getting my house deep cleaned.
I don't do a "Spring Cleaning". I do a monthly task and break it up into little weekly bits. Sure I could take a week of vacation and tear my house apart to clean it from top to bottom, but I would be a ragged mess and I don't like to do that to myself or my family. So here's how my year looks:
January / February
I work on the curtains in the house. I will take a couple down each week and either wash them and re hang or if they need to go to the cleaners I will do that as well. I also like to change out the shower liner during this time as well.
March / April
This is the time I work on the baseboards in the house. I again, break it down into small little bits and do about 15-20 minutes a week of wiping them down and they will be done before the two month time is up
May
This is the month I tackle de-cluttering larger spaces. This year I am after the attic. I will run up their each week and grab a bucket of stuff or just a handful of items to declutter and either donate, throw away or put back up for keeping. Last year I tackled the front storage closet that houses our holiday decor and got it cleaned out within the first week of May.
June
Doors are on the list. I will wipe them all down along with the light switch plates. It takes about 5 minutes to do a door, so I can knock this task out pretty quickly.
July / August
I use these two months to tackle the hard floors in our house and also have our carpets professionally cleaned as well. I will do a hands and knees scrubbing on the hard floors during these two months.
September / October
Cabinet doors are done during these two months. The kitchen is what takes the longest because of grease and splatters that can get all over the cabinet doors.
November:
Windows, inside and out all get cleaned in November. We have very mild November's here in Texas and it's perfect for being outside where it's not too hot but not too cold.
December:
Paper work file cabinet. I don't keep much to be honest, just my tax return information, legal forms that must be kept such as will and insurance stuff and manuals for things we purchase. This usually only takes me a couple days of grabbing and rummaging through and I am done. Because I did this years ago and cleaned out all that was unnecessary (which took me two years to clean out 15 years worth of old bills and such) I no longer have to do much on this. But it gives me time to put together my stuff for the upcoming tax time.
This is how 523 gets cleaned for the year. Of course I do my weekly cleaning that keeps our home fresh all week long, but these are the places that need to be tackled each year and for me this is the easiest way to do it.
That's all I have for today. Tell me about your home, do you "Spring clean" or do you break it up? Or do you even do any of it? When I was first married I had no idea that the cabinets, doors and baseboards needed to be cleaned, so there is absolutely no judgement from me, I promise.
Until next time, take care!!
-Kim