Never Do This if You Want a Clean House!

What I'm getting ready to tell you will seem like the opposite of what should be.  I made this mistake for soooo many years until I finally had an epiphany one day.  I've shared this tip with friends before, and it has helped them, too!  If you want to know what ONE thing you can change to have a MUCH cleaner house, keep reading, or watch the video here!

Okay, so what's the big tip?  When you are cleaning, try NOT to give it your best effort!  Let me explain, LOL!  I've often been called a perfectionist, so I reaaalllly struggle to not give something my top effort.  If I decide to do something, I want to do it well!  But cleaning is just not one of those things where we should be striving for perfection.

Have you heard the saying about not giving your first rate effort to a second rate cause?  Cleaning is definitely a second rate cause.  In the grand scheme of life, it does need to be done, but it is just not that important!

My Stair Vacuum Epiphany

I was vacuuming my stairs one day when this all hit me.  I had gotten out the vacuum because the steps were really dirty.  It's so much harder to vacuum the steps than just the floor, so it just doesn't get done until it's a true disaster.

While I was vacuuming the steps, I was noticing how dusty the wood ridge is along the floor.  So then I got out my duster and went to work.  But then it didn't quite get all the dust out of the grooves, so I got my microfiber cloth…then I did the handrail.  And before it was over, a five minute job had turned into a 45 minute ordeal, and I was exhausted!

The other thing that happened during all of that is the “shame cycle.”  The whole time I was cleaning, I was berating myself for not cleaning often enough and telling myself how dirty I had let everything get.  I really beat myself up for not cleaning the stairs often enough!  Then this makes me not want to do it again, LOL, so I put it off even longer.

Strive for a “C” Grade, NOT an A+

So how did I fix the shame cycle?  I made it my goal to do a “C” job.  I've been called a perfectionist before, and, okay– it's true!  So the whole time I'm doing a cleaning job, I'm trying to get an A+ grade, LOL!  Now I tell myself that my goal is a “C.”  It's passable, but it takes soooo much less effort than getting that A+.

There may be a time where I want to do that super thorough clean.  Maybe I'm just in the mood, or I'm having pictures taken to sell my house or something like that.  But most of the time, doing that C level job gets me 90% of the results I want!  It doesn't look disgustingly filthy, and it's easy and quick enough that I'll keep up with it on a regular basis, so it never really gets out of hand.

Doing a C level job also really helps if you have kids helping you clean!  If you're holding them to that A+ standard, they will also hate cleaning.  They might not have that perfectionist personality, or they just might not be able to perform to the level that you want because they don't have the skills.  It can be a really high pressure situation and totally overwhelm them if you want perfection from them (probably in life as well as cleaning, LOL!).  My kids are more likely to help without complaint if I'm not so controlling and don't expect them to do a “perfect” job.

Where Can You Cut Back?

Think about areas where you really don't need to do as much as you do.  Would you really notice if you did something differently?  Do you have to fold EVERYTHING?  Washcloths, for example– do these need folded?  If I were folding mine, I'd do them all the same direction, orient them the same way, etc.  But we keep these in a basket.  And we switch them out often.  I started just tossing them into the basket instead of folding them, and no one cares at all!

Do you need to fold your underwear?  Usually I just want them to do the job, and I don't quite care which pair I get.  I just toss these in my drawer and call it good.

On the sock situation– doesn't matching and folding socks really suck the life out of you, LOL?!?  What if you bought the same exact sock, one for each person in your family?  Then you could just dump them in the drawer, and they could just grab two socks that would always match each other.

Dusting

This is another job where we just don't need to get an A+.  Dusting should be a cursory, quick job.  It should be so easy and take such little time that you don't hate doing it.  You'll do it more often this way, and then it's far less likely to get to the point where you can write your name in it, LOL!

I have one kitchen cabinet that tends to get a bunch of crumbs piled up.  I'm not sure why it's this particular drawer, but it's bad!  I noticed it the other day, and it would have taken me less than a minute to wipe the crumbs out.  But I didn't do it, and just kept noticing it (and getting irritated with the crumbs) every time I opened that drawer.

Why didn't I just take the one minute to clean it up?  Because I was thinking that if I do that drawer, I'll need to do all the rest of the drawers, too!  And that is such flawed thinking!  The other drawers weren't even that bad!  It was only that one drawer that was dirty and bothering me!

Bathrooms

Most of the time in cleaning (and definitely where bathrooms are concerned!), 20% of your effort will yield 80% of the results.  That first 20% of work will make things look soooo much better that if you never went beyond that, you'd still feel like you had a fairly clean bathroom.

The basics really are just wiping down the sink and toilet.  You do NOT need to get out a toothbrush and scrub around the base of the toilet on a regular basis!  There's a time and a place for a deep clean in a bathroom, but it's not every day or even every week, I'd argue.

If you put in minimal effort more frequently, things just don't really get that bad!  The trick is to reprogram yourself to strive for that C grade instead of the A+ so you don't hate doing it in the first place.

If you're still struggling with cleaning, more help is on the way!  The proper cleaning system (that works for YOU, no matter what your personality or style!) can make all the difference!  I've created a cleaning system that is fully adaptable to the way YOU think and work. Check it out here!

Organization that actually sticks for busy, happy lives.