Clean Your House

Clean Your House

I am not one of those women who love to clean. In fact, I’d rather do most anything other than clean.  I like a clean house, but I’d rather not have to do it.  I know women who enjoy cleaning.  I can’t even relate to them.  I really don’t enjoy it.  I see it as a necessary evil.  Do you get the picture?

And yet, here I am writing about cleaning. I laugh to myself as I type.  I do, however, require a clean house to live in.  That requirement is the basis for this post.  If we must live in a clean house, then we must clean.

I have a routine to keep the house looking good. True to my Type A personality, I have a list and a system.  I’m happy to share them with you today.

As our family has grown, so has our approach to cleaning. At times, I have had to lower my standard as to not hurt one of my girls.  That was a hard lesson to learn, or shall I say, hard lesson for me as I am still learning.  I used to do all the cleaning.  I hit a point where I felt like I was doing it all, because I was doing it all.  And whose fault was that?  Mine!  I was not delegating, in fact, I had volunteers willing and able to help and I rejected their help.  Why?  Because I could do it better myself.  When I hit that point of burn out or wanting to “Go on strike” as my mom used to threaten, I realized I needed to make a change.

We had a family meeting. We looked at all the cleaning chores that I did and divided them up among ourselves.  When Sara joined our family, we reevaluated the chore list and made adjustments.  In doing this, I am teaching my girls how to clean.  I know that when they move out, they will know how to keep a clean house.  We have a routine and schedule that we follow.

Before I share our cleaning schedule, I want to remind you of two wonderful sisters in Scripture, Mary and Martha. Take a moment and enjoy Luke 10:38-42 NIV.

“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.  She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work myself?  Tell her to help me!’

‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’”

I read this passage and I want to be Mary, but deep down, I know I am Martha. I am “worried and upset about many things.”  I want to be like Mary.  I want to have “chosen what is better.”  As we work to walk in freedom with the Lord through the steps of Organize Your Life, let us not lose track of “what is better.”  Is it better for my floor to be perfectly swept if I have to hurt the heart of one of my girls to get it perfectly swept?  The answer is a resounding, “NO!”  Let us keep our eyes fixed on the Lord and what He teaches.  If we do “it will not be taken away from [us].”

In keeping a clean home we are not to be seeking perfection. Perfection can only be found in Jesus, not you and definitely not me.  But rather let us seek to keep a clean home that honors Him.

Here is a general overview of what we do. I divided the chores into 4 categories:  1) Daily 2) Weekly 3) Monthly and 4) Biannually.  We then divided those chores among the 4 of us.  For example, one daughter will sweep and the other mop; or one daughter cleans the tub and the other daughter cleans the sink and toilet.

Daily:

• Bathroom sink
• Kitchen surfaces: table, counters, stovetop
• Kid’s bedroom floor

Weekly:

• Bathrooms
• Floors: sweep, mop, vacuum
• Dust
• Kitchen surfaces and refrigerator, oven, dishwasher, and microwave doors, as well as inside the microwave
• Kid’s bedrooms
• My bedroom
• Dog’s water bowl

Monthly:

• Baseboards
• Doors
• Window sills
• Light switches and outlet covers
• Refrigerator & Freezer
• Oven (as needed)

Biannually:

• Windows: inside and outside
• Laundry room
• Cabinets: Kitchen & Bathroom
• Dust walls
• Ceiling fans
• Vents

Are you ready to Clean Your House?

Simple Steps:

Divide your chores into chunks of time, i.e.: daily, weekly, monthly, and biannually. Your chunks of time may look different.  That’s fine.  There isn’t a right or wrong way, but rather what works for you way.

Assign chores to members of your family.  Here you will have to take into account the age of your children.  This is a fluid chart meaning it changes as your family changes.

Establish a routine. When will you clean?  We clean every Saturday morning.  We all pitch in and in no time we are finished and can enjoy our weekend.  Maybe for you cleaning for an hour a day Monday through Friday is best.  Again, what works for you is what is best.

Make cleaning as fun as possible. We play music.  Sometimes we set the timer to see what we can get done in 10 minutes.  For our daily chores, we sometimes do “Commercial Cleaning.”  While watching a TV show together, we speed through our chores on the commercial.

Do you have a cleaning schedule or tricks that make cleaning fun? Share your ideas and thoughts in the comments below.