Before You Begin To Clean
Before you roll up your sleeves and get to work I want you to stop…
Take a look around you house.
There are always places in a house that seem to have the biggest messes. Like a kitchen for example. You have to eat everyday and if you have more than one child, like I do, then you can practically be in the kitchen all day long.
Your main focus of cleanup will be those areas that have the biggest messes so that they can become smaller messes and easier to cleanup.
Once you have assessed where your big mess problem areas are…it is time to declutter. This is very important and should be done often.
Whether you like it or not and whether you want to do it or not you really have to start with decluttering.
We have way too much stuff and we don’t need it all.
For many of us we don’t use a lot of the stuff we have. We hold on to stuff thinking that one day we may use it but more than likely we won’t. Look through what you have and get rid of stuff.
Let go of those stacks of books that you have been wanting to read for the past 5 years. Let go of your third set of measuring spoons. Let go of those clothes that have been small on you for so long that moths are eating away at them. You don’t need to hold on to all of that. Get rid of it because it will just hold you back from having a cleaner home.
On To The Cleaning
Once you have decluttered, you need to give everything that you have a place. When you grab something…put it back. That is probably my biggest problem.
I think…I will put it back in just a little bit. But that doesn’t always happen. Then things start stacking up.
Clean the main areas of your home with the biggest messes everyday. The kitchen, living room, bathrooms, and so on. Do the dishes and wipe down counter tops. Vacuum those dust bunnies and give your bathrooms a quick wipe.
Do something everyday.
Maybe it’s getting a load of laundry washed, folded, and put away. Take a couple of minutes to go through the mail that has stacked up. Reorganizing a cupboard or two. Anything really, because eventually all that decluttering, organizing, and cleaning stacks up and your house starts looking cleaner and it takes less time to clean.
Don’t stress the small stuff. There will always be something to clean. The season you are in right now might be a season where your house is not always quite clean. I am in that season right now. I have an 18 month old and 4 older children.
There is plenty to do and plenty of mess. Now my house doesn’t get that messy and if we all get up and pitch in the house can be pretty clean in a couple of hours. Sometimes that is all you need. Get your kids involved even the young ones. My 18 month old sees me wipe down things and so I give him a paper towel and he copies me.
It takes time to make habits and sometimes you just have to reteach yourself those good habits to get rid of the bad ones.
Give yourself lots of grace but also you need God’s help.
I don’t know what I would do without Him. There have been days when I had so much to get done and not much strength.
Sometimes I just had to get through the day with a newborn and taking care of and homeschooling my children. Starting off the day I would as Him for a boost of strength. He has come through all the time.
My problem is that I forget to ask Him. I start to depend on my own strength too much and on the help from my family but what I really need is God’s help most of all.
Just remember if things don’t quite get done today…that’s okay. Don’t give up. You will get there.
