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Blog: Life Management
 How Do You Eat An Elephant to Get Organized?
Bite 7 - Cleaning
Last week we cleaned up you closet. Today we'll take a bite of cleaning. This bite is placed in the chest of the elephant so you can get it off your chest!
I love the late Erma Bombeck's comment about cleaning, "Housework when done right will kill you!" Isn't that the truth, cleaning is hard work!
My first suggestion in this area is: Hire cleaning help. I know, "Who's going to pay for this?" The first place to look for some cleaning money is in your budget (I did convince you to set one up in Bite 5, right?) One of the areas within the budget to take a close look at is food/groceries/eating out. According to Dr. Swensen, as heard on Focus on the Family, "The average family could save $140 per month by not eating out." If you go out to eat a lot this is an area to cut back on so you will have some extra money to hire cleaning help. That was easy, huh?
For those of you die-hards who are against hiring cleaning help or those of you whose budget just will not allow it, my suggestion is to learn to clean like the professionals. One of my favorite cleaning professionals is Don Aslett. He is considered America's #1 Cleaning expert. Don started his cleaning expertise when he was in college as a part time job. From this starting point he has turned this work into a more than fifty year career. He has cleaning companies in numerous states where many offices and homes benefits from all he has learned over all these years.
One of my favorite books of Don's is " Is there Life after Housework?" (He says, yes, there is!) In this book you will learn how to clean like the experts via their tips, techniques, mix-it-yourself solutions for things like windows and general cleaning. Don believes you can save money and time by making many of your own cleaning products for basic household dirt, grease, and germs. (Might make a great Christmas gift for your cleaning person, huh?!) Don had so much reader response from one chapter in this book that he was prompted to write another book entitled, " Clutter's Last Stand."
Don says, and I agree, "We need to dejunk our lives! It's robbing us physically, emotionally, and spiritually." It's hard to clean if you have tons of clutter all over the place. One of my soon-to-be-famous quotes that can be found in the NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) " Golden Tips for Getting Organized" is, "An uncluttered house looks cleaner than a clean house that's cluttered." When people enter your home they won't notice the dust and smudges as much as they'll notice the clutter. With the holidays upon us keep up with the clutter and leave that deep cleaning until after the first of the year. (You know, those key holes.) The main place to keep cleared is your entry way so that a great first impression is made to your holiday visitors.
As you ponder the issue of cleaning you must decide your cleaning goals. Are they to have your home look like the Home Magazines-that unlived in look? Or, are your cleaning goals to move about easily and find things quickly? Or, are they to keep things just clean enough to keep disease and dirt to a minimum!
Whatever your goals those of you with small children living in your home must lower your expectations. Your house is not going to look like the empty nester's next door or the DINK'S (double income no kids). You need advice from the great philosopher Phyllis Diller who said, "Cleaning your house while the kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing!" Give yourself a break and know that you have 80% more work to keep your house clean than those who have no children living in their homes. I know this personally having raised three children and being the "kool-aid house on the corner" in the neighborhood. Now that our children are grown, married, and all have their own children, I now live in the 20% group whose house stays well kept most of the time, except when the grandkids (8 and 1 on the way at the time of this writing) land here and then our house turns upside down into the 80% group again-whew! Granted, part of this is my own fault from being a Discovery Toys educational consultant for almost 20 years now, I'm the Toy-Lady Grandma where the kids never lack for lots of things to do and play with while visiting!)
Though I could go on and on about how to use a squeegee in the shower so you'll never have to clean it again from mold and mildew (and, yes, I do this after every shower thanks to Don Aslett) and tell you many other tips and techniques I'll pick up on those things in future blogs and close today with perhaps my favorite lifelong motto: "A home should be clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy!"
posted on: 11/20/2007 12:00:00 PM by Judy Warmington
category: The Mental Side
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Life Management
by Judy Warmington
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About Judy:
Judy Warmington, Woman Time Management (owner) -- Busy wife, mother of three adult/married children, grandmother of 10 (5 boys and 5 girls!), former high school teacher (M.A. from W.M.U.), Speaker, Author, Radio Personality, and Trainer of Professional Organizers.
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www.womantimemanagement.com
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