Clean is overwhelming in my house...well everything is overwhelming in my house...Nothing is ever clean. You know that poem "Cleaning and Scrubbing can wait till tomorrow" meets the lyrics "...And if tomorrow never comes", that's my house!
I'd love to have a clean home all the time, but I can't afford a maid. So between the toddlers, my lazy slob self, and the lazy slob I married, it's never clean.
I do try, a little. I just keep getting interrupted, or I'm tired, or there is something else I'd rather be doing. I've tried the Fly Lady method, I just can't keep up!
I have discovered a few things. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming that this will keep your house clean all the time, or that mine is...it's just a little better...
I've always cleaned everything the same way. I start in the NE that one counter top was about the only thing to ever get cleaned after Little Red was born. I always had to stop and take care of a kid, or was too tired, or lazy...whatever. The SW corner counter top would just get worse and worse (as would the floors), until it was just so bad, I couldn't even look at it. I'd rather clean the bathroom!!
How simple is this: Change your routine. Seriously. I started in the opposite corner. And when I didn't get to finish that night, I started on the other side the next night. I may not ever have it all clean at once, but I'm starting to feel a little more control. I started in the middle tonight! Once, I even mopped my floors when the counter tops weren't clean! That's crazy, since once you clean your counters you risk wiping all that crap onto the floor that you just cleaned! Well, chances are I wasn't going to get the counters clean that night anyway. And I have 4 tots, so it would be dirty again in a few hours! But I was just a little bit more in control...I'm not winning the war, just working on the individual battles!
I also have mini cleaning marathons. Seriously, 15 minutes of hardcore cleaning followed by whatever you want as a reward. Sometimes it backfires and I want to keep cleaning...but not very often! I've also hired a baby sitter to come over so I could clean (okay, I didn't pay her, I just have some really good friends). Sometimes it's the only way I ever get anything done!
Now, there are a few dirty secrets for you...
