Just Make It Through Today: Cleaning Tips

 Photo Credit

 Numbers Game
I'm sure we've all had it... that moment where you walk into a room of your home, or heck!, you're whole house and though, THIS is ri.dic.u.lous! The mess and clutter may have fallen under the radar for several days but not anymore! And the best part is, as a busy mom or working lady you've realized that not only does this disaster belong to you but you don't have time to do much about it. Rough!
After many moments like this, I decided that a little was better than nothing and created my own little number game. When I open my bedroom door and see the bed unmade, clothes in piles, mismatched socks strewn about, I randomly pick a number and commit to pick up that many items, or do that many tasks to get the place picked up. This has done one of two wonderful things for me. OnE: It puts a small dent in an otherwise untouched debacle or TwO: Finally motivates me to keep going and get the mess put away for good.

Biggest Impact with Smallest Effort
{Bedroom}I will never forget advice one of my 8th grade teachers wisely passed on to our class. "Make your bed!" Out of context that sounds silly but she was talking to us about how to make our rooms look instantly cleaner and avoid our parents telling us "don't come out till it's clean!". And you know what? It works! If you're short on time and your bedroom needs some serious help, make the bed. Take the bumps out of the comforter, karate chop a crease into your pillows, and lay your throw neatly at the foot of the bed. It makes a difference, I promise.

{Bathroom} First... shut the shower curtain and hide your clutter. If you have a fuzzy hubs like I do, wipe off your sink counter-top, faucet and sink handles with a piece of toilet paper. How handy? We often have hubby-stubble on our faucet or toothpaste spots in the bowl  so it's the quickest means of cleaning up for us.

{Kitchen} Empty OR fill your sink. In our house we constantly fight the battle of having a cluttered looking countertop because the dishwasher is always full and nobody I have no interest in emptying it. I've shamefully saved it for Sweet Hubs when he comes home from work int he past. I know. Terrible! This works both ways though... often times, for us, the only real clutter around is the dirty dishes on the counter. The solution, empty that dang dishwasher, woman, and refill it! The quicker solution, take the dishes from all over the kitchen and neatly pile them into the sink, clearing off your counter-tops, until you're ready to dig in and get them clean.

{Living Room} Toys? Books? Clothes? Put all the alike clutter in one spot. Toys in the toy bin. Blankets in a pile. Clothes in a laundry basket. That way when you have time to get to it, you've done yourself a little favor ahead of time.

Now I didn't claim this would all be brilliant stuff but it works for us and gets me through so I don't lose my mind or strangle a passer-by.

Happy half-baked-cleaning!