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I know that some people really enjoy and are naturally good at keeping their home… I’m not one of them.
I love organizing things, but I’m not naturally organized.
I love when things are clean, but I don’t really enjoy cleaning them.
I love when my home is decluttered, but I naturally tend to keep things.
Maybe you can’t relate and you’re nothing like me. I hope for your sake that you’re not. ;) But if you are similar to me, and keeping and cleaning your home isn’t something that comes naturally, I wanted to share some things that have really helped me.
Prioritize
You might have twelve things on your to-do list today, but what are the odds you can actually get them all done? Pick three main tasks that must get done today. The rest of the things on the list – the ones that aren’t urgent or necessary to do today – can carry over to tomorrow.
When you carry them over, it’s not with guilt that these things didn’t get done, but with acceptance that you’re a busy mama with lots of responsibilities, children to care for, and you have chosen to prioritize.
You can’t do everything every single day. You have to choose what’s the most important to get done today!
Daily focus
The other thing I find very helpful is to choose a focus for each day. I don’t do this every single day, but often I will pick a day to do all kitchen related tasks. That way, I know I’m going to spend the day in the kitchen baking or canning or whatever needs to get done. I can get all my supplies out at the beginning of the day and keep them out until I’m finished. That way I’m not getting them out for a short time everyday.
Since we live kind of rurally, I plan our errands together – when I go to the farm to get milk, I will also stop to get chicken feed, swing by the grocery store if I need to, and maybe even stop at the thrift store. That way I don’t need to waste time several days a week running small errands, I just do them all in one big chunk.
Choosing a cleaning focus (bathrooms one day, living room the next, etc.) can also just help to keep decision fatigue at bay. Rather than wondering “what do I do next?” you know exactly what to do.
Clear the clutter
I know that this probably isn’t new information to you, but it really is amazing how much clutter impacts our ability to clean! If our counters or bedrooms or floors are cluttered with stuff, how can we clean that space? The stuff collects dust, and then that stuff collects more stuff. Because clutter seems to always just attract more clutter.We spend so much time moving the piles of stuff that we don’t have enough time to actually clean. And then we become stressed and overwhelmed!
But not only does clutter make it more difficult to actually clean your spaces, the visual clutter itself is stressful! There have been studies that show how visual clutter and disorganization has a tremendous impact on our stress levels, our emotions, and even our physical health.
This is definitely true for me… during 2020 I noticed that our house began accumulating more stuff – we were ordering more things online instead of going to stores, thrift stores weren’t receiving donations, and basically we got out of the habit of taking things OUT of our house more than we brought them IN. It took me awhile to recognize it and how it was impacting my emotions. Every time I walked into certain rooms in my house, I was overwhelmed, and eventually I realized – it’s all the STUFF.
Even the small acts of donating a few boxes full of things I didn’t need made an impact on my space – and it made cleaning my space easier. And you know that feeling when you walk into a freshly cleaned and decluttered space? Such a good feeling! It then had a domino effect into other spaces, because even someone who isn’t good at cleaning or doesn’t really enjoy it can enjoy how those clean spaces feel. :)
I’ve found that the more regularly I declutter spaces, the easier they are to clean. And when spaces are easy to clean, I enjoy it more!
Know your triggers
This has actually been one of the most important things for me – to know what sets me off, what helps to keep my peace, and what turns me into crazy mom.
For example, I have a chair where I sit to drink my coffee and read my Bible most mornings. So if our living room is a disaster, I start out my morning feeling out of sorts and not at all peaceful. This space becomes a priority for me, because I know that it helps my morning to start off on the right foot.
If all the shoes are all over the floor (instead of in the incredibly convenient baskets) by the front door, I know that I’ll get frustrated when we go to walk out the door and everyone is tripping over everything.
We all have a different threshold of what we can handle – the level of mess, clutter, or disorganization. So it’s important to know what that limit is – are you okay letting the dishes sit in the sink at night sometimes, or will you wake up super crabby when you see the full sink in the morning? Maybe the dirty laundry piles don’t bother you, but when the mail piles up on the kitchen counter, you just can’t handle it.
Figure out what triggers you and what your threshold is – it will help you to maintain your peace!
Create habits and sustainable systems
If your natural inclination isn’t to be organized and to keep spaces clean, forming habits takes away some of the procrastination and distraction that can keep you from cleaning. For example, my laundry room is right outside my bedroom door. So the first thing I do in the morning is start a new load of laundry or switch the load to the dryer – whatever needs to be done next. When I go into the kitchen, I wipe down the counters (from the inevitable teenage late night snack) while I wait for my espresso machine to heat up. I immediately put away ingredients or dishes I dirty while I’m cooking, rather than waiting for the end of the meal.
Creating these mall habits throughout the day helps me to not put off the cleaning that needs to get done. It also helps to create sustainable systems.
Chore charts (you can head HERE to download one for your kids), laundry systems, etc. are incredibly helpful to give you a framework and a rhythm that you can actually maintain.
But the key to keeping them sustainable is to not have them be so elaborate that you need a tutorial every time you want to do the laundry.
Change my heart posture
The most important thing that I’ve done over the years is to change my heart posture about keeping my home. Instead of thinking that it’s something I have to do, I think of the blessing it is to serve my family and give them a home that blesses them.
And I can also choose to make my home a priority.
I can choose to be better at keeping my kitchen clean. I can choose to not have giant piles of laundry on the couch. I can choose not to sit and watch Netflix at night – or to fold laundry while I watch.
Know your limits and when to ask for help
Rest is good – especially if you’re in a hard season. If you have a newborn, are grieving, or are moving – this is not the time to expect to have a perfectly clean home. In fact, if you have young children at home (especially if they aren’t in school), you can’t expect to have a perfectly clean home ever! But you can’t maintain your home if you’re running yourself ragged. So know your limits – when to go to bed instead of stay up late to clean up the kitchen, when to say that it’s “done enough.”
It’s also more than okay to ask for help – whether you are asking your husband or your kids to share the load, your mother-in-law or a friend helps you fold laundry, you are paying a mother’s helper, or you hire a housekeeper – you cannot possibly do it all. Lean into your strengths, improve on your weaknesses, and remember that you are not able to carry all the load yourself.
You may also like this post:
The Joy of Serving your Family
The e-book How to Do it All is included for you to read on the main CYH page!