How to avoid a big weekly clean

This is the second part of my cleaning post as it got way too long for just one. If you missed part one and want to read it click here.

Personally I can’t stand doing a big clean once a week. The dreaded cleaning day used to give me that Sunday night feeling which intensified the closer it got. I would then spend the morning moaning and putting off the inevitable until the afternoon/early evening when I would finally do the cleaning. I would then spend what was left of the day mopping about the fact that I had wasted a whole day cleaning. Yes, I do actually realise that if I had just done the cleaning first thing in the morning that I wouldn’t have wasted so much time and could still have had an enjoyable day.

I prefer to chip away at the cleaning, doing a little bit each day. In this post I share how I do this.

The first thing I do every morning after getting out of the shower is make my bed. This actually takes a lot less time than you think it will. It has a magical effect of instantly transforming your room and making the whole room appear tidier even if there are clothes strewn across the floor. Floordrobe!

The best thing about making your bed first thing in the morning is that if it’s one of those tough days, nothing feels better at the end of the day than climbing into a made bed. And at least you can pat yourself on the back for having made your bed. If you have one of those amazing days where everything is going your way then it’s lovely to have a made bed to lie in while you mentally congratulate yourself for all of the amazing things that you did that day.

My next tip is to have a good clear out and get rid of anything that no longer sparks joy. Yes, I’ve read Marie Kondo. The amount of junk that our homes end up acuminating is crazy. Once you only have things that you know to be useful or believe to be beautiful (William Morris) then it is much easier to have a place for everything and everything in its place (Mrs Beeton).

Which leads nicely on to my next point of once you have finished using something put it away immediately. It is so much quicker after finishing cutting something to put the scissors back in the drawer than to leave them on the worktop on top of a letter. As later on when you want to open the letter you have to pick up the scissors again and shuffle them along. This process of picking them up and placing them in various places goes on and on until you realise that because they were in full view of your children they decided to use the scissors to modify the actual rain cover for the pram so that it fitted their toy pram better! True story. Then you will be kicking yourself that you didn’t just put the scissors back in their real home in the first place.

Also is it just me or have you ever noticed the magical power that an item out of its place has to attract more items to it?

If my worktop is empty it stays empty as one item in the middle of the worktop looks obviously out of place and awkward but if you leave it there for any period of time you will suddenly find another item next to it and before you know it a whole sea of items have appeared next to it and you can’t even see your worktop.

Once this huge pile of stuff has appeared the thought of having to put all of the items back in their individual places seems like such a long arduous task that you put it off and avoid it a bit longer which only enables the items to attract more items to the pile. By the time you do end up tackling said mountain of items it does take a really long time. This reinforces the thought that tidying up piles takes too long and next time it happens you fall into the same old trap of ignoring the pile for as long as possible.

Clearly the easiest thing to do is just to put the item you are using back in its place as soon as you are finished with it.

Honestly if you do the things above, you will always have a tidy home. However, I know that you are thinking but I have kids and they are masters of destruction. My tips in my last post will help you rein them in. It also works on the big kid too aka your partner ;)

Liked this? Want to read the other posts in this series? Click here for part 3

#cleaning #cleaninghack