Tuesday, January 5, 2010

How to never need to clean up your room.

First of all
DO THINGS RIGHT AWAY
It usually only takes a minute or two so... Don't put it off. If you do whatever it is just when it happens you will never need to go back and do it when you are busy doing something else.
These 2 rules pretty much sum it up:
1. Don't put it down, Put it away.
2. If it drops, Pick it up.
Rule # 1 Don't put it down, Put it away.
Cloths
As the dryer finishes fold the laundry
It will only take a few minutes each time the dryer stops and the cloths will not get wrinkled and pile up in a dozen baskets to be folded as you watch the 2 hour movie it takes to get it all folded. Taking that few minutes to put them away keeps it from being the daunting task at the end of an endless laundry cycle.
You will always have laundry, always! So, make it easy on yourself and do it a little at a time.
Take it off and...
put it in the laundry
this keeps the floor uncluttered and your room smelling good. The laundry room, well, that is another story.
put it folded in a drawer or on a shelf
Clean folded laundry will look nice when you come to ware it instead of all wrinkled up and messy. Don't put dirty cloths in there!
put it on a hanger or hook
Larger items like coats and jackets can pile up really fast because they are big, but if you hang them up they seem to disappear as well as dry if it has been raining. You will also know where they are--a bonus.
You will never hear "Go in there and clean up that mess!" because there never will be one!
Oh! Change your bed once a week. Put your sheets in the laundry. You sweat during the day and if you go more than a week without changing your bed your room smells like sweat and dirty socks. Yuck!
Dishes
Wash them as you finish using them. You would be surprised what a little water and a soapy sponge can do for your kitchen. If you don't put things in the sink, rinse them out then put them in the dishwasher it is so easy once a day to start it up and all you need to do is put them away. How simple is that!
Every day big meals will be cooked or a project will be made which sometimes means bigger a clean up job. But, if you rinse out things as you finish using them and put them in the dishwasher the cleanup will be almost done. Plus you will not have cross-contamination, germs, bacteria and other yucky stuff all over the nice food you just cooked. This will keep colds and flu from going from one person to the next too! How cool is that.
Rule #2 If it drops...
Pick it up
So many times we miss the trash, let a paper, a toy or just something dirty drop then just ignore it. Just pick it up and put it where it goes. You will never need to touch it again. (this is particularly nice when it is something really yucky.) No worries, guilt or someone yelling at you because you dropped your bike in back of the car and it is now SMASHED!
Wipe it up!
Spills are particularly dangerous. Wet stuff can cause slips and falls not to mention damage of the surface it falls on. Stains and mildew look and smell really bad. No one needs their house to look and smell like that!
Vacuum it up!
Sugar, flour, and other dry stuff can be slippery too. So just get out a broom, vacuum cleaner or mop and clear it up. It only takes a few minutes when it is all in one place, but wait an hour or two and the flour is all over the place and the whole house needs to be vacuumed!
If you learn these few rules you will only need to vacuum and dust once in a while because no matter how close you follow them dirt will come and it will need to be cleaned. But, you will never need to spend the whole day cleaning again!