BE CLEAN

HAPPY 2011.

I have many New Year's resolutions and I plan on blogging about ways to do them. 

Here is the fist post. Kinda long. I started with this idea from another website... and adapted it for me.

ONE of my resolutions is to BE CLEAN in my house and in other ways.

I’ve never been a big fan of Saturday’s being a clean-a-thon. Especially since I work full time, Saturday is the only day that is just for Me and Cruz. I like it to be a fabulous day of fun.

A friend asked me once, “now that you have a whole house, do you feel like there is tons of cleaning to do?” I said, “not really.” I think it’s because of 3 things:

1. Cruz and I both like things tidy, we make sure everything has a place.

2. We do a little every day.

3. We don’t have kids (less of a mess, and more free time... so I hear.) I don’t think kids equal an excuse to have a mess though. LOL.

To keep on top of “BE CLEAN” I do(ing) the following:

1) Clean up bed-time have everyone take the last 5 minutes before the bed-time routine and organize yourself, and put the clutter away. This way your house isn’t a mess when you wake up, it will help you feel less overwhelmed.

2) Dishes, Trash and Make the Bed. Do Your Dishes After Every Meal. My Mom is a pro at this, in fact if you came over and they were gone; with the dishes not done,  you know something is WRONG. (Like people in the hospital.) By waiting to have enough to fill up the dish-washer, makes this feel like a BIG job, rather than a quick thing. The same goes for take out trash as well. If you need to take the trash out, place it by the door to go out in the morning or dispose of it that night so it’s over and done with. Cruz is a gem at making our bed, makes a world of difference. Pretty much when the bed is made it feels like the room is tidy. 

3) Laundry I am super lucky since I have one of those washers with a timer on it, so I can load up the washer, set the timer for 8 hours later to start, then when I walk in the door from work, it’s just finishing the load, and I put it straight into the dryer. We also have a laundry basket that had different compartments, so there isn’t a need for a lot of time sorting out the clothes. (A huge time saver.) I try to keep the laundry down to only 2 loads each time. (For us with no kids, this isn’t too hard.) Often laundry day is also movie or TV night. So I can fold clothes during watching. If need be I will toss in a small load while I do other cleaning, otherwise I do it once a week.

4) Dance It Up and Sing Out loud: If cleaning isn’t really your cup of tea, make it as enjoyable as possible. This is a great chance to turn on pandora, your fancy ipod, or whatever you use to play your music. Have fun while working... and burn some calories too.

5) Be Flexible: Most items on the list below should take no more than 20-30 minutes total, except laundry. But if you don’t do them in order it’s ok. Sometimes I need to do one job sooner than the list says... so I just do it, and cross if off the list, and switch it up. (I do this as little as possible.) Another tricky thing is that I don’t like to CLEAN on Sunday. I try to use that day as a day of REST, so if Sunday lands on the 16th for example, I will swap it with the 15th. Easy switch. On Saturdays I do my best to do the cleaning first thing.

I clean in 20-30 minutes a day —every day— and things just seem to take care of themselves. Here’s a glimpse at the schedule I am using for 2011. (Numbers correspond to date on the calendar.)

{ Click to enlarge. }