Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - House Cleaning Wisdom | Clutterbug Podcast # 18

Episode Date: October 11, 2016

Here is a little bit of my house cleaning wisdom.  Unfortunately, I had to learn how to properly keep a house clean the hard way! My best tip? If you wait until your home looks dirty to clean it, you have already waited too long.  For more cleaning and organizing tips, visit my website at www.clutterbug.me Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Today I wanted to talk about house cleaning or housework. And I've talked a lot about in the book that I'm writing or on my blog posts or on my YouTube channel, I talk about the fact that once you've organized your space, it's so much easier to keep it clean. And that is true. I remember back in my slob days when, you know, the only time I would really clean is if something physically looked dirty, I guess. Or there was someone coming over and look out because if someone was coming over, I would transform into like a screaming banshee for basically two days straight. I would be stressed out about it. I'd be like a nut bar, cleaning everything, shoving clutter out of the way, scrubbing the floors. The bathrooms would always be like, you know, beyond the point where you could just give it a good wipe. It's like you're scrubbing with like comet and a scrub brush to get the ring out of your tub.

And, you know, that's just how I guess I assumed house cleaning was. House cleaning was like this big ordeal where it's basically you're going to the gym because you're sweating so much because you're scrubbing your house. And I have learned that that is, in fact, not the right way to clean your house because, you know what? It's hard work. I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to hard work and I don't want to scrub. And I don't want to have that panicked feeling of when somebody does stop by that, you know, you're embarrassed because they're sticking. jam all over your counters or your floor and you know it's just it's just grossly dirty like you've let it go too far and that's the other thing with housework is it doesn't take long to pile up you can literally

let things go for a couple of days and it looks like you you know could start in your own tlc special recorders so i have learned and i'm going to share my little tip of house cleaning wisdom with you if it already looks dirty, if you're waiting to clean your house until it looks dirty, you've waited too long. And I cannot express that enough. Like, if you're waiting to clean your bathtub until there's visual grime on it, you've waited too long. The easier way to do it is to keep up on things every day, every week, and never have to scrub it. Never have it look visually dirty. excuse me the other thing I've learned is that when it comes to things that are soft like carpets and like your rugs your carpets in your house pillows blankets things like that if you're

waiting until they're visually dirty before you take the time to clean them they're never going to really come clean and the same thing really goes for your tub too the same thing can go for ceramic your stove all those type of things if you're waiting until they're like really bad before you scrub them, the odds are they're never going to come super clean. No, I'm not suggesting you get on your hands and knees and clean your house every day. That's bananas. Who has time for that? There are people out there who clean like that, but it is totally not necessary. Here's some quick tips that I do. Every single day, you guys know I do my nightly cleaning routine, which is just making sure the bathrooms and kitchen is clean. I give them a pretty good wipe down.

I, you know, clean out the sink, I clean the bathroom, and sometimes every few days I will actually spray cleaning solution in my shower, like spray it in my showers and in my tub. And that really helps to sort of stop it from getting overwhelming, stop it from ever needing a really good scrub. The other thing I do is sometimes when I'm actually having a shower, I'll just take a few seconds, I keep, you know, a spray in there and a cloth and I'll wipe it down while I'm in there. Not all the time, you guys, but every now and then it keeps it from ever getting really bad. I clean the toilet every day, I clean the sinks and the counters every day in the bathroom, and I clean my kitchen twice a day every day. The appliances still look brand new. If, you know, I have a spill and it's baked on, which happens all the time,

I have a white ceramic soap top. Whoever invented that should be shot. It's a nightmare to clean, but I never let it go more than a day because if you do and then you cook on it again, it's going to be, it's going to be impossible to get that off. And so you're actually, it seems like you're working more often because you're doing a little bit every day, but in actuality, trust me on this, you have to try it for saving yourself so much time. Because again, you won't ever have to do that deep down scrub. Now, I fall off the wagon sometimes, a lot of times. I can't lie. And there are times where I get really lazy and I let it go and it builds up fast. But because I jump right back on, it never becomes to the point where it used to be for me

really overwhelming, really to the point where, you know, I've wrecked that carpet because I haven't vacuumed in so long or this stove is just never ever coming clean kind of bad. And the way that keep on top of that is just repetitive daily routine. they say that it takes 30 days for a new routine to become a habit. And I think I had the first 30 years of my life making a habit of being just like a giant slob. I practiced being messy. That's the truth.

I mean, when you do something all the time, when you're just used to a certain behavior, it's hard to change. Being messy was a habit for me. That is the honest truth. So getting clean, I had to make that. a habit as well. I had to put it on my fridge. I had to actually take the time to write out a cleaning list, put it on my fridge, physically check off each of the tasks that I did, and make myself do it every single day. I always say that I'm putting on my big girl pants. And sometimes I have to parent

myself. I need to like negotiate with myself. Like no Netflix until you wash the kitchen floor. But, you know, I know what's good for me. I know that I it's good to treat my kids that way. I'm not going to let them, you know, watch television or go and play before they've done their chores. So I have to parent myself the same way. Some people are just born with a natural ability to be able to have self-discipline. I am not one of those people. But it can be faked. And it can be faked for 30 days and then magically become easier, become more of a habit. So now I don't even think twice about, you know, cleaning up the kitchen and mopping the floor and wiping down the kitchen and bathrooms before I go to bed.

It's literally just as ingrained as brushing my teeth or putting on my pajamas. It is an absolute habit and it can become a habit for you too. And it's about, you know, 15, 20 minutes of my day, but it makes all the difference. It means that things never get out of control. It means that I'm no longer embarrassed if people stop by unannounced. It means that I don't have to spend hours scrubbing, I just have to spend a few minutes keeping up on it. So maintenance is the key. If you have waited until it looks dirty, too clean, you have waited too long.

So if you are the type of person who I used to be and you're sitting in a giant mess, you're probably thinking, okay, well, that's good and great, but everything looks dirty. So where do I start now? here's what you do. You bust your hump as hard as you can. Get your family, get your friends involved if you can, and you get it to a state that you're happy with, whether it takes you a week or a weekend. And let's start fresh on Monday. So we're going to work, work to get the house to a state. Let's pretend, you know, the queen is coming. Every time my mom comes to visit, we always say the queen is coming. Because I swear to you, you guys, she looks for dirt. I don't know if it's a my head or not but I'm pretty sure she's like white glove in my house so before my mom comes over

I do like a crazy crazy clean like I still am that crazy screaming bansy girl when my mom comes over but then you can start fresh by keeping up on a 15 minute a day routine and that and that's what you're going to have to do you're going to have to get on the top of the mountain and then slowly don't fall back off again by keeping up on it just 15 minutes minutes a day. So that's it. That's my little pearl of housekeeping wisdom I wanted to share with you guys today. Thank you so much for listening. I love podcast because I don't have to put on pants or brush my hair or put on makeup. I'm looking like a hot mess over here, but you guys will never know. It's great. Love podcasting. So stay tuned for the next episode. And if you just can't get enough, you guys,

you can watch my YouTube channel and or check out my website at www.comutterbug. Make sure you take that test. Find out what your personal organizing style is. It's really eye-opening and it can definitely help you, you know, make organizing your life a little bit easier when you know what your natural style is. So thank you guys so much. I can't wait to hear from you. We'll see you again.