How to Clean Your House

By B. Dear

Keeping a house clean is always difficult, especially if you have children. To make things a little less unpleasant, I suggest that rather than doing all of the work yourself, you enlist the aid of the entire family. That way, the work gets done quickly and everyone can get back to having fun. I suggest starting early in the day, maybe on a Saturday morning, when there are a lot of people around the house to pitch in. With a little motivation, even small children can be coaxed into helping.

Housekeeping can be broken down into essentially two tasks. These two tasks are organizing and cleaning. Organizing is done by putting things back in their proper place. Cleaning involves removing dirt, dust, and chocolate handprints that accumulate as a result of the day's activities.

First, you have to get organized. The key here is to give all household items their own little space in the home that they must return to after use.  All items left around the house need to be picked up and taken back to the where they belong. For this job, I like to employ my children since they’re closer to the floor and like to crawl under beds. I give my children baskets and have them fill their baskets with toys that belong to them. Then they have to take them to their rooms. The same method can be employed to clean up your own possessions if you aren't afraid of the idea of being an adult and carrying a basket.

Repeat this method over and over again in each room. Again, the more people you can get involved in the activity the faster it will be finished. If you do this daily (maybe right before bed) it will be easier to do. My kids are always motivated to do all sorts of things around bedtime that they wouldn't ordinarily do.

Once a room is organized, make a list of things in the room that need to be cleaned. Give each person a task, then proceed to dust, vacuum, sweep and mop. Once a job is finished, have each person return for another task until each job is finished. Mark jobs off on your list as they are completed to give each other a sense of accomplishment.

Here are some additional tips to help with housekeeping:

• To make cleaning easier throw away items that you no longer need or never use. A good rule of thumb is: If you haven't touched it for over a year, toss it.
• Put long term storage items in a closet, garage or other storage area where they are not in the way when cleaning. This will make cleaning a lot easier and make your house look a lot less cluttered.
• Make one of the closets in your home a cleaning closet with all of you cleaning supplies in it. That way,you can find needed items quickly.
• Don’t forget to clean inside the house, then outside. Outdoor work just brings a lot of dirt back into the house.
• Plan a day to do just heavy cleaning. Nasty items like stoves need special attention and take a lot more time to finish.