Tackling the Mess

How often do you find yourself with a whole house to clean and no clue where to start? It can be frustrating to know that you have all day to get the house cleaned, but to feel overwhelmed by the task. Most of the time, what is overwhelming is knowing that as soon as we start on one thing, either we will be unable to complete the task without having to complete several other tasks along the way (how can I vacuum with all these shoes all over the floor?), or something will come up and we will realize perhaps we should have prioritized something else. Often we think, “Which room should I tackle first?” We might always get the living room cleaned, since that is the area guests see the most, but then our bedrooms never get any attention.

Here is a quick step-by-step guide to cleaning a whole house in one day:

• Start with categories of clutter first- gather alllllll the laundry from all the rooms first.
• Get the first load started while you gather dishes from all the rooms.
• Get that dish load started while you move all the shoes, coats, etc. into their respective closets.
• Now gather all the trash from every room and bathroom.
• Take the trash out.
• Then start on the living room with whatever clutter is left.
• Switch out the laundry.
• Empty the dishwasher & start the next load or do the hand-washed ones.
• Finish the kitchen; shouldn’t be much left now.
• Switch out the laundry again. Start a pile of clean clothes for folding on whatever your usual surface is. Don’t start folding yet – you’ll get to it.
• Now start on the master bedroom. Shouldn’t be much left except the bed at this point, maybe a bit of tidying.
• Next is the bathrooms. Clear the counters & wipe down the counters and Windex the mirrors.
• Switch out the laundry if necessary. Now, any further cleaning in the bathrooms (toilets, showers, tubs).
• Now for kids’ rooms, if there are any: the clothes should be cleared by now, as well as the trash. If they’re old enough, they should be tidying the toys by now while you’re working on the rest of the house, and you may have even delegated other chores to them if they’re older. If anything remains, or they aren’t home, or they are too young to make real progress, bring a broom & dustpan in there & just dump the toys in general storage areas for now. It’s been a looooong day already.
• If you have time, or whenever you get around to it, grab a dust rag & just walk through the whole house & dust in every room- at least the horizontal surfaces you can see easily.
• Now sweep in all rooms that need sweeping, then mop in rooms that need mopping, then vacuum in rooms that need vacuuming.
• Now turn on a movie and fold clothes.

Should be pretty much done by now! That wasn’t so bad, was it?