How to clean your home

More important than having a tidy home, is having a clean home!  You can actually have a very tidy home with everything in its place but dust on every surface, or you can have a clean home with clutter all over the place.

It doesn’t matter whether you have full time help, part-time help or no help at all; certain things need to be done every single day to maintain a functioning home.

With that in mind, it is time to create a housekeeping routine. This routine is to help keep your house from becoming an unsafe and unsanitary environment.  It is not meant to turn your house into the front cover of a magazine.

Create a therapeutic environment in your home.

Let’s face it, coming home to a clean house, or just even getting into a bed that has been made, gives you a good feeling. In nursing we call this a therapeutic environment. It is an environment that encourages healing and promotes health.

How does this apply to your house? Healing does not have to be from a physical illness or injury but from a psychological aspect of getting rid of the stress of the day.

If you have kids, the mess doubles but the time you have to clear it up halves. This means doing a little each day.

Create a routine for your kids

Kids in South Africa’s more affluent suburbs are spoiled; almost all suburban homes have some form of domestic help. Getting the children into the habit of picking up after themselves can be a difficult battle, especially if you have a nanny from the day the baby is born. Nannies tend to let their charges get away with things that their own children could not do.

We had an incident a few years ago, where one of my kids pulled every single thing out of the closet and onto the floor looking for the ‘right’ outfit to wear. I instructed my helper to leave it and my child was told to repack the cupboard properly. After 3 day I noticed that everything was neatly back in the cupboard and when I checked ,it turned out that my domestic had felt sorry for her and packed up!

I read an article a while back that said that kids as young as 3 can start making their beds.  It does have to be perfect and you shouldn’t go and remake the bed but, as time goes by, the child’s bed making skills will improve.

Another article stated that if you only do one thing around the house each day, making your bed should be it. For the reason I stated earlier, you feel better when you get into a bed that has been made, but also so that you can honestly say that you did one thing that day.

The benefits of a cleaning schedule

Creating a cleaning schedule is not about the daily tasks that get done, but to ensure that those small things like dusting the ceiling fans, or washing the skirting boards, don’t slip through the cracks.

How to create your cleaning schedule

Take a notebook and pen and start at your front door. Look at your entry way and take note of what needs to be dusted, washed or polished. Don’t forget to look behind and under the furniture.

Walk through your house, room by room, and check each nook and cranny and write it down.  This may take more than one walk through, as you will inevitably forget something.

Take a year planner and start to plot your tasks for every month, every 4 months, every 6 months, and stagger the tasks so that you create a routine and nothing gets missed out.

You can create your own schedule, or download the one on the website, and add or adjust that one http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/printables/house-cleaning-check-list/. You can also add tasks like paying the bills to your schedule or routine.  Remember, it isn’t written in stone and you need to create a system that works for you.

If you have your own routine, why not share with us what works for you? Please feel free to join us on Facebook as We Get Sorted. https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingsorted/