Equipment, Cleaning Products and Tips.

 

As I finish this series of posts on keeping our homes clean with our routines, I thought I'd do one last post with a few extra tips, equipment, supplies I find handy, etc.   My inspiration was something that I was doing this evening following supper.  We'd cooked two food items, and both stuck to the pan pretty badly. 

Monthly and Seasonal Cleaning

 

Now that we've got basic routines and zones sorted out, we can begin to determine what it is we want to actually do in our homes.  Some like to have every area of the home pristine and spic and span.  Some don't want to do much more than simple routines.  It's really up to you and your family how clean you keep your house.  There are no house nazis going to come around and give you demerits for not keeping it perfectly.  

Zone Work

 

The FlyLady didn't invent the principle, but she made it vastly popular.  The original system was copyrighted by SHE, Sidetracked Home Executives.  They suggested that one keep an index card system with tasks that should be completed daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, bi-annually and annually.  It was a good system but slightly more complicated than the FlyLady system.

The home is divided into four separate zones, and you concentrate on one zone each week of the month.  During that week you determine what tasks you wish to get done.  You decide if these are tasks you wish to do monthly or every other month, or less often.  If you do these tasks a little at a time over a three-to-six-month period, you can eliminate the need to do a major fall or spring cleaning entirely simply because you stay atop the normal work that is required to keep the house really clean.  You also determine what each zone encompasses.

Home Blessings and a Reset

 

Homemaking can be made as difficult, thorough, or uncomplicated as you choose.  In the end, it's up to the individual homemaker and the occupants of the home to determine what level of housekeeping is necessary for sanity and function.  

Just doing the daily five will cut down on the chaos you might naturally feel in a home.  Adding just a few extra tasks that can be done twice a week, help maintain the home at a slightly higher level.  I've used these two days each week to keep my home running when I had no time at all to devote to the usual weekly and monthly tasks and yet we felt the house looked rather well.  It won't do to go too long on just these two extra routines, but it can certainly hold your home for at least six to eight weeks.  

Zones and Routines: The Daily Five

 

Every few years someone asks about my cleaning routine or the Zone Work I do.

The original idea came from FlyLady back in the day when she'd send out about ten emails a day detailing in each one what task needed to be done.  The moment I'd sit down to the computer, I'd open my email account and there was a long list of reminders of things I hadn't done yet! lol.  It was like being nagged but in a very uplifting and nice way.  Some days I didn't get it all done but I did something and doing something was the key.  It helped me get my home under control.  

I Don't Wanna Work! 10 Methods for Busting the Mood

One morning not too long ago, I could see my house needed work...but I was so not in the mood to attend to my home needs at all.  I wanted to sit in my chair and watch YouTube or read or go back to bed instead of doing what needed to be done.  I had one weapon though:  I have a whole list of things to do when I don't want to work.   So I pulled it out and found the inspiration to get busy and get the jobs done.    Would you like for me to share?

#1.  Get up a little earlier.  Often when I've gotten into the habit of sleeping to a certain hour each morning, I tend to take up this sort of vacation/holiday mood.  I ease about the house not getting a lot done and the next thing I know it's 10:45 and I've not even begun the day.   One thing I've found really helpful, if I know I need to tackle tasks, is to set my alarm and get up just a little bit earlier.  It's surprising how much more energy I have and how much more I can accomplish in a morning if I just get up an hour earlier.   I don't even have to do it every morning but I do find that if I do it once, I'm likely to wake just a half later than the previous morning and suddenly I'm back into my higher energy working mind set.

Decluttering Isn't Just Throwing Things Away

This week I'd planned to begin decluttering.  It's chronic with me.  Something about a new year makes me very conscious of the excess in my home.  Someone surmised it was due to the lavish abundance of things which come into a home with the Christmas season but I think it's more than that.  We had a very modest Christmas season and only a few items (all very useful) came into our home.  However, as we neared the beginning of the year my fingers itched to dig into the spaces behind closed cabinet doors, to straighten drawers, to plunder the shed and let go of many things.

Why Do I Keep My House Clean? My Top 5 Reasons

Really the title sounds like a rhetorical question a mom might ask, doesn't it?

Over the spring and summer I fell out of the habit of deep cleaning, zones for deeper concentrated cleaning, and most routines.  The house held on with a few, oh so few, routines and manic cleaning whenever the family was gone away for a few hours.  But I think, looking back, that it was the fact that I had worked to keep the house clean prior to their moving in that really helped us stay atop the housework for five months with two toddlers in the house.

More on Homemaking

Tammy shared her routine with us and I thought you'd like to see that comment.

Monday - kitchen day - clean out the refrigerator, quick inventory of the pantry, prep food for the week including baking, then cleaning of counters, floors, and straightening cupboards and drawers as needed.

Tuesday - deep cleaning day - weekly rotation of concentrating on "zones" which include living/dining, bedrooms, bathrooms, porches/garage/car.

Wednesday - laundry day - we do laundry daily, but this is the catch-up day. I do our sheets, rugs, any odds and ends in the laundry room. I also take this day to clean the laundry room and check inventory of supplies.

Debby's Home Routine

I've enjoyed my new routine thus far.  I felt I accomplished more on Friday and again on Sunday simply because I was interested in what I was doing once more.  Monday morning I accomplished all my work well before time to leave to go to Mama's.   That left me free to work on another project when I came in that afternoon.

Debby share her current routine with us, though she is planning to shake it up a bit.  Her old routine though may be just the new one you require to shake up your old routine, so I thought I'd share.

A new routine sounds nice. I'm also a zone cleaner. My friend loved Flylady and that's where I got the zone idea. I started there and fine-tuned it to fit me. I have daily zones and weekly zones. Since most are probably familiar, I'll be brief.

Good Housekeeping's Book on The Business of Housekeeping

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading Good Housekeeping's Book On The Business of Housekeeping, A Manual of Method  by Mildred Maddocks Bentley, published in 1924.

There's all kinds of advice in the book.  If ever you wondered why so much work in the long ago days this book pretty much covers it.  Divided into five sections, the fifth is on laundry and is the longest and the most detailed. 

Every aspect of doing the washing is covered from making soap solutions and the equipment required to detailed instructions of exactly how full a load of laundry should be. While there were many labor saving devices back then such as an automatic washer and a wringer as well as ironers that could do many pieces of ironing in a day's time, it was fully expected laundry would take two full days work. The first day was solely compromised of washing, mending, treating stains, starching and drying. The second day was relegated to ironing. The more fortunate woman had a maid who attended to the laundry.  Otherwise the whole of the household work was shoved into a mere four days a week while laundry took up the first two.

Home Routines

I thought about my home routines for most of last week. I would like to add one item to my morning routine, something that is absolutely key for me and it would be one of the first things I do: shower and dress.  Even if I am going to go outdoors to work in the hot sun.  Even if I am going to be home all day long.  Because I find that mornings when I schlep about in my night clothes, I have to break up my morning to dress for the day mid-way through a job or two and that means I might not get back to finish off something.  At Granny's, we weren't allowed so much as a drink of water, much less come to the breakfast table, unless we were fully dressed and ready for the day.  I'm seeing more and more the wisdom of that rule of hers and I mean to incorporate it into my day.  Right after I get out of bed, open the window and throw back those covers, I'm headed to the shower!

I sat down last night before bed and set down my current routine and what I thought would work better for me.   I wrote out a zone list and realized I liked the principle of it just not the way I've been doing them which was to focus all week long on that one area and then move to the next zone.  I came up with something and think it's just the answer to my need to add a spark to my routine housework once again.

I've found that staying away from computer in the mornings is most helpful though I will go online on John's work mornings because I can run Swagbuck videos at that time.  It's the only time I get to hit at those small earnings.  BUT I always stop running videos by 7am so it shouldn't be a problem to hold off on that.

Daily Tasks

I've thought long and hard about this business of routines and about what I want to do in my home on a daily basis.  I have already shared my morning and evening routines.  Some of the tasks on this daily list are included there.  I am not repeating them but merely showing that this is done daily.

There are not many tasks on my list of daily jobs.  This is because I hope to do some weekly and monthly jobs each day, as well, but these chores do allow my home to look polished even if I haven't done anything more.

I've enjoyed reading about your routines for morning and evening that you've shared.  One mentioned never going to bed with dirty dishes in the kitchen.  I followed Flylady for years and I agree with this 100%,  but I discovered even with just two of us at home, if I didn't put a stop time on kitchen work, I'd be doing it at bedtime, too.  So for those last couple of items each evening, I choose to set them in the kitchen and deal with them in the morning.

Morning and Evening Homemaking Routines

I said I've been revamping my routines and that part is certainly true enough.  In fact, I'm still working on those cleaning charts. I thought I'd share my morning and evening routines.  These haven't changed much in the past few years but they are really what keep my home neat and nice and helps me to focus immediately on the bigger picture each day.  It's all little things that, once done, just make life simpler.  In a pinch, doing a morning and evening routine can be the difference between a house that is pretty much company presentable and a disaster zone, so if I am ill or not able to devote a full day to cleaning, my home is still ready for hospitality.

Morning:

Un-make the bed.  This sounds counter-productive doesn't it?  There is a reason to do this! I throw back the covers on the bed and let the sheets air.  This is ideally done for at least 1 hour.  I sometimes do make up the bed after 20 minutes, and occasionally John sees the unmade bed and decides to make it himself, but most mornings I let the bed air an hour.  This helps keep the sheets fresh all week long and it allows the bedding to completely dry in case of any dampness from perspiration during the night.

Open the curtains.  Opening the curtains each morning lets the sunshine pour into the house.  It is ideal to also open windows and let the house air for a few minutes.  This is a habit I mean to incorporate with my new routines.  However, opening the curtains is a signal to my brain that the day is well begun.  There's something about those open blinds and curtains that makes me feel ready to face the work of the day.

Spring Cleaning - Execution

I am nearly done with the Spring cleaning.   I have just the laundry/back entry and the kitchen to tend to. I must say that while I felt I'd done rather well overall with my cleaning, I've noticed there are some things I ignored.  This made me stop and think how much more helpful if I'd had a list of all that needed to be done in my deeper cleaning.  I will be looking for some more detailed lists.

I thought perhaps you all might find it helpful to know what I found to be most helpful this season.


1.  Remove cloth layers first.  Curtains, sheers, shades, spreads, quilts, sheets, dresser cloths, tablecloths, pillows, doilies, runners, etc.  In my work in the living room and bedroom I found it helpful to first strip those things I wanted to wash.  I stripped slipcovers from chairs and pillow covers.  In the bedrooms I stripped the beds.  In the bath, rugs, towels and shower curtains.  My first task for each room was to immediately start a load of laundry.  I ran laundry loads until it was all done.  Fortunately with my one room at a time approach this never topped more than three at most.

 2.  Start at the top and work your way down.  Simultaneously, start at the door and work yourself around the room back to the doorway.  In the instance of my main living area, which is both living, dining and front entry, I chose to divide the room in half.  I started at the small hallway and worked my way back there.  On the opposite side of the room, I started at the left hand opening to the kitchen area and worked around to that small hallway once more.

Ten Tips For Decorating on A Budget

You all know, I've just finished 'refreshing' my home, giving it a little face lift for  spring and summer.  What you might not know is that I've been doing this exact same thing for years upon years.  My home is always evolving.  I do this on a strict budget.  There are no $100 room makeovers or big renovation projects or even new furniture purchases for us except once in a great while.  More of the pieces in my home were bought or given to me as second hand pieces than were ever bought new. 

In the early days after moving here, John and I bought three sofas.  Within two years, each of them was trashed.  Not because we were careless but they were so poor quality and inexpensive.  The only other pieces of furniture we've bought are our dining table (the chairs fell to pieces within 3 years but the table holds up), two chairs that are still in current use in our living room and an entertainment center that we bought on sale at Kmart 20 years ago that we altered and only recently moved out of the house.  We've bought mattresses for our bed.  All of those items were purchased new.  I don't think our spending in the new furnishings area really comes up to much more than one set of mattresses cost us!

I am not grousing over what we haven't spent.  The truth is that when you live on a single lower income there are myriad needs that arise that are far more important.  We live 30 miles from John's work and 35 miles from our grocery shopping and church area.  Cars are necessities.  Maintaining them is a necessity.  When the kids were at home, coats and shoes and clothing and medical care were a necessity.  Furnishings and decorating falls way down onto the "It would be nice, but we can do without" list.

Well obviously I have a house full of furniture so it must have come from somewhere.  Indeed it did.  My top tips for decorating on a budget follow:

Seasonal Cleaning Primer

I said I wouldn't do seasonal cleaning any longer but after last fall's clearing out of rooms to accommodate new flooring and then putting it all back, it made for a big fall cleaning as you can imagine.  Unfortunately, I rested on my .... erhm....laurels and didn't continue to do deep cleaning after that big move.   Guess what?  It's SPRING now and I'm months behind on cleaning.  It's either a big seasonal cleaning and then begin the monthly deep clean routine afresh or simply let it all sit here as it is and do the monthly stuff.

I feel like I need a fresh start.  So it's a deep seasonal clean for me this Spring.

So I'd planned to start this week cleaning the kitchen.  I will do some of the tasks mentioned in that area this week,  but yesterday morning as I stood in the bathroom thinking it needed just a quick wipe down, I noted dust on the wainscoting molding.  " Might as well..."  I swear those are dangerous words to hear echo across my mind!

Before I knew it I'd decided that after all it wouldn't take so long to spring clean that room.  I dusted walls and wiped down tops of door frames and took down the curtain and removed the bench seat cover to wash.  "Might as well..." I said, as I stepped into the bedroom, "take down these curtains and wash them to put away, and  hang the new curtains." There was dust on the picture frame and I thought I'd do the walls...  The next thing I knew I was in the middle of spring cleaning that whole section of the house.  Drawers, closet, master bedroom, moving furniture, wiping down doors, etc.

This isn't meant to be about every task I did yesterday and today.  It's about what I didn't do before I got started, both days.  I jumped ahead of myself.  I forgot my main rule: Planning and then execution.

March Declutter/Cleaning Challenge *Updated*

How did you do on February's challenge?  I didn't do one single thing.  Seriously.  I'm not going to look back or try to catch up from behind.  Nope.  I'll just move forward this coming month and be happy I can move on. 

I like this lady's calendar format and that it's meant to be done in 15 minutes each day, so I plan to keep sharing them.  Here's the link for March:

http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/declutter-calendar-march.html

I thought some of you might be interested in a cleaning calendar geared to the same month, since the first calendar also has the task of creating daily and weekly cleaning routines.  I looked over several calendars before I found one that looked like a really good one to follow for daily cleaning.  The calendar I'm sharing is from March 2016 but keep track of the site here.  You might well find one for March 2017.   There IS a March 2017 calendar.  Kemi was good enough to share that information with me.   You will need to subscribe...

The Power of Less

In this day and age of more is better and more is more, I think there is a world of power in the principle of less. 

Let's think about it.  First there's the basic principle of budgeting.  You should always spend less than you earn.  That literally means, as my husband is so fond of saying, "If you make $200 you don't spend $202."  He's quite right.  In the tightest of budgets the ideal is to spend no more than $200 if that is all you have.  If you're very wise and highly motivated you figure out a way to save a portion of that $200 and live on less. 

Keeping It Clean - 10 Steps to Keeping Your Home Neat.

Periodically it is asked of me how I keep my home neat and clean.  Granted I am a stay at home wife and I consider my home my 'job', but I have many calls upon my time and keeping it all in balance and keeping the house neat and clean is something I must stay on top of.

So what is the secret?  Habit and routines.

I will be the first to confess that I like a little routine and a lot of 'Oh what do I feel like doing today?' It's the routine part of what I do that keeps things running smoothly, looking nice and allows me that freedom.  What I do in my home works for us, but I believe these steps can work for every one.

When I was ill, John kept up the house on his own.  He didn't know just where to put certain dishes so he (very wisely in my opinion) put them on the baking counter, which is out of the direct line of vision if you're in the living room or the back entry area.  No one was the wiser of that little hot spot on that counter top.  He has seen enough of my routines that he kept up the house very well all on his own just using these 10 steps.

When I came home from hospital I spent perhaps ten minutes putting away those items he was unsure of, and  I didn't feel in the least overwhelmed by chores staring me in the face although I'd been gone 2  weeks.  That he was able to do this, while making daily treks to the hospital or working his 24 hour shifts,  convinced me that I was on to something really good that would work well for any one at all.

1.  Do laundry every day.
I used to think that I should have a laundry day, and I'd spend hours washing load after load of clothes and towels and sheets and spend my time doing nothing much besides laundry.  It was a chore!   I believed in separating clothes into white, dark, towels, etc.  It's not at all necessary.  That's the big secret.  Yes, occasionally I do want to soak a load of whites in bleach and at those times I might wash them separately, but honestly?  I haven't noticed a huge difference in our white clothes when they are washed with our other clothes, including dark.  We've just about figured out which new items are going to be prone to bleeding and will wash those separately the first couple of washings.