How to Clean Your House
by B. Dear

If your house is anything like mine, it probably gets messy rather quickly. Despite my best efforts, the house would quickly revert back to it's previous state shortly after I finished cleaning. Trying to keep the house tidy and clean can be a challenge, especially when children are involved. 

Involve the Family. I suggest that instead of doing all of the work yourself, you enlist the assitance of the entire family. Family members learn to appreciate the work it takes to clean house and your house will stay clean longer when they are the ones who have to clean it. The work also gets done more quickly and everyone can get back to more enjoyable activities. 

Pick a Day When Everyone is Available. When you decide to clean, start early in the day, maybe on a Saturday morning, when there are a lot of people around the house who can pitch in. With the proper motivation, even small children can be coaxed into helping and doing their share.

The two main tasks of cleaning. Housekeeping can be broken down into essentially two tasks. These two tasks are organizing and cleaning. Organizing your house is accomplished when everything in your home is put back in their proper place. Every item in your house should have a "home" that it goes back to when family members are finished using it. Cleaning involves removing dirt, dust, and chocolate handprints from the home that accumulate as a result of daily activity.

Applying the Spin Method of Cleaning. When I clean, I like to do it in something I call "Spins." This means that you will be doing your cleaning in waves and you will be cleaning the different areas of the house multiple times, but different ways. It's a great way to break up a seemingly impossible amount of cleaning into manageable chunks. As each chunk is accomplished, you will be satisfied to know that at least that much is finished. It also will get rooms mostly clean in case you have someone over sooner than expected. Start with the tasks that will make the most improvement in the room and work your way to a clean room in successive spins.For example, the first spin might be picking up all the items on the floor. The next spin would be clearing of the items on all the flat surfaces of the room. Once you finish a spin move to another room and do that spin there. You can come back to the original room on a later spin.

Getting Organized.  Once again, 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. Inevitably there will be a group of items that no one seems to want to claim.  Have everyone pitch in to put these items away or just throw them away if your family will let you.

Cleaning. Once a room has been organized, make a list of things in the room that need to be cleaned. Give each family member a task, then proceed to vacuum, sweep and mop and dust. Once a job is finished, have each person return for another task until each job is finished. You can mark jobs off on your list as they are completed to give each other encouragement..

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 like Christmas decorations 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 cleaning supplies 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.