cleaning tips- take 2

Today is Monday, laundry day at my house. Not that I don't do laundry during the week, but on Monday I do towels and every other week the sheets from the beds.

Laundry is relatively easy, but managing clothes isn't always. I have friends and had roommates in college that live basically out of their hampers. Someone I know, who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, has the worst problem in her kids room. There are more clothes on the floor than anywhere else. The drawers are basically empty except when the mom goes on a craze and washes everything on the floor. Then the clothes are piled in the hampers and rarely make it all the way into the drawers. The problem with this approach is that most of the clothes are scattered on the floor and you never know exactly where anything is, or whether it's clean or dirty. Children never learn how to keep their clothes tidy or organized either. So here is my suggestion. First make sure that all clothes fit in the drawer or dresser space you have. If they don't here is what I do. I save the items in the best condition and either throw away, donate, or make rags out of the rest.

Alyssa is a prime example. Several months ago it was time to switch her clothes from a 2T to a 3T. Since she is the 3rd girl we have collected a bunch of stuff. Plus I occasionally buy something that is such a killer deal that it would be a shame not to get her something new. Alyssa has 2 drawers in the dresser. The other girls have 3. Consequently I slimmed down her wardrobe considerably and then decided to put some seasonal stuff in a bag in the top of her closet during the off-seasons. Emily's move to 5T was the same, only everything must fit in the drawer. I let her help decide what to get rid of when there were more shirts than would reasonably fit in the shirt drawer. The pants were easier because so many had holes from Sarah that I ended up having to go and buy Emily several pairs so she would have something for winter. For myself and Alan (only he's never home when I do this and thus has virtually no say in the matter) I go through my clothes at least once a year and get rid of everything I haven't worn during the past year. Some people switch clothing depending on the season. If Alan ever has to move his clothes back into our room I'll have to do this.

I had a clever friend who didn't have enough dressers or money for another and bought those plastic bins that stack from Walmart when she married and inherited a daughter. This worked fine. Anyway the point is, make a place for the clothes to go and teach the children where everything is.

When I get a load out of the dryer I take it upstairs and dump it on my bed. 98% of the time I fold it immediately and the girls help me put it away. They do their own mostly. I do Alyssa's shirts and pants because she can't quite reach to put them away neatly. If I do have to leave it on my bed I know that I'll put it away before going to bed because otherwise I would have to sleep on the couch. Once upon a time, in a land so desolate many people can't figure out why I grew up there, I went visiting teaching with my mom. Her sister had just finished coming back from the laundromat and all her clean clothes were dumped out on the floor of the living room. The clothes took up all the space and she grumbled at her daughter for walking on the clean clothes. Well, this was funny because she was the one who had dumped them all on the floor, not the cleanest place for laundry. One of my friends folds them as she gets them out of the dryer, but I'm too impatient to start the next load.

One of the ways I teach responsibility to my girls is to give them little chores. Keeping their rooms clean is the first and most basic one. When they are two they start putting their dirty clothes in the hamper and in the morning they stuff (folding pajama's comes at a much later age) their pajamas into their drawer. My oldest has the most problem remembering this which is funny as she's been doing it the longest. But Sarah is by nature untidy. Emily on the other hand, likes to organize her drawers by refolding everything and stacking it just so. Before my girls are allowed to watch a movie or play with friends or outside they have to have their rooms picked up.

That's it for laundry ideas. Maybe you know some better ones. If so share, I'm always looking for ways to improve.

Cleaning tips- take 1

This is due to many requests from various and asundry friends who wanted some hints on keeping a tidy home.

First, the main secret to a tidy home is upkeep. I never spend more than 45 minutes a day cleaning, usually less. And that is usually not spent all at once either. A few minutes here and there keep everything basically clean. I learned as a teenager that it was much easier, and tons less time, to keep my space tidy than to let it go and then have to spend hours cleaning it. My standards have relaxed with children, but I still like a home that is receptive to the Spirit, and also because clutter and dirt stress me out and then I can't be happy. And if I'm not happy, nobody's happy. :)

So today's blog is about the kitchen. My cleaning strategy is to do a major chore once a day. On Thursdays I clean the kitchen. This is what that entails for me. I wipe out the microwave (although this is one of those things I wipe as it needs it so most Thursdays I'm just checking it, in case Alan used it and I didn't notice.)
I wipe the shelves in the fridge. Once every 4-6 months I also wipe out the cripsers. I also throw away and clean out left-overs and vegies that might have gone yucky.
I wipe all the windowsills. The girls help me with this.
I check the oven and if it needs it I clean it. I don't have the kind of oven that cleans itself. I'm still waiting...(This rarely happens because if I notice a spill in the oven while I'm baking I mix a little baking soda and water and carefully spoon it over the spill. The baking soda reacts with the heat to lift the spill off the oven floor and when it's cool it's easier to clean off.)
I clean all the burners and under the burners. (Of course if you do this as you make the spill or mess it's so much faster and easier on Thursdays.)
I sweep and mop all the floors that are moppable, including bathrooms.
I use cleanser to scour the sink and polish the faucet.
I water my plants. The end.

The secret things I do to always make it look like I just cleaned the kitchen:
The most important key is to wipe the counters, table, and high chair after every meal. Not only does it keep the germs down, but this one thing will save tons of time in the long run because you avoid stuck-on food. This also includes wiping the floor under the high chair. In fact, your floor will be way way easier to mop if you keep the food from congealing and absorbing into the floor. Mopping on Thursday only takes me 10 minutes because there aren't any food spills I have to scrape off.

The other secret to a clean kitchen is to keep up on the dishes. I hate washing dishes! If I ignore them for more than two meals suddenly I don't want to do them ever because the task seems so overwhelming. Once upon a time when I was first married without a dishwasher, my father-in-law magically created a beautiful coat rack out of a piece of wood and when it was done he and my mother-in-law brought it down to surprise Alan. I suggested we hide in the kitchen where I realized that the sink and counter were full of unwashed dishes. This was hugely embarrassing; especially since I had never seen so much as a glass unwashed at their house. That just about cured the problem. Then I saw or read, can't remember now, some report on the amount of germs and bacteria that build up due to unwashed dishes and that cured me the rest of the way. Do the dishes at least once a day. Then unexpected company, or a forgetful mind, won't make you feel like a pig. :)

To sum up: Clean up as you go. It saves hours and hours of time. There you go. I hope that helps some. Love you all!