Tuesday, March 22, 2011

An Organized Home

Have you heard the quote:

"A perfectly kept home is the sign of a misspent life"
It's actually the title of a book.

I have to say, i very strongly disagree with this.  I'll start off saying, to each his own. I don't care if your house is messy. Quite frankly, i don't even notice it when I'm at other peoples houses. In fact, i think the chaos of it all is very endearing, and works for some people. It doesn't work for me. Not at all.

I need and love a neat and organized home. 
It may sound like i spend a lot of time cleaning, organizing, doing laundry etc, but not really.

For starters, everything has a place. For me, it's a lot easier to put things away, if they have a specific spot they belong. We have one small "junk" drawer in our house. We always know where things are, because they get put back in their "spot" when we're done with them.

I make my bed when i get up. I love the look of a nicely made bed. I also, "make" Jackson's bed. Seeing as it's just a blanket in his crib, it takes all of .05 seconds to do it. 

We don't own a dishwasher, so we do our dishes by hand. I wash them after every meal, so it's fast. On days i am working, Mr.H does the breakfast dishes (A BIG tip, if you have a hubby that is willing to help, don't criticize his job). Our dishes dry in a drain tray, and i put them away as soon as they're dry, it  takes very little time, because it's only dishes for three people.

As for laundry, i do a load every day. I don't use our dryer much. Sometimes to fluff clothes of they aren't soft. We do live in Canada, so i dry them on indoor clothes lines in the winter. If i hang them before bed, they are dry in the morning. I also hang dry our cloth diapers, and all of my cleaning supplies for my business. Because i do a load every day, it isn't a ton of laundry all at once, and takes maybe 5 minutes to hang up, and 2 minutes to take down. My hydro bill was GREATLY reduced by skipping the clothes dryer. There are times when i need to use it though.

In terms of all the other house cleaning, i do a little bit every day. I would hate to have to devote hours on the weekend to it. I vacuum every other day (we have a huskey, it is necessary to do it this often) I mop twice a week. I clean my whole bathroom once a week, and the toilet and sink usually one other time. I dust once a week, our house could defiantly use it more often, between the dog, and the dust of an old house. I also change our bedsheets once a week. Everything else i do on an as needed basis. I find that, because our house is tidy, it takes no time to actually clean. It helps that we live in a small house, but i know if we had more rooms, they would be getting used less often, therefore they would stay cleaner. We live in our living room and kitchen, so these rooms obvi get the brunt of the mess. I also try to only clean during Jacksons nap, and while daddy is giving him his bath, that way I'm not taking any time away from him, and my evenings are free to relax.

As for keeping organized with a toddler, i just do my best. Most cabinets are locked, so there isn't really a lot he can pull out. Some things that he can reach, are held down with strong velcro (TV speakers). He has a toy area in the living room. I try to keep it within reason (i rotate the toys every few days,the rest are in his room). At the end of the day, i put them all away, if you were here during the day, there would be toys every where.

Again, i say to each his own. Sometimes i wish i could just let things go, but i can't. For me, having an organized home, lets me live my life, I'm never rushing around looking for a lost shoe, or spending my Saturday folding laundry.

What is your cleaning routine? Are you more of a go with the flow person, or do you like everything to be just "so"?


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this post. I am the same type when it comes to our home. Since I am recovering from surgery, I have a lot of help with the regular day tasks and cleaning. Of course, I will be back at it but I am a "get it done in one day" person. I will sit and stew about something if I didn't get to complete it. I am so proud of my home and how it looks and feels. Sometimes I don't like people coming over on the days it gets cleaned because I don't want them to mess it up (and not everyone is conscious of this)and my hubby thinks this is crazy...
All of that being said, I realized that I think the way you do things (a little bit each day where it's all still getting done regularily) is the way to go..

Home4TheHendersons said...

I think if i had it all to do at once, it would be overwhelming. I would still do it, but i'd be a grumpy person.

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