Clean Sweep

A few months ago, I was feeling totally overwhelmed by trying to get , much less keep, my house clean. My house felt so dirty, that when I finally had a few minutes in which to clean, I didn't even know where to start, and ended up cleaning nothing. Brilliant, right? Needless to say, my house was only getting dirtier, making the task seem that much more overwhelming.

Finally it ocurred to me to make a weekly cleaning schedule. Keeping in mind our weekly activities, I assigned each room a day to be cleaned. For example, the youth group comes over to our house on Wednesday nights. Instead of scheduling the den for a Tuesday night cleaning, to try and clean it up for them (trust me, they don't notice) I scheduled the den for Wednesday night. With a dozen youth running in and out of our house, a lot of dirt gets tracked into our den. So I sweep and dust that night, after they leave. Of course, most people like to clean before they have people over, so if you regularly have visitors, schedule to clean the rooms they'll see and use on days right before they come over. That way you have less last-minute cleaning to do, and you'll feel less frazzled by the time your company arrives.

I wish I could tell you that no dust has sat on any horizontal surface for longer than 6 days since I started this schedule. But I can't. But at least I know that if I get a few minutes tonight after we put the Little Guy to bed, I'll have a clean...(checking schedule)...Master Bath.