Oh the feeling of a clean house! I love it when someone gives you a great piece of advice that actually makes a difference in life. As a mom, ANY advice that helps me keep my house clean is invaluable!
I feel like I clean CONSTANTLY just like about every other parent out there. It’s a never ending task.
I once heard someone say that clutter is like emotional noise. It must be true cause when my house is cluttered, I can feel it screaming in my ears!
This one rule has made a huge difference for me. I warn you, it will seem SO EASY but if you’re not used to following it, it will take practice! I learned this rule during a class given my Marie Ricks. Are you ready? Here it is…
IT IS SIMPLE……….FINISH!
Have you ever wondered why your house gets dirty so fast even after you just cleaned it? It’s because the occupants of your home are either not finishing or are relying on YOU to do all of the finishing and YOU can not do it all!
Here are some examples of not finishing.
You need to do some laundry and here is the process
- You start a load of laundry,
- Transfer the clothes to the dryer
- Take them out of the dryer and place them in a basket.
- Let those clothes sit there for weeks until you find time to fold them.
That my friends is one item unfinished....
When I wash the dishes, but don’t put them away, there’s another item not finished…
If my kids come through the door after school and fail to hang up coats and back packs but throw them on the floor for ‘later’ there is ANOTHER thing…
Dinner is made but the ‘evidence’ is still all over the counters,
The van has been cleaned and vacuumed but the bag of ‘stuff’ that was removed FROM the van is still sitting in the front entry way waiting for SOMEONE to be motivated to put everything away. (Yeah, that never happens!)
TIPS TO HELP YOU FINISH!
If I know I’m not going to have time to finish 4 loads of laundry, then I should only do 1 or 2. Otherwise, clothes get left in the dryer and because I REFUSE to iron wrinkled clothes, they have to get rewashed or run through the dryer again. (I hate ironing so much, I don’t even own an iron anymore!)
Sometimes we all get ambitious and bite off more than we can chew. This usually creates not only a lot of stress but also a lot of unfinished projects lying around. Do yourself a favor and embrace the FINISH rule. You might feel at first like you aren’t doing as much but life will get a lot less hectic when you don’t have all the ’emotional noise’ of all the unFINISHed work lying around your house!
Why don’t we finish projects or a chore? Many times we feel tired or not motivated anymore. At the end of a hectic day, it’s so much easier to just ditch the dishes and flip on the TV. But waking up to a sink full of dirty dishes is a miserable way to start your day. 
If you don’t believe me, give it a shot! Start with just one thing that is driving you nuts, whether that is the laundry, or your dirty car, or your bedroom. Try finishing for a week and see if it makes a difference!
When you’re ready to ORGANIZE your house (closets included), check this post out: 10 Easy Tips For an Organized, Clutter-Free Home
As your family grows, the way you clean your house is going to change! Here is our POWER HOUSE CLEANING TIPS that has changed our cleaning system in our house!
You might also enjoy this post from Mother’s Niche on decluttering:
For more great tips from Marie Ricks I highly recommend this book.
***My other favorite tip for cleaning is using E-cloths! A friend told me about Norwex and I was so thrilled with everything those cloths could do WITHOUT using harmful cleaners, but I about choked when I saw the price tag on just ONE cloth. NO WAY was I going to pay that much! I immediately researched to see if I could find a similar product without the multi level mark-up that I hate . You can get Ecloth on Amazon for a MUCH better price. My sister asked one of her friends (who sells Norwex) if she thought there was a quality difference between the two and she said “honestly, they are pretty similar, it just depend which product you are introduced to first.” So…your welcome! 🙂
I have been using E-cloth for 2 years now and they are still looking brand new and working like a charm! If you have never used microfiber cleaning cloths before, the 8-piece home cleaning set is a great place to start!
What other methods have you found to help with keeping your house clean? Please share!
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