Hello and welcome to week five in our series: Ekonomia: Home Management Toward Heaven. Cleaning is our priority this week.
Several weeks ago we introduced this new series, Ekonomia: Home Management toward Heaven. If you missed that article or video, check it out here. Then we started building our home management system by Simplifying. After that we built a firm foundation of home management. And then last week we mastered meals!
If you want to watch the video version of this article, check it out below. Otherwise, continue reading for this content in blog article format.
Clear Cleaning
Alright! Now that we have mastered meals, it is time to talk about another aspect of home management, a clean home. This week we are clearing up our cleaning plans! Being able to keep a home clean is actually more complicated than it sounds. In fact, in requires having all the earlier parts of our home management system.
Step One
First, cleaning requires a decluttered space. Too much stuff means it is too difficult to get to the surfaces to clean them. A cluttered space takes hours to clean. Where a decluttered space can take as little as five minutes for the same task. Clutter equals distraction. And it is a barrier to getting to the surfaces that need cleaning.
Step Two
Second, cleaning requires homes for our stuff. If we have things with no place to go, no designated home within our home for our stuff to go, then they gather on the floor and other surfaces of our home. (This also applies to things we use every day, if our home for these things makes it too difficult to put things away frequently).
Getting organized and deciding on a place for each item in our home to go actually saves us time. It saves us time tidying before a clean, and time looking for lost items.
Step Three
Third, cleaning requires us to be consistently tidying our home. Tidying up after ourselves takes discipline. And there are two skills we need to develop in order to keep on top of it.
One skill is following the one minute rule: if it takes less than a minute to put it away, do it now. How often do we leave a cup on the counter that would take 5 seconds to slip into the dishwasher? Or leave a pen on the table when it goes in a drawer that is four steps away? Then these bits of clutter attract more clutter and before we know it the house looks like a disaster!
Skill number two is taking time to tidy throughout today! We need to spend 5 minutes tidying here and there throughout the day. This is an area where the whole family can work together in building virtue. Maybe spend 5 minutes before lunch, 5 minutes in the afternoon, and then 5 minutes in the evening tidying up our homes. And maybe even wipe a counter or two down in the process. If we do this, our homes will look good, even without a proper clean. Set a timer for 10 minutes before each meal or another habitual activity, and have everyone go around the house tidying!
Important Service Cleaning Announcement
Remember that tidying is not the same as decluttering or organizing. Tidying is putting away the things we use during the way in the place they belong.
Thinking Cleaning Through
So, once these three prerequisites are in place, we can make a plan to keep our home consistently clean.
Start off by considering who in the family can actually help with cleaning tasks. This is going to vary by family and season of life. Right now my eldest, Little Fox, is four. So she can help in a limited capacity. My next child, Little Badger, is only two. So her version of helping usually just creates more work for me, though I do try to find cleaning tasks for her that don’t hinder my progress, even if it isn’t actually helping in the traditional sense.
So what do my two and four year-olds do? Well, they both can help put away their laundry and bring me dishes to put away from the dishwasher. Also, I could teach them the proper way to sweep and mop but I haven’t had the energy to address that – though I know of 2 and half year-olds capable of sweeping a room. The girls help with dusting quite successfully, and with wiping down their table after meals. My four year old has also recently learned to scrape her plate before putting it by the kitchen sink.
As they get older, I will teach them even more things they can do to help out around the house. And I am looking forward to teaching them these life skills!
Talking Cleaning With Family
One thing to not here, though, is that we are not calling cleaning tasks chores. Tasks to help out around the house aren’t chores. It isn’t a chore to help the family. It is an act of charity. Or at the very least, simply fulfilling one’s personal responsibilities. It makes it easier for me to do mundane tasks like cleaning when I remember I am doing it because I love God and I love my family. And that is the mindset I want to pass down to my children.
Realistic Cleaning Goals
Once you have an idea of how many people in your family can help you out, you are able to think realistically about how much you can get done, and how often. If you are a mom with three babies under three, washing windows is probably pretty low on the priority list. And that is okay. And actually, it is okay if it is low on the priority list even when you have three teenagers, although perhaps that is a task the teenagers are capable of helping out with.
So, to decide what your family can get done, start by making a priority list. Write down which cleaning tasks matter to you. Which cleaning tasks are at the heart of making your home a happy and comfortable place to be.
My Cleaning Priority List
(Make yours using the Ekonomia Printable Packet)
- Clean Floors (sweep/mop/vacuum)
- Clean Bathroom
- Dusting
- Fridge and Freezer
- Disinfecting Surfaces + doorknobs
- Clean Sheets
- Mirrors
- Clean Microwave
- Clean Garbage bins
- Baseboards
- Clean Windows
- Clean Oven
Use This Priority List to Assess What is Doable
Given that cleaning tasks are something I mainly do on my own in this season of our family life, I can realistically get done the top 5 tasks in a cleaning workweek. Things that are lower on the list either don’t get done (like window cleaning), or get done when the need for the task raises up on the priority list because it has gotten visually bad (like the microwave), or happen when I have some help from my husband (like washing the sheets). Washing sheets is higher on my husband’s cleaning priority list than mine, so when he prompts me to wash the sheets I do so, and then I have his help to get them back on the bed
And Motivate Them Into Happening
Cleaning tasks are generally unpleasant. So one way to help keep them getting done is to pair it with something that is pleasant. If having a checklist and getting it all done every week motivates you, or if putting an x on your calendar every day you do a cleaning task motivates you because you don’t want to lose your streak, do that. If having a half hour of guilt free screen time motivates you (guilt free because it is a reward, not done as procrastination), try that.
Bubble baths, a family movie night… whatever it is… think of something you like to do and make that activity happen directly after the cleaning is done.
Daily Tasks
Aside from the big cleaning tasks that need to happen weekly or monthly, there are some that work best if they happen every day. Dishes and laundry are a part of these, and we dealt with them earlier when we build our firm foundation of home management. Now let’s revisit that.
Think about how we have bedtime routines for our children. It might include brushing teeth, saying prayers, and a bedtime story. We do these sorts of things every day when we put our kids to bed.
Now how about our house? How can we put our home to rest every night? Clearing clutter and tidying up, or wiping counters in the kitchen and bathroom, might be something to add to the daily dishes and laundry. By putting our house to rest we can go to sleep knowing our home is clean and ready for a new day. Which is a lot less stressful compared to waking up knowing the bathroom is a mess and the kitchen is cluttered.
When You Need A Big Reset
The final thing to prepare for in the cleaning department for our home management system is a big reset. If the house starts to become a disaster, even with these other systems in place, it is time to have a reset day. Or week, if you have small babies and need to take lots of breaks during this process.
In a home reset you start by going through each room and clearing the surfaces, which basically means you need to put a bunch of things that have been left out back where they belong. Have a bag or basket or bin or something to carry around with you, where you can stash items that belong in other rooms as you tidy the room you are in. This helps clear the clutter off surfaces without you getting distracted by having to go into other rooms all the time.
After tidying, it is time to declutter.
Because, if things have gotten overwhelming in your home, it is probably because too much stuff has been brought back into the home. Which is bound to happen over time, especially with growing kids around.
Then, do a wipe down of all visible surfaces. Now that you have tidied and decluttered, these surfaces should be easy to reach and this step won’t take much time.
Finally, tackle the big things. Do a deep clean of a space that needs it. Also work on organizing a problem space. Check out my blog article on Reasons to Reorganize for some ideas on how to get started rethinking these problem spaces.
Also, even if things aren’t overwhelming, it is always good to do a big home reset and deep clean every spring and fall.
The Byzantine Life
Thank you for tuning in to this week of Ekonomia: Home Management Toward Heaven.
Tell me in the comments, which cleaning task matters most to you? For me it is having clear and clean floors. Even though I love having things visual, I absolutely can’t stand when my home floors are cluttered! That is probably why I have worked so diligently to come up with toy organization systems that work. Because I cannot relax in a space where the floor looks like a minefield or maze of stuff! So which cleaning task matters the most to you for your home? I look forward to reading your answers below!
For the free printable set that goes along with this video series, click here!
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