Tips to Help Keep Your Kitchen Clean

This is a funny post coming from me. I love for my kitchen to be clean (who doesn't?) and I know how to keep my kitchen clean but I shamefully admit that I am not the best at keeping my kitchen clean. My kitchen is never nasty and when I say clean I am referring to daily use messes like stove splatter, a cluttered table, dirty dishes and the like.

If you, like me have a little bit of - lets call it lack of motivation to keep this area of your house clean let me give you a few ideas of things to do that will result in a beautifully clean and well kept kitchen.

Whether or not you like to cook (I personally do and spend A LOT of time in my kitchen) the kitchen is a room in your house that is used daily and requires constant upkeep to ensure it doesn't get out of hand.

*  When cooking, wash your dishes and clean your little messes as you go.

*  Clean out your refrigerator weekly. For me this happens (or is supposed to
    happen) on Monday because my garbage pick up is early Tuesday morning. 
    Anything I am throwing away doesn't have to hang around my house for very
    long this way.

*  Do not go to bed without washing those dishes.  As Fly Lady says - "Shine
    Your Sink".  Wash them by hand or run your dishwasher if you have one.

*  Wipe off your counters daily or multiple times a day.  Maybe after each meal.

*  Wipe off the stove and wipe out microwave each evening.  If the splatters,
    spills and gunk have time to sit and harden and then harden some more it
    takes a whole lot of elbow grease to get them cleaned up and this my friend  
    is NO fun.  My oldest son recently cleaned our microwave and
    now has a new appreciation for me because he never realized just
    how hard it was to clean. 

*  When using the microwave, try covering up whatever it is you are warming
    with a paper towel to help eliminate those splatters.  This will make cleaning
    it much less of a hassle.

*  Sweep the floor daily.  Even if it's just spot sweeping.

*  Mop weekly.

*  Lay out a clean dish cloth and towel nightly.

*  Light a candle.  It helps set a mood.  Hopefully one that says, I want to keep
    this room clean. 

*  Keep your table clear of clutter, dirty dishes and stuff that doesn't belong.

*  Create a center piece on your table. This is fairly new to me.  I just don't
    normally have a "center piece" but I have come to find out it helps me want
    to keep the rest of the room neat and tidy to match my table.  It can be as
    simple as a candle in a jar to any extreme you can imagine.

Do you keep your kitchen neat and tidy?  Do you have any other tips to add that might help someone who struggles with keeping up with this area of the house?

No More Barely Enough.

Despite  all of my many written routines, cleaning charts, schedules, and lists I have found myself in a state of doing Barely Enough.  

What do I mean by barely enough?  Basically doing just barely enough to get by.  Laundry has been done on an "as needed" basis.  Grocery shopping has consisted of many quick trips to pick up stuff for dinner today or breakfast tomorrow.  Menu's and actual grocery lists haven't existed.  House work has been done in a mad dash during the hour before my husband arrives home from work.  

If I was working a job outside of my home where I had to clock in, work a certain amount of time and actually show progress in my work - I would be FIRED!  

I am thankful that my husband is a patient man.  Patient with me and the lack of progress going on inside of our home.  I am not sure exactly why I been this way lately.  Lazy, I guess.   What  I do know is the lack of organization and having things in order is really stressing me out.  Also, the Lord has really been dealing with me about how well I have been taking care of my home.  I definitley have not been doing everything heartily as unto the Lord.  Don't misunderstand, we are not living in a pig pen but the busy-ness of life the past few months has resulted in extra clutter piles and a lot of routine maintainence being neglected.   

 

Just the other day this was the scene as I sat on my porch with my family binder, notebook and some old printed off notes from Fly Lady trying to re-vamp my daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning plans.  My husband joked and asked why I was reading Fly Lady when all I really needed to do was go get out Mr. Clean.  lol  He was right but I like having a plan, a list to go by.  I just work better when I do.  Having a plan that works is the key though.  So get ready as I soon will be re-posting my cleaning plans and schedules.  No more barely enough! 

 

What about you?  Do you like to have lists and a written plan for what you want to accomplish each day, week and month in your home?  Do you stick to them?

My Bedtime Routine

Yesterday I talked about the importance of establishing good habits and turning them into your routines.  Today I am talking more about my Evening/Bedtime Routine.  I call it my Evening/Bedtime routine because really it is not something that I just do at bedtime.  I start my bedtime routine (at least the kitchen part) while I am preparing my families dinner and it lingers on until I go to bed.  It really doesn't take long - even though it looks long - and most of the things in it are second nature to most people.  However, I do not fall into the category of "most people" so I needed to learn how to break my day down into parts and then I had to figure out what I needed to do in each part of my day.   

I break my Bedtime Routine down into 3 parts. 

Pick up the house.

Think about tomorrow.

Focus on me.

Pick up the house. 

  Kitchen - After dinner is done do your dishes, wipe off your counters and sweep your floor.

Load and Run your Dishwasher.

Check your Washer and Dryer - make sure all clothes are put away

Put away all toys, clothes, etc...

Quick run through of the house - no more than 15 minutes to tidy up.

Think about tomorrow

Check your calendar.

Make "to do" list.

Lay out clothes (iron if needed).

Pack/prepare lunches (as much as possible).

Pack back packs.

Think about "What's for breakfast?".

Think about "What's for dinner tomorrow?".

Check/Send emails, Facebook, blog.

Prep coffee pot.

Focus on Me

Bath/Shower

Skin Care

Teeth

Lotion

Read/Pray/Journal

Snuggle with my husband

Are you ready to start this with me? You can follow my bedtime routine or use it as an example and come up with your own. It takes 21 days or 3 weeks of being consistent to form a habit. Lets start today with our evening/bedtime routine and work at making it a habit.   

This is a picture of my bulletin board in my kitchen with 21 little "post it" note page markers on it.  I saw this somewhere and thought it was a good idea to mark our 21 days of forming a habit.  I encourage you to do this, make a chart or get a calendar so that you can mark off each day that you successfully do your Bedtime Routine. 

Once we master this we will move on to our morning routine. Oh yes, there is a morning/afternoon routine as well.  And after we get our daily routines established we will move on to a weekly cleaning schedule.

What about you?  Do you currently have a Bedtime Routine that you follow?  If so, what does it look like?  Are you consistent with it?

Housekeeping 101 - The Number One Way to Keep Your House Clean

I took this picture the other night of the "how to" cleaning books that sit on my shelf.  How nice would it be if just having these books would make my house stay clean.  Of course without reading the books and applying the techniques and ideas that are written on their pages this will not happen. 

What is the number one way to keep your house clean?  Are you ready for it?  Ok, here it is...  My Secret and the number one way to keep your house clean is....

ROUTINES

Yep, that's right - Routines.  I know to some of you this may sound too easy or silly but to others of us it makes perfect sense.  About 11 1/2 years ago in an attempt to get a handle on my housekeeping chores and make them easier I searched the Internet for ideas.  A dear friend of mine helped in the search and we found an awesome web sight to get us started. 

Fly Lady 

We were fly babies way before it was cool.  lol  Anyway I am almost ashamed to say that I have worked my way through Fly Lady's steps more than once or twice.  In fact it seems that every time I feel like I am losing control of the order in my house I fall back to her and her system of doing things.  The one thing she stresses the most out of everything is establishing ROUTINES and habits. 

Are you starting to get the picture of what is important? 

Having a consistent established routine is important in everything we do.  Bed time with our kids and their daily routines, our Bible reading, housecleaning, etc...

We are "creatures of habit" and most of us work better when we are following some type of routine.

What should your routine look like?

This will look different for different people depending on your own individual family needs.  There is no right way or wrong way it just has to be something workable that you can do and keep up with.  Start small and simple.  Take "Baby Steps" and build from there.

I am writing this post on this subject because as you probably can guess I am feeling a bit out of sorts with my house work - AGAIN!  My house is not a disaster area but it is not where I want it to be.  So I reevaluate my old routines to see where I need to adjust and attempt to make things better.  

Start with a simple "Bedtime Routine".  Think about the things that you would like to have done when you wake up in the morning.  Flylady suggests shining your sink which basically means that all of your dishes are done and table and counters are wiped off before you go to bed.  If that is important to you then maybe that is a great place for you to start.

Let me stress (because this tends to be my problem) that just writing down what you hope will turn into habits and become a routine for you will not make it be so no more than the books sitting on my shelf on how to clean my house will make my house be clean.  You have to actually get up, get moving and make it happen.  It will get easier the more you do and the benefits from having a neat and tidy house will be a blessing to your whole family. 

I break my Bedtime Routine in 3 parts. Join Me tomorrow and I will break down my Evening/Bedtime Routine for you and we will get started on establishing good habits.

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Note:

There are many websites, blogs and books that can help you and inspire you to get your house work in order. Fly Lady is just the one that I personally like the best. It can be a bit overwhelming if you do not follow her steps and do them one at a time. Trust me, trying to skip ahead will only leave you frustrated. 

Ready, Set, Go!

Do you ever just feel like your in a race and life is speeding by so fast that you barely have time to breathe?

Lately, that is how things have been for me.  I am feeling more scatter brained with each passing day. 

Our normal daily routine is about to kick into high gear as the new school year quickly rushes towards us. 

As I have said before I am a stay-at-home mom but I will be volunteering one day a week in the high school office and at the middle school where my youngest will be attending I am starting my fourth year as the Parent Volunteer Coordinator which is basically a volunteer that works closely with the county, school and parents. 

Each year at this time I begin to think about my new daily and weekly routine and I try to map out our school year.  This time my oldest son is playing high school sports so that adds a lot of extra running to the mix.  Until now both boys have played on youth and recreational leagues which take up way less time than school sports. 

I am praying for God to help me make the most of each day and to get everything completed that I need to.  Ephesians 5:16 says  making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

My brain works best with organization so this week before school starts back here are some things that I am working on to get our school year off and running with a great start:

1. Making a master list(s) of things I need to do both at home and at the school
2. Writing in my personal planner and also our family calendar - adding things like the school calendar, sports schedules and other misc. things I know will be coming up such as family gatherings and church events
3. Sitting down with paper and pen and jotting down my basic weekly cleaning plan and my basic weekly routine for example what day I will clean, grocery shop and run errands, etc...
4. I am making a detailed prayer list for this school year for each child like Stormie Omartian talks about in her book The Power of a Praying Parent.

What kind of things do you do as the fall approaches and the new school year starts to get you organized and help you to stay on top of things?