Thou Shalt Maintain Thy Home

I've said it before and I'll say it again... :) The key to time management in the home is maintenance, not cleaning. Don't think of it as cleaning your house, but maintaining it with a routine in place. Some things can be done on a weekly basis in order to maintain, others on a daily basis.

You're probably heard the saying, "Don't clean something if it's not dirty." Well, that makes sense in a way, but think about this... which takes longer to clean - something dirty or something relatively clean. I take the complete opposite approach. I say, don't wait to clean something until it's dirty! If you've waited until it's dirty to clean, you've waited too long.

For example, it can take up to two hours a week (at least) scrubbing bathrooms, depending on how many you have. To me, it makes better sense to spend 5 minutes each and every morning wiping down my shower (while I'm still in it) and countertops, giving the toilet a quick 5-second scrub, and a quick sweep of the floor (curse that long hair of mine...) than spend half of my Saturday morning "cleaning" all 3 bathrooms. Hence, my bathrooms never have the chance to get dirty because I am regularly maintaining them.

Same thing goes with dusting. If you've waited until you can actually SEE the dust, you've waited too long. Much much easier to clean something relatively free of dust (quick swipe of a feather duster does it) than having to spend more of my time doing a more thorough job with cloths...

I know it's easier when you're in a rush to open up a closet door and just fling your shoes in, for example. Pretty soon, what happens? Your entire closet is a disaster, and it's going to take HOURS to clean and reorganize. Isn't it so much easier to just take the 5 seconds needed NOW to place your shoes neatly on the floor (or shoe holder) than wait until the closet is an absolute mess and you can't stand it any longer?

This principle of maintaining can be applied to many areas of your home. These are just a few examples.

Remember, you want to maintain your home as best as possible on a regular basis, not spend hours cleaning it!

It's summer! Grab a book and go read instead! ;)