Archive for cleaning
What Else?
Posted by: | CommentsI had enough of my broken necklace on my desk. So finally I got out the hot glue gun, plugged it in and fixed my clasp. Took less than 10 minutes.
Now I was on a roll, what else needed hot gluing? I hot glued the bird back on the fence of the decoration that is on my porch.
Then there was the piece of corkboard loose on my bulletin board and a rhinestone that had fallen out. I asked my daughter if she had anything she needed fixing. Round the house I went.
After 30 minutes, I had a multitude of items fixed that had been broken for months. And I had so much energy afterwards.
"What else?" has become a habit. If I have a hot glue gun out, I’ll ask what else needs fixing. If the vacuum is out, I’ll ask what else needs vacuuming. If I have the window spray, what else might need spraying. If I am trekking down into the basement, what else can go?
I save time doing it this way and I keep up with upkeep better.
This week, try asking, "What else?"
Who Wants to Be A Martyr?
Posted by: | CommentsDoes it sometimes feel like you are the only person doing work in the house? Do you feel resentful that other people play while you do nothing but work? Do you find yourself nagging and complaining?
Oops, you may have slipped into martyrdom.
Usually one of two things are going on:
1) You are overlooking what other people are contributing to the household. The other day my husband had spent the entire day after work fixing a plumbing problem. The next day I saw I was doing dishes, laundry and making dinner at the same time. And I started to get annoyed. Until I remembered just the day before he was working a lot longer than I was.
2) You have taken on the work yourself. You don’t want to be bothered with getting the family to help out.You do it yourself while seething. So you play martyr. It does take time and energy to get a family to help out. But it is important for them and you. Maybe you need another family meeting where you show all the chores you are doing and say you will have more energy and not be such a nag if others would help out. And let them pick which chores they want to do. Or you may have to do something drastic like go on strike.
At this point, a client will usually say, "But I’ve tried everything and I can’t get any help." When we did deeper it is more like I tried this and this and this for two days and it didn’t work so I gave up. Or I complained so much about how my kids and husband were doing their chores, they quit.
The most important things to getting a family to help out:
Consistency
They don’t just help out on chores when you get fed up and start yelling. Every day they know they have chore time. And if they don’t do there chores, you won’t take them to where they want to go.
Ownership
They all live in the house, so they should contribute. Give them the feeling it is their home to. It’s not just mom that gets embarassed if the house is a mess when people arrive.
And allow them to take ownership of the work they do. Let them choose a time that works best for them (reasonably). Don’t redo their work. Use a method of teaching that goes beyond "Clean your room." Try they way they do in the medical field. Show – instruct – do it together – supervised practice – loose supervised practiced till proficient.
Make it Fun
Put on music while you clean. Make doing dishes together a time to connect. Race to see who can pick up their area the fastest. Switch around how you pick chores once in awhile to keep things fresh. Keep your attitude light-hearted – you are training them to either hate or enjoy home care.
How will you share the load this week?
Beauty
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Sunset at Lake Macatawa this weekend
I was immersed in beauty this weekend. Taking photos at Lake Michigan and Lake Macatawa with my daughter. Seeing butterflies and sculptures at Frederik Meijer Gardens with my family. Viewing a clear midnight blue sky filled with stars. The presentation of a delicious dessert with caramel and mascarpone was tantalizing..
I wanted to be surrounded by beauty was I got home as well, so I cleared and polished the kitchen table and made the table look lovely.
Housecleaning has never been one of my favorite things. But, what if I thought of home care as creating beauty? What if you framed housekeeping as something other than an irritation? If I’m going to do something regularly, I might as well enjoy it, right?
How will you create beauty today?
Fitting in household chores
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Photo by BHollar
I like to pretend that household chores don’t exist. The easiest way to do that is to fit them into other routines or spots of time. I rarely spend a full 30 minutes cleaning something. Here are ways to sneak in housework:
- We have a quick 5 minute household pick up in the evening where everyone picks up their own stuff.
- Stick 5 min jobs in a bowl to grab when you are waiting for water to boil, etc.
- Simplify your list – does everything need to get done every week? Monthly chores can become quarterly chores.
- As I was telling a client today, do the things that interfere with your life, not what "looks" good. So cleaning up the kitchen, keeping up with mail, picking up the clutter comes before moving the sofa to get the dust bunnies.
- Have everyone pick a chore after dinner to get dinner clean up done right away in not much time.
- Post a laundry schedule to the laundry wall so when you or the kids are throwing a load in before school or work, things like towels and sheets are not forgotten.
- Wipe down the bathroom right before you wipe down your face for the night.
- Clean what is bugging you most on the commercials or while waiting for the kids to finish getting ready.
- Sort the mail while waiting in the car or while watching TV.
- Take things out of the living room when you leave the room. (That works for other rooms too.)
- Put the clothes straight into the hamper when you get undressed at the end of the day and the jewelry straight into the box. It takes less than a minute, so don’t con yourself into thinking you are too tired.
- Pick up your desk as you wait for your computer to shut down or start up.
- When you get a new magazine, recycle the old one or put it in the car to finish reading while you are waiting for the kids.
- Before going grocery shopping, do a quick wipe down of the fridge when it is almost empty or have whoever is home do it while you shop.
- If it takes you more than 3 minutes to dust a room you may have too many knickknacks out. Store some to make cleaning faster.
- Bring things to the basement or other mindless chores when you are on the phone. When you are on hold, put your phone on speakerphone so you can get a lot of cleaning done while you wait.
What are your favorite ways to sneak in chores?
