Six Cleaning Motivation Tips

I believe that our homes can be a heaven on earth, our peaceful place from the whirlwind of the world around us.  But for me, if my home is messy, cluttered, and dirty, I don't feel very much at peace.  I can handle a certain level of messy, but after a certain point, I start to feel crabby.  

As the wife and mother, I play a major role in setting the mood around my home.  If I am crabby, other family members begin to feel crabby too and that doesn't lead to a peaceful home.  So I try to keep my home clean to a point.  Not a pristine magazine kind of clean, because there are people who actually live here, but clean enough that there is a sense of order.  

However, even though I want a clean orderly home, there are days when I am just not in the mood to clean.  On some days, chores feel monotonous.  Like, hey, didn't I just make that bed, wash those dishes, sweep that floor, clean that mirror, wash those clothes yesterday?!  Why, yes, I did.

Do you ever feel that way?

When I'm feeling unmotivated to clean my home, these are some of the things that help inspire me to get to work:

• Play Music:  Music makes me happy, it lifts my mood and it increases my energy level so I can get to work.  I use Pandora to find the right music to energize my mood.  Sometimes the vintage sound of Dean Martin gets me moving and other days the young sound of Taylor Swift does the job.

• Pretty Scents:  Sometimes just lighting a pretty smelling candle or cleaning with pretty smelling cleaners, like Mrs. Meyers line of cleaners (the basil scent is my favorite!) makes cleaning more pleasant.

• Before and After Pictures:  I'm pretty sure that most of us like before and after pictures. We see them everywhere on blogs and in magazines.  A couple of times I've taken a picture of a room I'm cleaning when it's dirty and disorganized and then taken an after picture when the room is all clean.  It's fun to see the difference.

• Call and invite a friend over:  I don't know about you, but if I know someone is coming over, it totally motivates me to clean.  So if I'm not in the mood to clean my home, inviting someone over for a lunch date or a play date, quickly sparks my motivation to get to work.

• Reward yourself with a piece of chocolate:  this kind of motivation probably isn't the best kind for me, but when push comes to shove, I bribe myself with chocolate.  If I load the dishwasher, I get a small piece of chocolate, if I fold a load of laundry, I get another piece of chocolate, and so on and so forth.

• Make a list and cross things off.  This can make cleaning a dirty house seem less overwhelming as you get to visually see all the progress you're making when each individual chore is crossed off.

Do you have any other motivating tips to clean your home?  If you do, please share! I'd love to hear them!

How to Clean Dirty Blinds

I posted about how I clean my blinds back in THIS post in 2010.

Well guess what my fabulous friends, I haven't hardly touched those blinds since then.
Isn't that pathetic?  Don't answer that.  

Anyway, here's a re-cap for those of you who may be new to my blog:

Mix equal parts vinegar + water in a bowl. 

 

Then slip an old sock on your hand, dip your hand (with the sock on it) into the vinegar and water mixture and wipe down each individual slat on the blinds. 

Easy.

After every couple of slats, dip the sock on your hand into the cleaner and squeeze it a bit to rinse off the dirt.

It's also helpful to have a second old sock.  Once all the slats have been cleaned, slip the second old sock onto your hand and dry off each slat.

The result is beautiful!

Cleaning blinds is not my favorite chore in the world.  (obviously)

But cleaning them is really not that difficult.  

Especially when using an old sock, which is way less bulky to use in-between all those small spaces, than an old rag would be.

Happy Cleaning!

Kitchen Duty - Help Wanted

My kiddos have been home for summer break for almost two weeks now.  We've picnicked outside, read lots of stories, played at the local spray park, enjoyed fun play dates, eaten a  lot of otter pops, etc., etc.  But along with all the fun going on this summer, I'm trying to teach my kids more responsibility at home by giving them some more regular chores at home.  I figure, they have the time + they help make the messes too, so why not?

They still have the regular stuff like cleaning their rooms, picking up dog poop in the backyard, or doing other odds and ends that they get asked to do.  But now in addition to that, they are helping out more regularly in the kitchen.  

To stay on top of this new responsibility of theirs, I made a 'Kitchen Duty' chore chart.  I bought a magnetic platter {7.99} and one sheet of scrapbook paper at Craft Warehouse. 

Then I saved up a few juice concentrate lids, traced the lids onto the sheet of scrapbook paper, cut the circles out, mod podged them to the lids, hot glued a magnet to the back of the lids, wrote the name of each kiddo on the front of a lid and wa-la!  Magnetic name tags for a magnetic kitchen duty chore chart.

{please ignore the chippy nail polish job...they will get repolished by church on Sunday!}

 I wrote 'Kitchen Duty' and 'breakfast', 'lunch', and 'dinner' onto the tray with a chalkboard pen {that way I can wipe it clean if I want to change up the chores at all}.

My children's kitchen responsibilities include clearing off the table, wiping off the table and the counters, loading/unloading the dishwasher, and sweeping the floor after each meal.  Because the kitchen is cleaned thoroughly after each meal, it doesn't add up to too much work ...and I'm right there to pitch in and help/guide each child {especially Cali who is only 3.5 and is just learning}.

Also, each night, before I go to bed, I rotate the names so that they're not cleaning up after the same meal everyday. {i.e. dinner cleanup is typically much more work than lunch and it wouldn't be fair to keep one child on that duty forever.}

So far this system is working out wonderfully this summer.  I'm not the one stuck in the kitchen all day cleaning up by myself while the children are off playing.

Also ...we get to all take turns helping + I get to spend one on one time with each child + they are all learning valuable little skills.

I'm so happy that this is one chore chart that is actually working and that we're staying on top of it!

How do you manage kitchen cleanup in your house?

Linked here: Just a girl

Household Cleaning Schedule

I LOVE a clean, well functioning home.

Who doesn't?

A clean house feels

peaceful...

happy...

organized.

{image courtesy of rockabyebabymusic.com}

But...

I don't know about all of you out there, cleaning my house day after day after day, can sometimes feel REALLY tedious.

So sometimes I do really silly little things to motivate myself {or my children for that matter} to get all the little jobs done to make our house clean.

These are some of my motivators:

Racing the timer on the microwave

Taking a before and after picture of a room

Playing my favorite music in the background from pandora.com

Inviting company over {cause who wants to invite people over to a messy house???}

and when all else fails, chocolate will do the job. 

{It's an excellent motivator...one Hershy Kiss for each job that is completed!}

Well, the other day I decided that what might work even better {or with...cause I don't want to leave out the chocolate or the fun music}, is to come up with a household cleaning schedule.

Cause I'm also a list lover!

I love making to-do lists and crossing things off!!!

So I made this list of chores that needs to be done using Microsoft Excel, I printed it out, stuck it in some clear binder sleeves {what are they called???}, and taped it to the inside of my pantry door.  Because the list is in a clear sleeve, I can use a dry erase marker to mark off a chore that has been completed.  I can also erase all the marks when the week is over.

And by the way, I'm not the only person who is going to be crossing things off this list. 

It's important to involve the whole family because we all make the messes.

Anyway, I made four columns for my cleaning schedule.

**Click on the picture below for a larger view.**

The first column says "Daily".

This includes all the things that need to be done everyday {dishes, sweeping, etc.}.

The second column says "2 x A Week".

This is for things that need to be done twice a week {vacuuming, bathrooms, etc.}.

I assigned these tasks to a specific day.

The third column says "1 x A Week".

This is for things that need to be done once a week {mopping, dusting, etc.}.

I also assigned these to a specific day of the week.

The last column says "Monthly".

This is for those chores that don't need to be done as often, like something I might do during spring cleaning or something.

This can include things like washing windows, wiping the dust off of blinds or fan blades, etc.

I'm super excited about this new system I have in place and so are my kids!

They couldn't wait to go make their beds this morning so they could cross it off the list!

This idea is super super simple and can totally be done to fit your own household needs.

Happy Cleaning!!!

I've got to get up off this chair and go complete my list for today!

{I also have a piece of Dove chocolate that will be waiting for me when all my jobs are done...wink, wink!}

Linked to these lovely blogs:  Lucky Star Lane, Hope Studios

From Drab to Fab: A Soap Dispenser Makeover!

I LOVE bath and body works soap.  The different scents are divine and the bottles are chic.

But we are constantly trying to find ways to tighten the purse strings around here, while causing as little pain as possible, because we feel it is more important to pay off debt from our student days rather than have the latest and greatest. 

Although I miss all those lovely bath and body work scents, I still want my soap to look cute {I guess I'm silly like that}.

So I came up with this idea.

This is such a super simple project and it's CHEAP too!

First find a regular old soap dispenser {this happens to be an empty old plain jane one from the dollar tree}.

Soak it in some warm water for about 10 minutes or so to loosen the label for easy removal.

To remove any sticky residue, use Goo Gone.

{This stuff can be found at places like Walmart and works wonders for all sticky messes!}

Then you'll be left with a clean plain old soap dispenser.

To spice the dispenser up a bit, add a cute vinyl label and then add your soap!

Now you have an adorable and totally reusable dispenser for your soap!

The vinyl I used was from gigglygumdrops.blogspot.com.

It was really inexpensive and so easy to use!

{I am not being paid to promote this business, I just really like them!}

{**Note:  If you order from gigglygumdrops there is a $3.00 minimum purchase requirement and the "{soap}" label isn't anywhere near that much so you would need to add some other cute piece of vinyl to your order.}

Linked to:  Making the World Cuter, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, The Girl Creative, Lucky Star Lane, Hope Studios, The T-Shirt Diaries

Simple Tip Tuesday {Part 7}

Cleaning my blinds is one of the last things I usually put on my to do list.

However, living in a deserty, dusty, windy area makes my  blinds extra dirty every time I want to open my windows for some fresh air.

So here is a simple way to clean blinds.

Mix equal parts vinegar and warm water in a bowl.

Slip an old odd sock on your hand and wipe all the grimy dirt away.

When your sock gets really dirty, rinse it in some clean water and repeat the cleaning process.

Happy Cleaning!!!

...also re-posted HERE.

Simple Tip Tuesday {Part 6}

Ever walked past your kitchen sink and smelled something not so pretty?

It could be a dirty grimy garbage disposal causing the smell.

To clean your garbage disposal and get rid of the smell, pour some ice and the peal of a lemon {or an orange} down your garbage disposal and turn the disposal on.

The ice will remove any left over grease or other yucky debris and the peal will leave a nice smell.

It's easy and works like a charm!!!

Simple Tip Tuesday - Part 3

*** Quick Tip Tuesday is now going to be called Simple Tip Tuesday since this blog is all about keeping things simple.

I don't know about any of you, but I buy use to buy tons of paper towels every month.

In an effort to save a little moo la, I decided to store clean rags in a basket underneath my sink instead.

Now when my kids spill something (which is almost hourly) or something else needs wiped up, we've gotten into the habit of grabbing a rag instead of a paper towel. 

It was totally weird to me at first, but now it's paying off.

(Note: I still keep one roll of paper towels in the pantry for anything super gross or unsanitary that needs wiping up.)

P.S. - I started off with an old basket like this but was tired of the honey color so I spray painted the basket black to get the result above.  Hip Hip for spray paint!!!

Quick Tip Tuesday

Anyone besides me have a basket full of odd socks???

(Hello!  How many socks can a single dryer eat?)

Well, the other day I was complaining to my mom about this very thing and she gave me this quick tip:

Turn them into sock dusters!

Just slide your hand in and Walaa!

Perfect for little hands who want to help out with household chores!

Cleaning Supplies - Part 1

(Image:  Courtesy of allcleaningsupplies.info)

I'm always looking for small ways I can shave a little off my grocery budget or, frankly, just STAY WITHIN my budget!

So about a year and a half ago, I started making my own cleaner for cleaning the kitchen table and the counters in the bathroom and the kitchen.

Here is what I do:

(Supplies include a generic plastic spray bottle - approx. 24 oz.-, bleach, hot water, and a tablespoon.)

Carefully pour 2 tablespoons of bleach into the spray bottle (I do this over the sink incase I spill...cause I'm not perfect!!!).

Then fill the rest of the spray bottle up with hot water, almost all the way to the top, leaving a bit of room to mix both ingredients up.

Then put the top back on the bottle, screw it on tight, and shake well! I also like to use a permenant marker to lable what is inside the bottle. - cause it wouldn't be a good thing if I used this spray bottle for my ironing -

Remember to:  *Shake well before each use.

**Test on small surface area first before using

I love it!  It works great, smells clean, & saves me money!!!

-Have any other thrifty cleaning advice?  Leave a comment!