...Without Really Trying! Part 1 - Your Home
1/ Stop Dusting.
Seriously - who enjoys dusting? I don't know anyone who looks forward to this as a job. I used to watch my mum dust our entire house on cleaning day - every Saturday without fail - and even then as a kid I used to think "what a waste of time" and that really hasn't changed now I'm an adult with my own house. So I just don't do it. Now, having said that, I also hate seeing dust around the house - Catch 22? Maybe.
What to do instead? Just hoover it all. You've probably got the vacuum cleaner out anyway so just hoover the dust up - et voila. Problem solved! (And just ignore the bits you can't see - nobody can see them)
2/ Stop Ironing.
I cannot think of anything I rather do less of than ironing. (Except maybe dusting - see above!) so I just don't do it. Who cares if your top isn't perfectly pressed? It's unlikely the answer is going to be anyone but you. Buy different clothes - one's that don't really need it - one's that will happily hang in your wardrobe looking almost perfect and saving you from the most tedious job in the world. If your husband (apologies for the stereotype) wears shirts to work that need ironing every week - then he should be the one ironing them. Why is it your job? And if that is unlikely then pay for someone else to do it if you have the spare cash - seriously, life is too short to iron hundreds of items. Every. Single. Week.
My mother in law comes down and stays at ours every so often and she chooses to iron every item in our wardrobes and drawers while she's here (including pants and socks - I mean...) because she enjoys it. And that's great. For her. I personally can't think of anything more mind-numbingly boring. And if your kids need something ironing - show them the iron, ironing board and how it works and let them do it for themselves. They'll soon decide whether they really want to wear that item of clothing...
3/ Choose a place to store your car keys and house keys.
Then get really really good at putting them there. As if your life depended on it. How much wasted time have you spent wandering aimlessly around your house searching for keys??? Honest answers on a postcard please...
Pick a place, stick a post-it on the area if needed in big bold letters saying KEY AREA and put your keys there - every single time you walk into your house. Enough said.
4/ Tidy your House One Room at a Time.
It's less overwhelming. If your entire house is a mess - especially if you have kids (and let's be honest - none of them really understand the concept of tidying) rather than thinking if it like a mountain that needs to be climbed, break it into smaller pieces - pick a room and concentrate on that. Remove all of the stuff you don't want in there and put it outside the dorr in two piles - one for relocating, and one for rubbish - preferably in a big black bag. Clean the room, remember hoover all the way, shut the door (smug in the fact thatit's the way you want it - even just for a tiny moment) then tie upthe black bag and throw it in the bin outside. Then take some time to actually relocate the stuff in the other pile to where it needs to go, don't worry about those rooms that aren't tidy yet - remember, one room at a time.
Then stop and have a nice cup of tea in the clean and tidy room - even if it means you're balancing a cup of tea on your knee while sitting on a toilet lid! Bask in your small glory. Then start again on another room. Or not. There's always tomorrow.
5/ A Tidy Home is a Tidy Mind.
You may look at point number 4 and 5 and think they're the same - they're not. When my home is tidy, I can focus properly, I imagine you're the same, whether you've realised it yet or not. So when I've done number 4 (see above) to each room in my home, I stay on top of it by spending literally five minutes every day - probably the five minutes I've saved from not dusting, ironing or searching for my keys - doing a quick tidy. Moving shoes, books, cups, glasses, loading the dishwasher, you know the type of thing. And I urge my kids to do the same, staying on top of it means number 4 doesn't need to take forever, or happen as often. Try it, see if it works for you, see if it makes a difference. Then let me know.
More next Monday... Jill x
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