From Daily Grind to Daily Sparkle
For many of us, the thought of cleaning can be overwhelming. But did you know that daily cleaning can actually lead to a more peaceful home environment?
Let’s start with the physical benefits.
When you clean your home regularly, you reduce the amount of dirt, dust, and allergens that can accumulate. This can help improve air quality and reduce the risk of respiratory problems.
Another benefit is improved time management. When you have a clean home, it’s easier to find what you need, and you can spend less time looking for lost items. This can free up more time for other activities, and help you be more productive.
So, as you can see, there are many benefits to keeping up with daily cleaning. By taking the time to clean your home each day, you can create a peaceful, organized, and healthier living environment.
If you’re like me, the thought of having a clean home sounds great but like, how on earth can it stay that way? You gotta live in your home, right? The way that I talk about home cleaning and organizing makes it seem like my house looks unlived in. The truth is, if you came to my house right now, there’d be dirty dishes in the sink and there would probably be some kid stuff scattered about the living room.
When I first got married, we had Pinterest but it wasn’t the huge social media site it is today. Most of what you see are highly curated homes that hit all the checkmarks of aesthetic and beige. (Why is it always beige?) I have scrolled up and down those pages looking for someone’s home that looks like mine. Lived in but clean.
I started this process nearly 12 years ago when I got married to find the solution to help me keep my apartment clean but like now I had to share my space with a whole other person with different routines, expectations, and definitions of what “clean” is. So I sat down one Sunday and I created the Umberger Homestead Binder. This included things like different checklists for how I cleaned the bathrooms all the way to how I did laundry. This wasn’t because we didn’t know *how* clean, it was because I wanted it to be a simple task list… similar to what I had at work.
Now, 12 years later and our kids are old enough to get down with chores, I wanted to have a simplified checklist for them. So they can know what the steps are to getting the house clean and peaceful.
I keep a daily zone cleaning checklist. Targeting each area of my home, every day of the week. It gets done and with a checklist I don’t have to worry about if it did or didn’t get done - it just does. If you’re wanting to come up with your own checklist, no worries… I gotchu.
As you’re cleaning your home, make notes on your phone or on a piece of paper and track what you’re doing to clean your home. Do this about 2 times in each area making a special note of what you like to pay attention to. Once you’re done with that then bam! You have your very own cleaning checklist for your home.
Okay, for me… this is what I do on the daily. My daily zones if you will. On Monday’s, I hit the bathrooms. All the bathrooms. I get my checklist and do it. Tuesday is the living room. Wednesday is the Kitchen and Dining Room. Thursdays are the bedrooms. Fridays is my Living Space Refresh days. Saturday is nothing. I don’t do anything but make sure the kitchen is somewhat clean before bedtime. Sunday is the Sunday Reset where we get things in motion to start our Mondays off right.
I don’t like doing the “load of laundry each day schedule” either. It’s just not realistic to me. I’ll do all of our laundry on Wednesdays or Fridays depending on our schedules. But like… that’s not a hard rule either. I literally have towels going right now because the pile got big enough.
Let me just tell you that this is designed to be flexible. There are some seasons where you just can’t do a zone in a day. You have practices, lessons, homework… you just don’t have the time. The whole point is to have a day where you can tackle an area without it being so overwhelming.
Remember, by taking care of this little by little, it doesn’t pile up and feel like such a huge daunting task. Make yourself a checklist, execute the checklist, and give yourself grace for when there’s a time delay!
