Making habits is pretty easy. You just keep doing the same thing over and over until it becomes automatic. So every day we're going to do what we already did, then build from there. That way you'll get new habits over time without feeling overloaded.
Day one was pretty easy, and day two isn't going to get much harder. First, make your bed. Even if you have a day where you can't manage to do anything else, keep making your bed. It'll help you keep the habit and might even jump start you on doing the rest of the cleaning.
Next, while you're getting ready in the bathroom, do a swift swipe. Grab a cleaning rag and spend about two minutes wiping down the sink and other surfaces of the bathroom, no longer. Your goal isn't to clean the whole bathroom, just to catch some of the mess you make when you're using the bathroom. Today you might wipe down the sink but the next time you might hit the toilet or the edge of the tub. You might even get crazy and clean up the toothpaste splatters on the mirror. Just wipe up whatever dirt you see. It should take about the same length of time as brushing your teeth.
After awhile of following this cleaning process, you'll start to see that your bathroom looks presentably clean every day and all you've done is clean for two minutes. That's the whole point, minimal effort every day so you don't have to fire bomb the bathroom to get it clean again.
CAUTION: You might be feeling excited about your new cleaning habits, but don't get carried away. Now is not the time to go rogue and try to clean your whole home at once. The cleaning time limits are intended to keep your sanity. It'll all get cleaned, I promise. See you tomorrow!
The only problem with this is that I feel like I first need to knit a bunch of cleaning cloths so I always have a clean one on hand! ;)
ReplyDeleteAn excuse to knit, I'm not sure I see the problem. :) What I ended up doing was to buy a jersey knit (t-shirt material) sheet from the thrift store for $2 and cut it up in to rags. You could also use a flannel sheet which I think would make even more absorbent cleaning rags.
ReplyDeleteWell, but the unorganized person inside of me thinks, "you can't start doing that until you already have a stack of knitted cloths to start cleaning with." So my inner disorganized person is apparently also my inner procrastinator, lol. But I have gotten on the making my bed in the morning bandwagon. So perhaps I'll stop and pick up some cleaning cloths on the way home this afternoon. :)
ReplyDelete