I’m glad you stopped by to join us for our series on Making Your Home a Haven. If you haven’t been with us, you may want to start here . So far we’ve looked at nourishing your own walk with God , honoring and respecting your husband , serving your children and nourishing both the bodies and souls of your family .
Today we are going to talk about:
Keeping a Clean and Orderly Home
One of the most practical things that you can do in your home to make it a “haven” is to keep it clean and organized. Think of how crumby (don’t mind the pun) you feel when your home is a mess. Now think of how good you feel when it’s clean!
My husband has told me that when he comes home to a house that is clean and fresh (rather than cluttered and dirty), it makes a world of difference on his attitude. Wow! So, that means that I can be a blessing to my family when I keep my home clean! My diligence in this area can actually be an avenue of ministry to those around me.
And that’s absolutely understandable because I know how much better I feel when the home has that crisp and sparkling feel to it!
While I am by no means saying that my home is 100% of the time clean and organized (ha…just drop in randomly some time!), I do want to share a few things that I have been learning over time. Let’s look at a few practical steps to maintaining your home’s overall order and cleanliness:
Knock out the clutter first
Believe me, no one is going to notice that you dusted the mantle if your floor is covered with toys and the counter strewn with mail. Try to keep yourself from getting too caught up in cleaning when your home probably needs to be de-cluttered and organized first.
I generally do two to three de-cluttering walk-throughs per day to keep the clutter maintained: one first thing in the morning before I do anything else (usually if I wasn’t able to do a walk through the night before), one midday or right before my husband gets home, and one right before I go to bed. When clutter is under control, I feel much better and the cleaning is a snap to get done. As far as my “walk through” goes, I generally start at the front door and walk from room to room in my house picking up anything that is out of place and returning it to it’s “home”.
Cut down on “stuff”
One reason why de-cluttering is pretty simple in our home is because we try to keep our “stuff” level down (though I still have way more stuff than I’d like to have!). Our home isn’t covered wall to wall with knick-knacks and furniture. It actually looks very simple and almost bare, but it’s much easier to maintain and very quick to clean (since I don’t have to pick up tons of knick knacks and such to clean and dust under!).
A good rule for cutting down on “stuff” is to go through each room and look at what you have. If you haven’t used it in three months, you may want to either trash it, sell it or give it away.
Doing an annual or bi-annual “stuff toss” may be a good idea for your home! This may also be something that you would want to do to keep your children’s toys under control.
Have an organizational system
If you don’t have a “place for everything”, you won’t be able to keep “everything in its place”. Having an organizational system is key in keeping your home organized.
There are as many ways to organize your home as you can think of them, so the main point is to walk through your house and make sure that everything has a “home”. Designate a place and keep it there. You may want to do a weekly maintenance check to make sure that everything still has a “home”.
Create a cleaning schedule
Once you’ve got the clutter and organization under control, cleaning will be tons easier. Creating a cleaning schedule will help you stay on top of the dirt and grime. Some people create a daily cleaning schedule, some clean once a week. It’s up to you and what works best with where you are in life right now.
Personally, I have a daily cleaning schedule (very basic: dishes clean, do at least one load of laundry, counters wiped, floors swept, beds made), plus a weekly cleaning schedule which is more thorough. I also have things that I do once a month as well as bi-annually.
Just do it
This can be the hardest part – but in order to get (and stay) clean and organized, you just have to do it. I find that jumping on it at the beginning of the day is much easier than trying to tackle everything near the end of the day.
I hope that gives you a little inspiration as you seek to create a clean and organized “haven” for your family to enjoy.
Next time we’ll look at how to provide your family with plenty of wholesome, fun and creative times together.
