Cinde-who?

As a mom, I feel like the majority of my day consists of cleaning up after everyone else. Toys. Dishes. Crumbs. Their bodies! At times you can feel like Cinderella – everyone pulling you in a million directions all the time. I’ve found that there is only ONE way for me to not get overwhelmed by all of the cleaning hoopla. A list.

Now, if I don’t have a list, there are several ways I handle cleaning.

Ignore it. I simply pretend like my house is clean. You don’t do that? I always think of the cute little signs you see on Pinterest or Etsy. Like this one from Laura’s Rustic Creations – I prefer the honesty behind this one. Some days it’s just mentally easier to let the mess go… our mental health is just as important as our home.
Constantly follow your children. This one is the most anxiety causing. If you have children at all you know that they will follow you as you clean and immediately destroy your progress. This method of cleaning will drive you absolutely insane and ruin any good day within a short amount of time. I will pick up the toys, place them neatly in their respective places and the children will immediately go to that spot and remove all the toys from that spot.
The “company is coming scramble.” This happens to be one of my favorites because the house gets a good cleaning. Everyone knows my home is lived in and my definition of dirty is a lot different than others BUT even I do the “company is coming scramble.” Every little thing that was out of place, finds its way home. It’s miraculous but short lived.
MAKE A LIST. This is obviously what the blog post is about, right? My list. There are a thousand different cleaning lists that you can pull right from the internet and immediately begin implementing in your home. I’ve done it. Used other people’s lists. It can be a true lifesaver. I have my own now.

I’ve finally come up with my own cleaning list. I love it. The thing I’ve noticed the most about my cleaning list? I end up cleaning stuff that wouldn’t get cleaned otherwise – either they aren’t on my list or if I wasn’t using a list I wouldn’t have the time to get to it. I notice so many more items that need to be done – things that need to be dusted, items that are out of place, items that were missed last time.

My list also helps me with my ADHD cleaning ways. I’m like the dogs in UP. I see something (“squirrel”) and instantly lose my train of thought. Thank God I can go back to my list and see where I left off and what is left to do.

mylist

Now, my list is probably not going to be awesome for everyone else. But I’ll tell you that it definitely works for me and if you want to use it for yourself, by all means, please download it! Print it! Maybe make your life easier too.

Each day, I do the same things. And then each day of the week, I have a part of the house that I focus on to deep clean. And then each week of the month, I actually deep clean something that needs to be done. Seems so simple, right? But if I don’t have the list out and a pen to cross things off as I go, then it doesn’t all get done. The house gets picked up, but it never actually gets CLEAN.

I’ve also begun to try to switch over to all natural cleaning products. Mister O loves to put all of my cleaning stuff in his mouth and I figure making the switch will prevent a number of calls to poison control. So far I’ve been getting my stuff from Grove Collaborative and love all of the things that I’ve gotten from there. I’m excited to continue to swap out products with what they sell on their website.

So, together with all my new cleaning supplies and my new cleaning list, my house is getting cleaner… it isn’t staying clean obviously, because kids, but it’s getting done. So I hope that my list might help you out as well.