cleaning

I haven't finished my purse, actually I havent even started.

BUT a friend asked me how I keep my apartment so clean.

So I thought I'd share my secret. sshhhh...

First of all, I clean as I go, most of the time. If I am cooking, I clean and put things away as I go so there isn't a mess. when I finish eating, I put my plate away in the sink and rinse it off. When I do laundry, I put it away, when I get undressed I put the clothes in the hamper etc.

But we all know sometimes this doesn't happen and now you find yourself in a messy, dirty, unwelcoming, overwhelming dwelling.

So now what?

here is how I have always thought about it. If you walk into your place, look at it, and think to yourself, I have to clean this whole place its so messy, then you might start to cry. Its so overwhelming!!! so I do it in 4 steps. 4 steps!!

Step 1. I gather all the dishes and put them in the sink. I go to every single room and ONLY LOOK AT THE DISHES. don't look at anything else in the room, just get all the dishes.

good job

Step 2. I gather all the clothes, dirty or clean. obviously dirty clothes go in the hamper, I put all the clean ones on the bed in a pile.

Step 3. I gather all the trash. papers, wrappers, mail , soda cans etc. obviously throw it all away.

now for Jason and I, clothes dishes and trash are the majority of our messiness. for you it might be different, toys, tools, dvds etc. substitute your own. so by this point my apartment is almost done.

Step 4, the finish. this is where I wrap it all up. I load the dish washer, hang up all the clean clothes, load the washing machine, put away anything that is left, take out the trash, and then get out the chemicals ( omg which is totally my favorite part) and CLEAN everything. I don't consider a place clean, till its been sanitized with chemicals. Jason's idea of cleaning does not include chemicals and to me that is just picking things up and putting them away, not cleaning. also in step 4 is vacuuming and sweeping if they are needed.

pretty much step 4 is my favorite because it is what makes your house clean and makes you feel tons better about it, and by that point all the hard, not fun stuff is done.

so basically the idea behind my strategy is to focus on one thing at a time, and seriously only focus on that. I am telling you, it works.

now here is a cleaning project I am continually doing.

you know those spots in your house that are so crammed full of stuff you have no idea what is in there but you know that you don't need half of it you just saved it cause you didnt think you should throw it away? yeah we all have them and I am tired of them.

so I have a list of all those spots.

Sock drawer-done

Hallway closet-done

Pantry

Fridge-done

Laundry Shelf

TV dresser

Junk drawer (duh)

above the sink

under the sink-done

so this is my list of areas in my apartment I want to go through, and purge all that I dont want, and then organize it. I am almost halfway done, when I have nothing to do or am feeling in a cleanie mood, I pick something from the list and get it done. It really helps to feel organized and clean when you open doors to clean closets that aren't busting at the hinges with junk.

good luck!

I hope to get my purse done today. ;-)