In my quest to finish strong this year, I am also looking at easier ways to keep house. I usually do a morning routine of loading the dishwasher, wiping the counters off and sweeping the floor. Then once a week, on the weekends, I clean the house. I am tired of doing it all on Saturday morning currently. There is no reason to do it all at once anymore and I want to go back to my version of the Fly Lady and break it up over the course of the week, in 15 min increments each day.

I have to do the job as I see it. If I assign a job each day then it gets too complicated in my brain. On the Fly Lady’s website you can sign up to have calendars sent to you of pre made cleaning plans and what to do lists. I think that her real intention is to have cleaning be part of your life and do it as you go. She is about dedicating 15 min each day to have intense focused cleaning. I like to do one job like dusting the whole house, versus her idea of cleaning a whole room in 15 min. Having too many lists and calendars gets really stressful for me for many reasons and in 2020 I don’t need one more thing “yelling” at me that I am not doing enough. My brain and my job tells me this enough.

So, I see a job each day and do it. I think it is less overwhelming to clean that way and then I can slowly decorate for the holidays as the spaces are all spic and span. It’s really about integrating this as a part of your life, eventually, without having to think about doing it or how to do cleaning. Much like exercise and our healthy eating plan.

Yep, I am being about as lackadaisical as you can be about it mentally. Just a little clean up each day as I see a job that is staring me in the face saying, yuck! It isn’t hard to keep up when there is just the two of us here and I finally feel free of the oppression of cleaning. I also feel that there is such a thing as over cleaning. Cleaning for cleanings sake because of my own internal anxiety. Do we need to dust daily, not in my house. Do we need to get a tooth brush out and scrub the window ledges? Maybe once a year or so. Do I need to mop my floors weekly? Sometimes. There are those things that get used a lot that need more attention. There are other things that are weekly , monthly or annually. I have to go 15 min a day and be consistent, then things will be nice and clean without stressing about it. Besides we are in the middle of a pandemic and I don’t need to stress about having things done perfectly because no one is coming over right now anyway. Does it matter that there is once dirty cup from my coffee in the sink and not immediately cleaned and put away. NOPE!

Tidying is a different category of chores and I want to do that as I go vs a big wave of energy rolling through weekly .

Laundry is a never ending saga of work, that is a whole separate category and doesn’t count in the 15 min of cleaning each day ! Sad trombone, its a daily ongoing saga. I want to try to keep it from being emergency management . You know what I mean! The whole going to your clean clothes only to realize you have no clean pants or socks for the day. Yeah, we have all been there.

Keeping up on things means investing a little each day. No secrets and my favorite YouTuber says

“There is nothing left to do but to just do it”

Vicki