I don’t know about you all but I am not an naturally neat person. (My mother is a naturally neat person - unfortunately, I didn’t inherit her cleaning genes! ) It’s not because I don’t want to be a neat person. I actually love having a neat and tidy house...but my natural tendency is to just think I’ll do it later and more often than not, something comes up and before I even realize it, my little mess has turned into a disaster. At that point, I become overwhelmed, unmotivated, and discouraged—like a complete and utter failure!
I would take cycles. I would read a book or listen to someone who was a naturally tidy person and I would get motivated and attack/clean my house until it was spotless- seeing my home clean and tidy would bring me so much satisfaction... but ultimately, because I didn’t have a schedule or true game plan to maintain the orderliness, it would only be a few days or if I was lucky, a week or two, before the chaos returned.
I could tell my mood was negatively affected by my disorderly house. I would be so upset with my own lack of motivation to keep my house in shape that I would be grumpy with my kids and blame them for all the messes around the house when in reality, they were just being kids and my lack of discipline was the root of the problem...
My desire to have a neat and tidy house led me to do a bunch of research and try to figure out how I could accomplish my goal and find a way maintain it. I found out a lot of my problem was procrastination. Instead of doing something immediately when it needed done or put away, I would say “I’ll get it later”...and never followed through until there was a giant mess I couldn’t avoid no longer—
I was always so embarrassed when my husband would say so-and-so is going to stop by or someone would text and say that they were going to run by my house... I am a people person and I do like to entertain but unfortunately, due to the constant state of chaos that reigned in my home, I didn't have a feeling of hospitality (which is a desirable character trait of a Godly woman) — I would become frantic, hollering at the kids to help clean up, and stuffing things here and there to make the house look semi-presentable before company could arrive—hoping they didn’t open the oven door (yes, it‘s a great place to hide dirty dishes lol 😂) or hoping they didn’t need to use the restroom because in my haste to make the rest of the house presentable, I forgot to clean the toilet bowl 🤦🏼♀️....
One day, I simply had had enough. I was ready for a change. I was tired of being embarrassed of my house and living in a constant state of chaos. I began to really research and try to learn how to “change myself” to get the desired result I was looking— a nearly always, “at least presentable if not clean” home!!
It definitely wasn’t something that happened overnight— in fact, at first, I began to slip right back into the same old rut... of getting motivated and attacking/cleaning my house until it was spotless just to have it look like a tornado a day or so later... but I didn’t quit trying.
I heard a motivational speaker ( Admiral William H. McCraven) say this —“ if you want to be successful in life, make your bed!” Lol 😂 I thought this seemed kinda crazy. How would making our bed every single day make any difference in my life? But it actually did!! It is one small, seemingly insignificant task that takes less than a minute usually to accomplish but it sets the tone for your day. It’s a small ounce of self-discipline. It is a simple task — mundane at best... the speaker went on to say :
If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.
So that was my first main step—making our bed every day (and helping the kids make theirs every day as well) — I did that until it became a natural habit for me— I now always make the bed... P.S. yes, Mom, if you are reading this, you did train me to make my bed every day— I don’t know why I fell off the wagon when I got my own home! 🤦🏼♀️ But at least I have finally returned to my raising now ! lol 😂)
Next, I made sure dishes were taken care of immediately following a meal- don’t wait until later!! “Later” usually only happened after all the dishes in the cabinets are dirty!! If you are blessed with a dishwasher, unload it first thing in the morning and put the dirty breakfast/lunch dishes straight into it— don’t even let them linger in the sink for dinner to come around. Keeping dirty dishes out of sight in a dishwasher until you have a full load is a huge visual tool to make your house appear much neater. If you don’t have a dishwasher, it is much easier to do a couple dishes here and there than to allow the dishes to stack up until it’s a hour long chore. ( A huge shoutout to my daughter lol 😂 —she is older now and does dishwasher duty in our home! If you have kids, designate some duties to them- responsibility will do them good!!)
Laundry always was a huge chore for me. I would spend days getting it all caught up only to slip back down the slope... it seemed to be a never ending cycle.. it wasn’t that I didn’t do laundry at all - on the contrary, I usually did wash/dry it but I was notorious for not folding/putting away clean laundry. It would pile up and pile up. My best friend and I would joke about Mount Laundry I had to conquer every few weeks when everyone in my house ran out of clothes...
Finally, I had had enough. Again, my procrastination (“I’ll fold it later”) was the root of the problem- so instead of throwing the clean laundry out of the dryer into a basket for “later”, I began to fold it straight from the dryer. For our house (each home will be different depending on your family’s dynamics), I always try to do at least two complete loads of laundry (wash/fold/dry/put away) each day.
This small simple change had one of the most profound effects on my home. I now keep my laundry caught up- it saves me time by doing a quick 5 minute fold/put away than to wait “until later” and then spend 1 hour or more trying to wade through piles of laundry.
One other thing I did - which could be a whole separate post- is declutter a lot of my stuff and a lot of the kids’ stuff to make it much more manageable for us to take care of everything.
I don’t consider myself a true minimalist— but by letting go of a lot of unnecessary extra stuff, it has helped me tremendously to maintain a presentable home and the atmosphere is much more peaceful.
So with just a few simple steps and with the Lord’s help, I have drastically improved the overall condition of my home. It wasn’t easy and it took learning and applying a lot of self discipline. It was constant training and perseverance but it has truly paid off in having a neat and reasonably tidy home...one of the biggest perks, I guess you could say, was when someone texted me and was going to stop by our house and out of habit, my daughter jumped up and said “we got to straighten up first!” then she glanced around and “oh !! but there isn’t anything to straighten up now!” It was so satisfying to know that we were already prepared - we didn’t have to try to do a speed clean or try to stuff things everywhere!! It was a nice feeling to have a clean home and made it so easy to embrace hospitality.
Now, I’m not perfect still... my house still gets messy but now, by having a set routine and a little bit of discipline, it doesn’t stay that way.
Our home can be the haven God intented for us to have if we will just try to be intentional in our everyday life!
I hope these tips will help you in your home as well!!!
*Comment down below if you have any tips that help you maintain your home!!
-Tiphanie