routines | Laundry Prayers

Running a household is hard work. It never ends and you can get behind so quickly. Laundry, food, messy bathrooms, paperwork, and spills (oh the spills that never end). For me a messy house makes me crazy and very cranky. I can’t find anything and I feel overwhelmed just looking around my house.

If you do a little pinterest search you will find many plans to help you keep your house clean. Many times I would set out to completely overhaul how I ran a household. I would print off check lists, buy new 3 ring binders to keep my lists in and let my family know things were going to change around here. But what I soon realized was someone else’s plan wasn’t going to completely work for my house. I also would fail so quickly and be so discouraged. Then I would be so frustrated and want to completely give up or yell at my kids because they were not following the plan.

Instead I realized that I needed to make small changes that I could be consistent with, so they would become habits or regular routines. Over the years I have established a few daily routines that have really helped with the running of my house. The things I share I have slowly added to my daily routines. Start small and be consistent and slowly you will begin to see a difference.

One of the first places I started was with the Fly Lady. Have you heard of her? She says we are all living in CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome). The Fly Lady is all about routines as well. Check her out for some great ideas. I will tell you know if you try everything you will quit but she encourages you to start slowly. She was recently a guest on Mud Stories a podcast by my friend Jacque Watkins. The Fly Lady is hilarious and so encouraging.

These are 5 things I do (most) days that help bless me and keep my house running more smoothly.

Do your dishes before you go to bed. We run the dishwasher every night and make sure there are no dirty dishes in the sink. Fly Lady calls this “Shine your Sink”. The dishes will only be worse in the morning. Waking up to a clean kitchen is a gift to yourself. My sweet husband empties the dishwasher before he leaves for work at 6 am.
Make your bed and clean up your own room. For so many years my room was the dumping grounds. I never made my bed and it was a huge mess. I figured people don’t usually see it so why does it matter. This goes back to taking care of yourself. A clean room is a gift to you and your husband if you are married. If you tidy it up every day is shouldn’t get too messy.
Wipe off the bathroom counters and toilets every day. This too is from the Fly Lady she calls it “Swish and Swipe”. I keep Clorox wipes, toilet bowl cleaner and a brush in both bathrooms. This way I do not have to carry cleaners around the house. There is toothpaste gunk in the sink everyday from my kids. Simply cleaning each day makes it much easier.
Do 1 load of laundry to completion every day. I start a load at night, switch it in the morning when I wake up, and fold it during the day. Then my kids put their laundry away each day. This habit is probably the hardest for me to keep up on. But I have found I much prefer doing 1 load a day then 8 loads once a week.
15 minutes of clean up before I go to bed. I set a timer after dinner and just put things away. You can get a lot put away in 15 minutes if you know you can quit when the timer goes off.

All of these habits put together have made a huge difference in the chores around the house. But like I said each one was a slow new habit. I would challenge you to pick one area of your house that is the most frustrating and make a plan of how you can build a new habit around that problem.