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8 Steps to a Clean House

It was Friday evening. I sat on my couch with a glass of wine and looked around and thought, “My house is a disgusting mess.” 

It had been a long, tough, week. My usually clean house looked every bit as tired and frazzled as I felt on the inside. My brain felt as chaotic and cluttered as my house looked. 

I’m sure you can relate.

We’re busy mamas! We work hard to keep the tiny humans and our sanity alive. It can be easy for our house to look like it just went through a mini natural disaster. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed. But remember, we mamas are superheroes!

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When your house becomes a disgusting mess don’t forget that you have that invisible cape. Put on your best superhero stance and get ready to conquer the mess! 

In this post you are going to learn: 

  • Finding the motivation to start cleaning even when it’s overwhelming
  • The Steps to Clean your House in a few hours 
  • How to start a cleaning routine that will keep you ahead

Finding the Motivation

I know how paralyzing it can be when starting out on conquering your mess. Here are my tips for finding motivation. 

  • Pick a Motivational Mantra such as
    • “There are seven days in a week and someday isn’t one of them. 
    • “Just get it done”
    • “You Got This” 
    • “I will feel so good when I finish this!”
  • If you are an Oily Mama pop on that diffuser–I recommend Lemon, Rosemary, and Cedarwood.  
  • Open your windows and get that breath of fresh air! 
  • Turn on some music! My personal favorite for cleaning is the Mama Mia Soundtrack. 

Okay, are you ready? Let’s do this! Go! 

This cleaning process starts by cleaning certain items from all the rooms in your house first. Then it goes into a room by room process. I do this for a few reasons. 

  1. To streamline the process 
  2. To give you some big wins early on (like all laundry and trash is removed from each room) 
  3. To make sure that you are doing a thorough job in each room while not spending too much time in there. Remember, we are trying to do this quickly!
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Step 1: Start Laundry (5-10 minutes)

Collect all the laundry from around the house. Pile it all in your laundry room, or by your washer. Sort and start the first load. 

I always start with laundry because the washing machine can be running in the background while you do all of your other tasks. It also clears up a lot of floor space once you pick up all the laundry scattered around the house. 

I’m also weird and I like to race the washing machine. 45-minute wash cycle? I bet I clean the kitchen and the bathroom in that amount of time! Ready set go! 

Am I the only one who does this…. Anyone? Anyone? 

Your House should already be looking cleaner! 

You also need to be ready to put the clean laundry somewhere ready to fold later. 

My suggestions include: 

  • The dining room table.–Make sure it is cleaned off, wiped off and ready to receive the glorious clean clothes
  • Your Bed–I almost always fold laundry in my room while watching a movie or show. To be ready for clean laundry make sure your bed is made and cleared off. 
  • The Couch– Clear of all clutter
  • Your laundry room– if you have a big enough laundry room to fold and hang clothes in then, by all means, do it there!

Step 2: Trash (5-10 minutes)

This step should go really fast and feel very therapeutic. 

This should be easy: 

  • Toss obvious trash 
  • Empty out trash cans
  • Pick up the piece of paper that has been on the floor for weeks 
  • Scrape the food off the plates in the kitchen 
  • Broken toys you find on the floor 
  • Toss old food from the fridge
  • Etc 

Don’t confuse this step with decluttering, you are looking for obvious trash.

Step 3: The Kitchen. (15-45 minutes depending)

I love cleaning the kitchen. I feel like there is no other room in my house that can undergo such an amazing transformation so fast!

For some people, the kitchen can feel like the hardest task of all. But in reality, you can get a sparkling clean kitchen in less than an hour. Be methodical. Go in this order.

  1. Start by doing a quick sweep of the house to find any lingering cups, dishes, bowls etc. There is nothing worse than finishing your kitchen and realizing there are millions of dishes still to clean! 
  2. Either wash by hand or load the dishwasher. 
  3. Scrub down the counters and stove 
  4. Sweep and mop 
  5. Don’t forget to put away the dishes when the dishwasher is finished. 

*At this point, it is probably time to switch over the laundry.

Step 4: The Bathrooms (30 minutes)

I think cleaning the bathroom is the actual worst. I despise cleaning the bathroom. But it’s got to be done! 

  1. Start by spraying down the toilet, tub, and sink with the cleaner of your choice. 
  2. While the all-purpose cleaner is sitting sweep the floor
  3. Dust the surfaces
  4. Change the towels, 
  5. Quickly declutter the shelves. 
  6. Scrub the sink and surfaces 
  7. Scrub the bathtub 
  8. Scrub the toilet 
  9. Wipe down the mirrors
  10. At the end, steam clean the floor

Voila! The worst is over! 

Step 5: Common Areas like the living room, family room, dining room (1 hour)

  1. Grab a basket to throw in items that don’t belong in that room. As you come across things that don’t belong toss it into the basket
  2. Put away items that belong in that room
  3. Vacuum and dust 
  4. Wipe down surfaces 
  5. Take the basket and walk from room to room putting those items where they belong.

Step 6: Bedrooms (1 hour)

This should be very similar to cleaning the common areas. Follow the same steps 

  1. Grab a basket to throw in items that don’t belong in that room. As you come across things that don’t belong toss it into the basket
  2. Put away items that belong in that room
  3. Vacuum and dust 
  4. Wipe down surfaces 
  5. Take the basket and walk from room to room putting those items where they belong.

Step 7: Clean any remaining floors

You should have cleaned most of the floors in your house already. You might have some halfways left over. Take a few minutes to sweep, vacuum, or mop any remaining floors.

Step 8: Fold Laundry

Ahhh this is easily my favorite part. You now get to enjoy your sparkling clean house! I like to take a quick shower,  put on a movie, and then fold the clothes in peace and quiet. (Lately, this time has always seemed to coincide with naptime or bedtime.)

While putting away laundry is definitely a chore (hee hee), it can still be made relaxing by doing it with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and a movie.

Sip and Enjoy!

How to Maintain a Clean House

So, you’ve done all this hard work, now what do you do to keep the house clean? Here are some tips to keep your clean house from becoming a disgusting mess again! 

10 Minute Tasks

A 10-minute task is exactly what it sounds like, a task that takes 10 minutes (or less!) Having a well-run household can be very daunting! I find that breaking tasks into small increments that can be done periodically throughout the day helps keep your household running smoothly! 

Sure there are going to be longer tasks that need to be done such as cooking dinner, grocery shopping, etc but breaking other tasks into 10 minutes enables you to get the little things done throughout the day so that when you have longer chunks of time you aren’t spending your longer chunks of time working on the minutia. 

This strategy can be a critical time and energy saver! 

Examples of 10 Minute Tasks

I have found that many, many household tasks fall under the 10-Minute Task category. 

  • Loading/ unloading the dishwasher
  • Starting a load of laundry 
  • Vacuuming/ sweeping a room or two
  • Folding a load of laundry 
  • Making a grocery list 
  • Light bathroom cleaning
  • Empty out the car 

Don’t do this alone!

Depending on your situation try to enlist some help with this ordeal. Ideally, it’s your partner, and kids if they are old enough. 

My husband and I are pretty good with the divide and conquer. We’ve worked hard to become this way and its taken time but it is possible to have a husband who does equal work around the house.

We try to share jobs as much as possible. If we are having a cleaning day like the one outlined above we tend to do one of two things. 

  • We knock out the jobs together. Ie one person is cleaning the bathroom and one person is cleaning the kitchen.

OR 

  • One person goes grocery shopping and takes our daughter to get her out of the house and out of trouble. 

But I have also done this whole routine by myself with my daughter home many times. So don’t feel like you HAVE to have someone to help you. Like I said it just makes things easier if you do. But remember, you are a Superhero! You can clean your disgusting mess of a house on your own!

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