Houses can get messy in a hurry. You could sit still in a chair all day long, and your house would still somehow manage to fall apart. If you feel angry or embarrassed about the state of your house, here are some tips that will help you get a handle on it:
- Make your bed when you get up in the morning. It’s basically just a habit that takes almost no time at all to do. Even if the rest of your room is a mess, a made bed will start to impart a feeling of calm which will radiate out. If you leave it until later, it will just annoy you. Also, it is more restful to get into a made bed at night.
- Do one load of laundry a day. If you hate doing laundry, try this. Doing it every day instead of once a week keeps your laundry down to a low rumble. You may not hate it as much. Gather up a load and put it in the washer in the morning. Get it going and then turn it off. When you get home from work, turn it back on and finish washing it. Put it in the dryer, and you can fold clothes while watching TV later. Because it is only one load, you can easily put the items away.
- Wash your dishes before you go to bed. It’s terrible to start the day looking at yesterday’s dishes. Mornings go much better when you start out in a clean kitchen. Yes, I know you might be tired at night. But you will probably be tired the next morning too. Washing dishes every day is a great habit to get into. It is a gift to yourself to have your dishes washed and put away before you go to bed at night.
- Take out the trash. Go ahead and take the trash out every day. It is easier to do when you don’t give the trash time to become a huge stinky problem. Get in the habit of taking it out once a day. It will keep your house smelling fresher, and it will make it easier to cook when you can throw things in the trashcan without worrying about it spilling over.
Make yourself a chore chart if you like. It will help you as you are establishing these habits.
- Make the bed.
- Do a load of laundry.
- Wash the dishes.
- Take out the trash.
Why not give yourself a gold star every day you keep up with all your habits? On the days when you do some but not all, give yourself a silver, red, or green star. These are just habits. Whether you do them or not does not make you a good person or a bad person. Doing these habits will keep your house running more smoothly. You deserve to live in a house that you like being in. Don’t worry about doing things perfectly. You will have a chance to practice your habits again tomorrow and the next day.
Yes, there’s more to do in a house than these four habits. There’s vacuuming, and dusting, and cleaning the bathrooms, etc. If you have some time during your day, you can clean something else. But if you don’t have time, these four habits will keep your house in order for a long time.
Sounds like a good idea for a 40 day challenge!
