Keeping the house (and mind), clean and tidy
UGH! Do you ever spend ages, like hours EVEN DAYS cleaning and tidying, to then have one meal, go shopping, have family round etc and you wondered why you bothered? This is me all over. I LOVE having a clean and tidy house. Knowing that behind the cupboard doors are tidy and organised is my idea of heaven! I work better and enjoy chilling SO MUCH MORE knowing all the housework is done and everything is in its place. (my left eye will start twitching when something DOESN’T have a home!)
Cleaning, how I am currently doing it, is obviously not the answer so I have decided to look into a few of the many, many cleaning blog sites out there (and to my delight most of them have printouts and tick lists -another thing I love!)
There are literally thousands of these so-called ‘housekeeping blogs’ out there that boast they can teach us the ins and outs of cleaning and decluttering. The best cleaning blogs will even show you how to apply your skills to other aspects of your life, including your business (BONUS) so I’m diving in and I will let you know how it all goes.
Here are a few blogs I’m planning on having a look into, and giving their methods a try, in the hope that ONE works for me :0)
I hope one works for you too!
A Bowl Full of Lemons
The writers at A Bowl Full of Lemons know that life is chaos. And like a lot of cleaning blogs, ABFOL focuses on bringing chaos to heel through a system of targeted checklists. (YAY) This is a house cleaning tips blog for people who like to socialise. They have a lively social media presence where they share tips and tricks, and they even have a book club.
You can also join their 14-week home organisation challenge. Each week focuses on a specific area of your home, like the garage. And if you’re interested in organising your household budget, their writers can help you with that, too.
The Fly Lady
The Fly Lady is part house cleaning tips blog, part club, and part therapy group. Your house didn’t descend into chaos in a day, they say, and it won’t get clean in a day. There’s no judgment here, just help. Their system breaks cleaning down into manageable steps like making the bed and shows you how to organise those steps into a system that works for you. (Lots of – set your timer for 15 minutes)
Along the way, the Fly Lady teaches you which tools you need and how to use them most effectively. The tone is as warm, cheerful, and encouraging as the fairy godmother logo. If the mere thought of cleaning your place makes you want to cry, the Fly Lady will show you that, while not always fun, keeping a tidy house is a lot easier than you think, and in 15 min slots.
Apartment Therapy
To look at a lot of home cleaning blogs, tidying and decluttering may seem like a woman’s world. But Maxwell Ryan’s site, Apartment Therapy, gives a dude’s-eye-view. It also offers a view from an interior design perspective, which is helpful, because face it, the point of cleaning is to make the most of your space.
Organising and decluttering are at the heart of this blog. But there’s also information about cleaning supplies (including making your own), cleaning equipment, and setting up a cleaning routine. And once the cleaning is done, you’ll find down-to-earth, easy-to-implement design advice, as well.
I’m starting with The Organised Mum Method recommended by BC Member Annina Diston – Gemma Bray of The Organised Mum Method (TOMM) is a Sunday Times Best Selling author and has revolutionised the way others structure not only the housework but also their daily lives.
It all began 15 years ago…overwhelmed as a new mother, Gemma’s anxiety manifested itself as over-cleaning and she soon found herself cleaning for hours each day. Determined to stop cleaning from taking over her life she sat at her kitchen table and developed a housekeeping method that took only 30 minutes a day (with weekends off!). She stuck her new way of cleaning on the fridge and freed herself from her never-ending to-do lists. She went on to expand her method into The Organised Time Technique, which will get even the most frazzled of lives running like clockwork!
More than a decade on, and with two best-selling books and two best selling apps under her belt, she is helping parents all around the world free themselves from the overwhelm.
THERE ARE FREE DOWNLOADS! AND CHECKLISTS!!! Woop woop and looks to be some great tips on here in Gemma’s Blogs such as how to clean the glass on your log burner, that I’m going to get straight into, and on paper, it sounds like just what I need …, as she did!
T x x
