Hi everyone. I'm Ronnie.
And I'm Jessica. And you're listening to Clean
with me. The podcast where we walk you
through cleaning your house. Hey everybody, this is Jessica.
Happy New Year. Sorry for the delay, I was up
till midnight obviously on New Year's Eve and then I'm an old
lady and my kids stayed up way later than they should have so
everybody was grumpy and grouchy and so.
Anyway, Long story short, we're gonna do it episode today, so
let's get back on track and let's get our houses clean.
So let's get right to it like always let's get ready for our
clean let's get our hair up in a bun get ready in some capacity
and let's put our houses back together y'all.
So maybe you had some a couple people at the house.
Maybe it was just you and your family hanging out.
You know, just letting loose, not really caring because, you
know, on holidays we don't really clean all day and put the
emphasis on cleaning and that's OK.
And I know that yesterday I really just kind of because
everyone was sleepy and tired and grumpy from the night
before, we just kind of let the house go.
So today is my get things back together day and get back on
track day. So if that's you and you're
ready to get your house back on track, let's get right into it.
Let's start with a laundry switch.
Let's move our clothes from the washer to the dryer and from the
dryer to a laundry basket. Now I definitely did like a
laundry marathon the other day and I'm a little bit behind on
folding so that after I do my maintenance cleaning and stuff,
I'm just going to sit back and relax and just focus on folding
and putting away today. That's kind of be my going to be
my focus once I get my house back to a state of I can't think
of the word not chaos, the opposite of chaos, peace, not
dirtiness. So anyway, so while you're doing
your laundry switch, just go ahead.
And if you just need to do a lot of towels or something or keep
it simple. If you have a lot of other stuff
to clean up, that's fine. Just go ahead and do that.
And then we're going to move on to the dishes.
So with the dishes right now, got a mess on my hands.
You know, I was being kind of lazy, just kind of slopped
together some breakfast and I've got a Big Breakfast mess.
So first we're going to do a little bit out of order instead
of doing the dishes first. I'm just going to throw away
trash just because I've got a lot of trash in my house.
So I'm going to throw away all the trash and just throw it away
and get that out of the way. And because I have so much trash
going on in my kitchen, it's going to make a big difference.
And then I'm going to start with the empty reload and run.
So go ahead and do that and don't forget like always to put
your big pots and pans or things that are kicked on or anything
like that to soak. That way, by the time you get to
them, it'll be easy to clean and it'll go really quickly and you
can just knockout those dishes. And then when you're done with
that, make sure you're emptying all of your dishes from the
drying rack and or dishwasher. And then starting with the small
things, working up to the big things while you guys are doing
the dishes and getting your kitchen back to normal.
I'm just going to talk to you guys a little bit about the new
year and you can probably guess what I'm going to talk about
just some goals, you know, for yourself cleaning wise and some
of my goals cleaning wise and what I'm going to do better this
year. But I'm a firm, I believe her
and always, like I said in many other episodes before, I always
want to evolve my cleaning techniques, my cleaning styles,
the things that I do to motivate myself because my life's ever
evolving. So it's not just for the New
year, but because of New Year's resolution resolutions and all
that, Then we're that's kind of what I'm going to talk about and
that's why I'm going to talk about it.
But always keep evolving with your cleaning plans and stuff
based on your phases of life, what you're going through,
because again, your life is changing and if you keep your
cleaning plans the same all the time, it's not going to work.
You can keep your same basic outline.
Obviously, you know, most of my podcast I talk about the same
basic tasks to do, but as far as different ways to motivate
myself and stuff, those are ever changing and evolving be doing
those dishes while I'm talking. So some things that I do try to
always strive for. But this new year and stuff I'm
going to really, really try extra hard is of course just
getting things clean right away. You know, right after I do the
breakfast mess, like right now I, I didn't do that so bad,
Jessica, But right when I make the mess, I want to clean it
back up because I don't want this big disaster and the kids
just running wild doing their crafts and all that and not
picking up right after the mess is made.
So I'm going to really, really try hard to keep up with that.
And same thing with my kids. I want to keep on them harder
this year because I've mentioned this before, but I have trouble
and this is one of the biggest struggles I have in my household
is that my kids kind of are like little tornadoes and they go
from 1:00. But they're very creative and
prod. They want to do this craft and
that craft. And I do the same thing.
I'm really into crafts and stuff too, which is probably where
they get it, but they kind of just tornado through the house
and oh, I'm making this shirt for the cat.
That happened just this morning. My daughter was making a shirt
for the cat and then she left all the stuff out and then she
was starting on a different project.
And instead of just letting her go room to room to room,
destroying it, I need to stay on them a little bit more and be
like, hey, no, you need to clean that up before you start another
project. That's just how things work.
And to do that, I also need to be an example of that by if I
make lunch, if I make a sandwich or something, clean all of that
up and wipe it down. And it does seem like common
sense, but you know, we don't always do it and we need to
remind ourselves of that every once in a while.
So, and while you guys are doing the dishes, I'm going to talk
about another thing that I'm going to focus on in the new
year is motivating myself a little bit more in the mornings
because I feel like I need to be getting a lot more done in the
morning than I do. I have a tendency to
procrastinate until later in the day to do my cleanup.
And ideally I should be doing a thorough morning shift and night
shift. And I'm usually pretty good
about the night shift, but my morning shifts are kind of
lacking. Like like I said, I kind of just
let things build up and become this big disaster and then I get
kind of stressed out and don't have to like work myself up to
cleaning it. And so that's something that I
definitely want to work on in the new year.
And just in general, I want to work on working really hard,
hard to get my energy up and get things moving and pumping right
when I wake up. And this is a lot easier during
the school year because I'm already up getting the kids
ready and everything. And it's been a little harder
during the break. But I need to keep that good
routine no matter what's going on because the more consistent
we are with it, the more habit forming it is and the more we
don't have to think about it before we do it.
It's just something we do and of course, every once in a while
we're going to backslide and fall behind and stuff.
But again, the more we consciously make that decision
every morning and one way I'm going to do that and work on
that a little better is the reason why I'm so slow and lazy
in the mornings, especially when the kids don't have school
weekends, breaks, things like that is personally I'm just not
getting like ready when I first wake up.
And that's why I say like get ready for the day in some
capacity before our cleaning session.
Because when I don't get up and just get ready, take a shower,
get my blood pump and walk outside or something like I do
when I'm taking the kids to school, I'm just dragging in the
morning. And it really does affect my
cleaning. And that's kind of why I just
let the kids tornado throughout the house and then I have a big
mess to clean up. So I'm going to focus more on as
soon as my alarm goes off, I'm going to get up and just start
getting ready whether I feel like it or not.
And then again, it forms a habit and eventually it's going to be
second nature and I'm just going to do it without thinking about
it. So if you have a dishaster on
your hands, then just keep working on those dishes.
But if you are nearing the end of your dishes and you want to
start with the rest of your kitchen, then go ahead.
And if you haven't already thrown away the trash like we
did at the beginning can do that.
And then let's just start putting things away where they
go. Anything that does not belong in
the kitchen, let's go ahead and move it to the different rooms
of the house. Start from one end of the
kitchen to the next and just start clearing surfaces.
And we want to clear as much stuff off of the surfaces as
humanly possible so we can get a really good wipe down in.
So, and that includes the dining room to just get everything
cleared, put away. And if you're still working on
the dishes, just keep doing that.
Whatever you need to do. You could pause, rewind,
whatever, but I'm just going to move on to the other parts of
the kitchen now. So just clear everything off so
we can go wipe down crazy. And also don't forget your trash
can. You might need to take out your
trash and replace the liner. We have a lot of trash in our
house. I need to cut down on the trash,
but I ate out yesterday. So there was a lot of trash
involved this morning like I mentioned earlier.
So definitely take out your trash, replace the liner, and
once you guys are done with your thorough pickup, just go.
Like I said, wipe down crazy, making sure we're getting any
and every surface. Just start from one end of the
kitchen, move your way to the next and just wipe down any
crevice, any handle, refrigerator, stove top, cracks
of the stove, backsplashes, walls, just every single surface
that you can think of in your house.
I want you guys to get done. You guys are doing that.
Another kind of New Year's resolution, I guess you can call
it, that I'm going to start working on is more meal
prepping. And I do like a basic kind of
meal prepping. And it's not the kind where, you
know, I'm putting things in containers and freezing them and
all that, but planning my meals better for the day so that just
my days are a little bit easier and I don't have to think about
it and I already know what I'm going to make the next day.
So during my closing shifts where I'm cleaning up at the end
of the night, I'm going to make sure I'm going to put some meat
out for the night before and I'm going to plan what I'm going to
make for breakfast for the kids and lunch and dinner.
And that way I don't have to just think about it.
And that way I'm not giving the kids like too many options
because this morning, like I was giving them 1000 options for
what they want for breakfast. And they're like, I don't want
that. I don't want that.
Well, instead I'm just going to make it and then they're just
going to have to eat it. I know what they like and what
they don't like. And if you give a kid too many
options, especially A5 year old, then they're just going to be
overwhelmed and not want anything.
That's just how kids are, you know.
So I just feel like that would make my life a lot easier if I
did that. So that's something I'm going to
be working on. Once you're done with your wipe
down, then you can do a spot sweep.
We'll I'll remind you to do a major floor clean at the end of
the episode. That way we're not working stuff
into the living area when we're doing that.
And again, if I'm going too fast, maybe you have a big
disaster on your hands. Then you can pause, rewind me or
just listen to another episode after this.
I get we all have different variations of how messy our
houses are. We have really long episodes,
really short episodes for just different phases of life and
different times that we we just need to pick up a little bit or
need to do a complete overhaul of the house.
So whatever you need to do, but I'm going to go ahead and move
on after you do your little spot sweep.
So we're not tracking stuff after the wipe down.
I'm going to go ahead and move on to the living area now and
we're going to start with our couch area.
Let's fix our cushions, vacuum our cushions of our couch
underneath the couch. Let's clean underneath that, fix
our pillows. I did do a washing of my liner
of my couch and everything the other day just because it was
starting to get out of hand. But you know, just a little wipe
down in the spot clean is perfect for depending on what
type of couch you have and what you need to do.
But or you can just vacuum it and then put your pillows and
your blankets the way you like it and then start with our
pickup. So with the pickup, just start
with one area side of the living area and move your way to the
next and just pick up any miscellaneous stuff that does
not belong and put it away. Throw away any and all trash and
then start with the floor and work your way up to the surfaces
and then do the same thing with surfaces.
Anything that doesn't explicitly belong in your on your surfaces,
if it's not in decoration, let's go ahead and put that away where
it goes because a lot of people set things in places they
shouldn't. Maybe you have shelves,
shelving, bookcase, something in the living area and it tends to
accumulate stuff like a hotspot or something.
Then anything that doesn't explicitly belong there as a
decoration, let's go ahead and get that and put that away.
Put everything where it goes. And while we're talking about
why you guys are cleaning your outer areas, another thing that
I want to focus on in the new year is keeping my outer areas
as clean as possible because it's the first thing people see
when they walk in my door. I want to keep that as pristine
as possible with my children. Obviously it's not going to be
perfect, but I want to try to, if there is any kind of mess in
the living area, just to pick it up immediately and try to keep
that outer areas when you first walk into the house clean and
presentable at all times, at least in some capacity.
So I'm going to work really hard on that and just make that a
little personal goal for the new year.
And then any mirrors or anything that need to be wiped down, you
can Windex those and wipe those down really quickly.
Windows from your front window need probably needs to be wiped
down, especially if you got little fingers that always touch
it. I recently my kids had destroyed
my blinds and stuff. I had, you know, those cheap
blinds that go up, you know, you know what I mean?
The little white the white skinny stripe ones that aren't
that get broken really easily. Anyway, I had those and I
noticed that my daughter and her room had a perfect set of lines
and I was like why do they look perfect in their room?
But then the ones in the living room are terrible.
So I switched those out and then I just put a curtain in their
room and I'm like it wasn't as hard as I even imagined.
It has like a tiny clip and it took me like 5 seconds.
So that made a big big big difference.
It doesn't look like a crack house anymore when you look at
my front door. So anyhoo, that being said,
sorry, I got a little tongue tied there, but I it's just like
little things like that. So I want, I just want my living
area to be more presentable. So I'm going to work on that.
And as we're ending the end of the episode, I just want to
remind you guys, set a timer. Don't forget to do that laundry
switch. I'm going to do my laundry
folding and putting away marathon today after I do all of
that stuff that I talked about today.
And I'm going to work really hard to keep my quote
resolutions and or, you know, just goals of mine to keep my
house a little bit cleaner. And do not forget to do your
floor clean, do a thorough sweep and mop of your living room and
or vacuum if you have carpeting and same thing with your kitchen
and dining room as well. And don't forget to do that
laundry switch when the timer goes out.
And I want to thank you guys so much for listening.
Happy New Year and good luck with all of your resolutions and
I hope you accomplish everything that you want to accomplish this
year. Happy New Year.