I don't like to have it out there on the couch, so I
typically place it on my freshly made bed.
I'm Ronnie and you're listening to Clean With Me, the podcast
where I walk you through cleaning your house step by
step. Thanks for joining me in today's
episode. I am going to talk you through
an afternoon or before dinner reset.
Let's get right into the episode.
It's time to gear up for your cleaning session.
Now is the time to freshen up. I realize that this afternoon or
be before dinner reset could be in preparation for somebody
getting home. Whether you're preparing to go
pick up the kids from school or they are, you know, driving
themselves home or your spouse is getting home from work, this
is probably a time time where you would want to freshen up.
So I want you to take a few minutes to do that if you have
not already done so. Another way you might want to
gear up for this cleaning session is to get your house
smelling fresh. I recently purchased a new wax
for my wax warmers. Or maybe you want to light
ascended candle or open some windows and let some fresh air
in. Sometimes letting in some
sunlight can energize you if if your day got off to a slow
start. I don't know about you but
sometimes on my days off I kind of lays around all morning and
get off to a slow start and I need that burst of energy you
can get from a caffeinated drink.
A little bit of sunshine. A combination of both.
OK, maybe you need to make yourself some coffee or tea, or
maybe you need to take out the trash.
And if you're new to the show, I realize that I can talk faster
than you can do things. I'm not expecting you to do all
of these, I'm just giving you some ideas so that you'll get up
off of the couch or bed. You know, whether you needed to
freshen up for the day or take out the trash.
That's another way to get your house smelling fresh if you if
you have some forgotten trash that needs to go out.
I like to take out the trash during my afternoon routine
because I like it to be empty when I start cleaning the
kitchen and preparing dinner and things like that.
I'm going to need a place to put trash.
And at our house, we take out the trash everyday.
OK, we fill up that bag pretty quickly.
But if you have extra room in your trash, sometimes it's a
good idea to gather up the smaller waste baskets from the
bathrooms or the living room or bedroom and dump those into that
larger kitchen trash. And then take the trash out.
You're getting some sunshine and fresh air.
And then come back in and reline it.
And of course, wash your hands. I'm going to give you a couple
more minutes to do whatever you needed to do to gear up for the
afternoon or before dinner reset.
While you're doing that, I'll give you a little plug for the
bonus episodes. I just released a bonus episode
for financial supporters. That's a real time morning
cleaning routine. What I mean by a real time
routine is that's when I put on a headset and actually clean
while I'm talking to you. I basically take you with me on
my little cleaning mission and yeah, you can clean along with
me in real time, so to speak. Some of you like those and, and
most of the bonus episodes are not real time episodes, but I
like to throw those in there for the people who like them.
And it kind of gives you a little sneak peek into exactly
what I do when I'm cleaning my own house.
So be sure to check that out. There are links in the episode
notes or if you're listening on Apple or Spotify, the option to
unlock those subscriber only Clean With Me Unplugged episodes
is probably already being advertised to you.
Or you can visit cleanwithmepodcast.com.
I also have a Patreon account and you can listen right in
Patreon. OK, the next thing I want you to
do is a laundry switch because in that morning routine episode
that some of you may have already heard if your
supporters, I had to start a load of laundry.
So now it's time to switch that laundry from the washing machine
into the dryer. Sometimes I set a timer after
starting a load of laundry, or sometimes it just becomes part
of my routine to do the switch. For example, when I worked a
full time remote job, I often started a load of laundry in the
morning. I wanted to get my machines
running. If I had any dishes that carried
over, I'd either wash them by hand or get them into the
dishwasher and start that. And I would start some laundry.
And starting laundry was more common than starting the
dishwasher because, you know, we try to get to dish 0 at night
and, you know, start our mornings with a clean kitchen.
But in that morning episode, I have you empty your drying rack
and I have you start a load of laundry.
So when I was working from home, I would routinely do the laundry
switch on my lunch break. Whereas now that my schedule is
a little bit different, on the days when I'm at home, I'm more
likely to set a timer to remind myself to do the laundry switch,
especially if I'm doing multiple loads in the same day.
But I want all these episodes to kind of coincide with each
other. So if you already did the
morning routine and started a load, now it's time to do that
laundry switch, OK? And if you have clothes in the
dryer that are clean, you can place those on your freshly made
bed or wherever you like to place your clean laundry.
I think the key is putting the clean laundry somewhere where
you're motivated to fold it, whether that's your living room
couch or the bedroom bed. I don't like to have it out
there on the couch, so I typically place it on my freshly
made bed, and then I routinely fold and put away the laundry
before I get on to the bed to watch TV in the evening with my
husband. And obviously you probably have
at least one day a week where you clean for at least 45
minutes to an hour. But these daily routines will
keep your home looking tidy and functioning and make those
longer cleaning sessions easier. OK, so that's why from time to
time I create episodes that are morning routines, afternoon
routines, and then the less common evening routine.
But I'm planning to record one of those next week for you.
But right now I'm assuming that you're cleaning either in the
afternoon or early evening and just preparing for that end of
the day stuff, whether it's a spouse coming home, kids coming
home, or just getting dinner started.
And obviously, if you work full time outside the home Monday
through Friday, you're not necessarily doing this in the
afternoon, but you might be doing it quickly right before
you start dinner, or this could be your day off.
But for stay at home moms especially, the afternoon
routine is often when they get the bulk of their housework
done. And in case you're new to the
show, I'm something in between. I work at a school two days a
week. I work from home a little bit as
far as doing this podcast of course, but I'm also a stay at
home mom a lot of the time. So I have what I call housewife
days where I'm home and focusing on housework.
The next thing I want you to do is quickly pick up your house.
I'm talking about a 5 minute pickup where you just rush
around the house picking up anything that's out out of
place. That visual clutter is going to
get you down. It's going to make it look like
you haven't done anything all day, even if you have.
OK, and sometimes we tend to have a block against picking
things up, but getting started is half the battle.
OK, so whether your dog shredded a stuffed animal in the living
room and you're picking up fuzz, or you have pizza boxes on the
coffee table from last night, or kids toys and your kids are
taking a nap and you need to pick up after them because they
aren't there to help. Or maybe you threw clothes on
the floor when you were frantically trying to pick out
an outfit for something, and this picking up is mainly going
to happen in your bedroom. Or maybe somebody made a mess of
your bathroom. Maybe they left dirty laundry on
the floor, or towels in one or more bathrooms.
Maybe you are picking up after other people who should have
been putting things away at the time.
But no use crying over spilt milk.
You're getting it done now. And you can always make
suggestions and chore charts and things like that.
But I'm assuming this is your personal cleaning session and
that you're picking up the entire house for the next few
minutes. And maybe there is a bedroom of
a preteen or teenager where you're just going to shut the
door and not worry about that room.
Or maybe you want to get it picked up.
Maybe you want to make sure that there aren't dirty dishes
molding in someone's room. I'm a firm, firm believer in
walking into every room of the house every day, clearing any
dirty dishes. And you know, if you're planning
to vacuum the whole house, picking up, picking up the
floor. So I want you to be picking up
the floor throughout your house. You know, putting things in the
hamper, shoes in the closet, just randomly putting things
where they go and getting your carpet or floor vacuum ready.
And of course, also bringing any dishes to the kitchen.
You know, maybe there's a dirty coffee mug on your night stand
or a dinner plate in your kids room.
And I don't believe in letting small children eat in their
rooms. Except sometimes I would make an
exception if they had a friend over, like pretend I'm a cool
parent for a day or whatever. But once they get, you know, a
lot older and they're teenagers, I kind of teach them that eating
in their room is a privilege. But if I have to keep clearing
their dishes or reminding them to clear the dishes, they're
going to lose the privilege. So they tend to take those
dishes to the sink. I'm going to give you a couple
more minutes to pick up your house, of course, once you've
picked up the floor. And I'm talking about living
areas, hallways, bedrooms. And I realize if your house is a
total disaster, you might not get everything picked up, but
you'd be surprised what you can do in just a few minutes.
But once the floor is clear and any dirty dishes or cups are
taken to the kitchen, the next step would be to pick up the
couches you know to to remove to clear off the upper surfaces.
Remove anything that doesn't belong on your coffee table, in
tables, other pieces of furniture, straighten those
couch cushions and throw pillows.
And doing a quick pickup is also a great thing to do as part of
your evening routine as well. Going to bed with your house
picked up and your dishes done can definitely set you up for a
great day. But whether you have young
children who are home during the day and, and you're cleaning
during their nap, or your older kids kind of made a mess when
trying to get out the door for school in the morning, or you
just have some residual mess to clean up from yesterday.
Hopefully you're getting it all picked up now so that your home
will be vacuum and or sweep ready once you are done with
that pickup. Of course you're going to want
to vacuum or sweep starting at the front entrance because these
afternoon resets are often done in preparation for somebody
getting home. It's, it may be a self-imposed
deadline. I'm not saying that somebody
told you you better have his house clean before I walk in,
but you want that person to see that you've been productive and
you also want them to feel relaxed when they walk in.
OK, When I go to work those two days, my husband has the house
clean when I walk in. He's not working right now, but
when he was working I would be the one to want to get the house
cleaned before he walked in. And here's a thought.
Let's say you're a stay at home mom or maybe a part time working
mom and a lot of the housework falls to you.
One of the reasons for getting that stuff done before he walks
in is the fact that you might be asking him to clock on.
You might be asking him to take the baby or prepare dinner.
I don't know what your division of Labor is, but you want to get
a lot done so that your spouse will do their part.
For example, when I was working from home and my husband was
working outside of the home, kind of during this recent era,
he had more of an office job where he was typically in the
office or out on a truck. It wasn't super strenuous.
You know, once he was in upper management, his job wasn't as
strenuous and he would often get home a little earlier and just
start making dinner. So I would take a little break
in the afternoon and make sure that I had the kitchen cleaned
up and kind of the front entrance, you know, front room
and entryway tidied up. And then I would, you know, have
something out for him to make. You know, I would have thought
out something earlier in the day.
I'd have some meat out on the counter for him to cook.
Because nobody wants to come home, clean up a messy house and
then start dinner. So if you need someone else to
start dinner, can you at least have the house clean before they
walk in? Do you see what I'm saying?
I realize you might be cleaning and cooking.
Remember I said when he had a less strenuous job he'd come
home and cook half the time or whatever, But when he was
working outside, a physical job out in the heat, I would clean,
I would cook, and he would do stuff like that on Saturdays.
Every situation is different, every couple is different.
Be vacuuming and sweeping and you might not have time to do
your whole house, but at least the front entrance, the main
living area, the kitchen, whatever those key areas are,
and maybe the master bedroom is a key area.
My husband likes me to vacuum the master bedroom pretty
regularly because we have a sliding glass door and sometimes
the dogs track in stickers. So vacuuming that bedroom is
just as important as vacuuming our living room.
Let's face it, sometimes there are those few things that your
spouse is hoping you do and you know him well enough to know
what they are. OK, maybe the meal is a
priority, but you want to for your own benefit.
Even if he doesn't care about the state of of the house, for
your own benefit, you want to be able to start cooking in a clean
kitchen and then you're more likely to clean as you go and
everything else. So whether you're cleaning
partly for someone else's benefit or just for yourself,
you want to start the evening with with a clean kitchen,
whether you're ordering takeout or cooking or asking someone
else to cook. I didn't really ask him to cook,
but I would thaw something out that was kind of one of his
meals because there are things he cooks and there are things I
cook. And if I didn't want him to
cook, if I was like he cooked last night, I don't want him to
feel like he has to cook again. Then sometimes I would start
something during the afternoon break and I just move my laptop
into the kitchen to kind of keep an eye on the food.
That's one of the nice things about working from home.
Working from home definitely has its pros and cons though,
because people, you have some flexibility, but also people
expect more of you and you're kind of going, what would you
expect me to do this while I was at work somewhere?
If not, why are you expecting me to do it while I'm on the clock
at home? But there is that flexibility
when you're able to take your breaks at home and maybe walk
away from your computer now and then in between breaks.
But it it definitely has its drawbacks.
Sometimes you know, people are too noisy or again, they expect
too much of you. But one of the great things
about working from home is the ability to start dinner or at
least get the kitchen ready for your spouse to start dinner.
OK, hopefully you got some vacuuming and sweeping done and
some key areas. If not, keep working on it.
Some of you might need to do a few dishes.
You want to be at dish 0 when you start cooking.
And you might be thinking, well, as long as I get the dishes in
the sink and get them soaking and I wipe down the surfaces,
I'm OK. Or I really just need to start
dinner. So I'm, I'm going to start the
meat and I'm going to start some water on this to boil.
Now, arguably you can wipe down your stove and make sure it's
sanitary and plop something, you know, in a pan, you know, plop
that Taco meat into the skillet and start Browning it.
Or if you're making spaghetti, start boiling some water for the
pasta and Browning the meat. Or, you know, however you do
your spaghetti, you could start those things and then clean, but
it's just going to feel so overwhelming.
And sometimes you have to do it for your sake of time.
I get it. But ideally you want to get
completely down to dish 0, all the, all the surfaces tidy
because there's just a psychological thing when you're
cleaning in a, in a clean environment.
And obviously no matter what you need to clean in a sanitary
environment. I'm just kind of trying to talk
you out of having something soaking in the sink and just
wiping down surfaces or just cleaning the prep area and the
stove and, you know, maybe having one counter full of dirty
dishes or something. I'm trying to talk you out of
that. I realize sometimes you're
pressed for time. You have a time limit.
Dinner's got to be ready at a certain time.
Well, start your afternoon routine a little bit earlier,
because if your kitchen's perfect when you start cooking,
you're going to clean as you go, and it's going to be so much
easier after dinner because most of the work is going to be done
before you even serve the meal. OK, I'm going to give you a
couple more minutes to wash any dishes.
Maybe you're just doing a quick reload of the dishwasher and
getting that running OK Pause the episode if you need more
time. Typically there aren't a lot of
dishes in the afternoon. A lot of times what I do though
is I put a few things into the dishwasher and I put a little
post it note on the dishwasher that says dirty.
That way after dinner I can finish loading the dishwasher
and run it. Sometimes I I just submerge
those lunch dishes and wipe my surfaces and start cooking and
worry about the dishes afterward and then everything goes into
the dishwasher at the end. You know, especially on a busy
day like today, the lunch dishes are probably going to be in the
sink or something when I cook. But whenever possible, I like to
hand wash those lunch dishes because it's usually only a few
things. OK, A lot of times lunch can be
served on a paper towel if it's quesadillas or sandwiches or
something like that. And then you don't really have a
lot of lunch dishes. Maybe it's just one skillet you
used if if you've, if anyone even eats at home.
OK, make sure you wipe down your countertops, your cabinets, your
stove top, your tables and chairs.
Clean out your sink or at least one side of it if you have
something soaking. OK, and if you're ahead of the
game, you can always do a weekly deep cleaning task, Something
like cleaning out your refrigerator or microwave or
organizing the pantry or mopping the floors.
Maybe you swept your kitchen floor earlier and your kitchen
is super clean and you have time to mop it.
OK, or maybe you want to just quickly dust your living room
furniture. Or maybe you want to just binge
the show and after this like listen to a bathroom deep
cleaning episode. But for a lot of you, you just
wanted to get your laundry switched over and your kitchen
pre cleaned to prepare for dinner and your front entrance
and living area picked up, your bedroom picked up, things like
that. Maybe it's time to just freshen
up a little bit and relax so that you're not flustered when
your kids or spouse get home. Or maybe you're freshening up to
go pick somebody up from school or work.
If you don't have anywhere you got to be and nobody's getting
home just yet, I encourage you to binge the show.
I also encourage you to subscribe to bonus content.
For a very small monthly fee, you can unlock even more
cleaning motivation and be on the full program, so to speak.
If this episode's helping you, you're going to want to get on
the full program. Special thanks to those who are
already supporting the show by subscribing to Clean With Me
Unplugged episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or via a
Patreon subscription. But even just listening to these
free eisodes helps me. I appreciate each and everyone
of you. And as always, happy cleaning.
I'll talk to you in the next episode.