Would you believe that for almost 1/4 of Americans, keeping
their home clean is more difficult than their full time
job? This statistic comes from a
recent survey by Bissell. They looked at the cleaning
habits and challenges of 2000 Americans and found that 24%
thought keeping their house clean was harder than their full
time job. I'm Ronnie and you're listening
to Clean With Me, the podcast where I walk you through
cleaning your house step by step.
When you clean along with this show, you'll get more done in
less time so you can spend the rest of your day doing what
matters most to you. Thanks for joining me.
In today's episode, I'm going to talk you through a daily reset.
This is going to be kind of fast-paced, but don't let that
scare you off because I am going to allow for some flexibility so
that you can adapt it to your current situation.
Basically, I'm going to have you do 4 to 6 things to get your
house under control in just a few minutes.
Contrary to popular belief, keeping a clean house doesn't
have to mean spending hours a day scrubbing or folding.
Often it's the little things done consistently that make the
biggest difference in your home. No, there's not a magic bullet
for keeping your house clean. You're going to have to do the
work. You are going to have to scrub
surfaces at times. But keeping your house tidy with
these daily routines can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed
when you do your deeper cleaning session where you spend an hour
or two and you you do scrub those surfaces.
And let's face it, you want your house to look good in between
cleaning sessions. That's what a daily home reset
can do for you. It's time to do whatever you
need to do to gear up for a quick speed cleaning session.
I will say that I'm going to have you do one load of laundry
in this episode. So now is the time to maybe
switch the clothes from the washer to the dryer.
Or if your washing machine's empty, start a new load.
Whether it's kind of a survival load of underwear and towels and
maybe someone's uniform, or you're going to strip a bed and
start washing sheets, now's the time to start that load of
laundry. And one load a day doesn't
necessarily mean seven days a week, but what it means is on
most days you're doing a load of laundry from start to finish.
I feel like I really only need to do laundry every other day.
But if I shoot for every day and then it doesn't happen on some
days that works. That's that's kind of what I'm
doing lately. And if you've been listening to
my show for a while, I don't always do the same things.
My routine is always evolving. But lately I feel like shooting
for one load a day is ideal. And then on that one day where
you're gone all day or whatever, you don't do it that day and
maybe you end up getting 5 loads done during the week.
That having been said, having just a weekly laundry day works
for a lot of people. So one of the four to six things
I'm going to have you do is start a load of laundry.
And you might need to also set a timer to remind you later to
switch the clothes from the washing machine into the dryer.
OK, the cycle is probably one hour or less, so maybe set a
timer for an hour from now. And if after you start that
load, you open up your dryer and there are dry clothes in the
dryer or dried blankets, towels, whatever, dry laundry, go ahead
and quickly fold and put away those items.
That way, later when you do your laundry switch, your dryer will
be empty. And then I encourage you to set
another timer when you put your laundry into the dryer later so
that you'll be reminded to take it out, fold it, and put it
away. OK, that having been said, you
could count the load that's in the dryer right now that you're
about to fold and put away, or that you've already started
folding and putting away as part of your one load.
If you're the type of person who doesn't mind letting the clothes
sit in the dryer. Some types of laundry are more
prone to wrinkling than others, so sometimes, you know, there's
some. There's definitely something to
be said for setting a timer, pulling things out of the dryer
as soon as they dry, folding them while they're still warm to
prevent them from getting too wrinkled.
But at the same time, if it's it's a load of towels and
underwear or maybe just T-shirts, that's not really
going to apply. But I do want to challenge you
to do a load of laundry from start to finish.
But at the same time, I give you permission to leave something in
the dryer if that's kind of your system.
Because it is a valid system to just have the rule that when you
take things out of the dryer, to free it up so you can put stuff
into it that you fold and put away the load at that time.
Again, wrinkles could be a concern or not, depending on
what kind of laundry you're washing.
And maybe you're using fabric softener, dryer sheets and
things like that to prevent wrinkles.
But the bottom line is that you not only put your clothes into
the washing machine each day, but that you also follow through
and dry them. And then you also fold and put
away a load, whether it's the same load or previous load.
The key is avoiding that residual clean laundry pile.
That's why we want to fold things when we take them out of
the dryer, whether it's immediately after they're dried
or just the next time we open the dryer.
So hopefully that makes sense. Hopefully you've started a load
and you've set a timer and maybe even folded and put away a load.
Isn't it amazing how quickly you can fold and put away one load
of laundry? And some of you are like, well,
duh, you know, I do that every day or whatever.
But if you tend to have a, a clean laundry pile that you're
adding to, you might be having these folding marathons where
you're folding and putting away more than one load and it feels
overwhelming. But it really only takes a
couple minutes to fold and put away just one load.
That's a big part of having a, a daily cleaning routine, even if
it's just on weekdays or just on certain days, you're breaking
your housework down into smaller pieces.
And yes, there's still going to be a deeper cleaning session at
sometime during the week, but it's going to be a lot less
overwhelming if it doesn't involve mountains of laundry or
or a sink full of dishes or a house covered in clutter.
OK, we're going to do those maintenance tasks today.
And yeah, I can't say enough about this because life is so
much easier when folding and putting things away becomes a
short task instead of a long 1. And it keeps your wardrobe and
linen supply and rotation so you always have what you need and
you're not wearing the same things.
Or picking up a dirty towel off the floor to dry off and your
bedding smells nice because some days you're just looking for
something to wash and that causes you to wash your bedding
more often. OK, let's move on to the next
step. This next part is where the
flexibility comes in. Because for some of you, I'm
going to have you make the beds. But if you don't really care
that much about making your bed and you're facing a dish shaster
right now, your kitchen is more important.
Gather up dishes from around the house.
Start pre rinsing and washing those dishes.
Whether it's you know empty, reload and run of the dishwasher
or your hand washing. I want you to go straight to the
dishes if you have a huge pile up.
But for a lot of you, you have just a reasonable amount of
dishes. Maybe The Dirty dishes from one
meal, or maybe an amount of items that will fit into one
dishwasher load or that can be washed in one or two small sink
loads. You know, whether you're facing
a dish shaster or just the usual, you know, dishes to do.
If your dirty dishes are not totally out of control, it's
time to make the bed OK. This is such a quick and simple
task, a lot of people skip it. I used to be one of them.
But But it significantly improves the look of your
bedroom and just help set a productive tone for the day.
And if one of your household goals is keeping your bedroom
cleaner, it definitely starts with making your bed daily and
early in the day. Don't get into the habit of
making your bed just right before your spouse comes home or
something, OK? It's a springboard task.
And if you want it, if you want to experience the full effect of
that springboard that springs you into action, you've got to
do it early in the day. Now, I'm not going to say make
the bed as soon as you get out of it because I realize you
might be the first one up in your family.
You might have a spouse or toddler in the bed when you
first get up. I'm just saying make it early in
the day. It's not as important as keeping
up on dishes, but arguably it could be the springboard task
that gets you motivated to clean the rest of your house,
including doing dishes. So just something to think
about. If this is not a day that you're
changing your bedding, it's only going to take you about 60
seconds to make the bed. That's why it's so surprising
that people skip that step. It it's just one of those things
that you don't feel like doing for some reason, I guess because
it feels optional, but it's so simple, so easy.
But the reason I had some people head straight to the kitchen is
this is a really short episode and I wanted to make sure that
you make an impact on your home. Those of you who are doing
dishes can always go back and make the bed while the day is
still young. I'm just worried that the
kitchen segment is not long enough in this episode for those
of you who have an entire day's worth of dishes to do or even a
couple days worth. But making your bed makes the
entire room instantly feel more put together, and it's also a
small act that gives you a sense of control that could carry
through to the rest of your day. If changing your sheets is a
priority right now, then by all means change your sheets
completely. Hopefully you have an alternate
set so that you can completely change out your bedding.
If not, just strip your bedding. But for those who just quickly
made the bed, you're ready. You're probably ready to gather
up any dirty dishes from around the house.
Maybe a cup on a night stand or a forgotten plate on the coffee
table or dining room table. Let's get all those dishes to
the sink area and then quickly walk around your kitchen tidying
up. You know, maybe you need to put
some seasonings away or some empty packages in the trash.
Just remove clutter. There might be items that don't
even belong in the kitchen. There might be appliances that
need to be put away because you don't use them all the time and
you have too many different items out.
Just do a quick straighten so that you'll be ready to wipe
your surfaces down after spending a few minutes on
dishes. Don't worry about spraying or
scrubbing the countertops just yet.
Just you're getting them ready and then of course, the next
thing I want you to do is quickly do the dishes.
OK, I'm going to give you about 5 minutes.
I know it's not a lot, but remember I said I wasn't going
to give you a lot of time. This is just a quick daily
reset. And ideally you should be
washing dishes either after every meal or at least twice a
day if if you're eating a lot of meals at home.
You know, if you're eating all three meals at home, twice a day
might be OK. But I would love to see you get
into the habit of not letting the dishes sit, because doing
them after every meal keeps build up from taking over your
kitchen and it's always tempting to leave the dishes for later,
especially after a big meal. Or maybe it was all you could do
to make dinner after a long day and you want to just collapse
after dinner And obviously be working on your current dish
pile while I talk. Maybe you need to pre rinse your
silverware, glasses, bowls and plates and fill up the sink and
start that first sink load. Or maybe you're doing a quick
empty reload and run of the dishwasher.
Or maybe you're getting some difficult items soaking, hand
washing the rest or putting the rest in the dishwasher.
I know they're all different situations and everybody does
things differently and whether or not you have a dishwasher can
make a huge difference in your routine.
I get it. But be working on dishes right
now, whatever that means for you.
With some things in life you can procrastinate and the job is the
same if you do it later. But doing dishes is not the
same. When you let the food dry on and
harden, it gets way harder. Not that it's that difficult,
but it becomes more time consuming.
And whenever you do dishes after a meal, you want to take just a
couple of minutes to throw away trash, put a few items away, and
then wipe down the kitchen counters, stove top, and table.
If you're eating at the table, maybe it's your coffee table
that needs to be wiped down after a meal.
But don't beat yourself up if you have not been consistently
doing your dishes after meals. I get it, life happens and
different people struggle with different things, but I think
dishes are a struggle for a lot of people, which is why I talk
you through it so many times on this show.
Keep plugging away on those dishes.
You may be getting close to the finish line if you're just
cleaning up after one meal. However, if you feel like
there's no end insight and you're just not getting down to
dish 0 even every day, something needs to change.
Maybe you need to purchase some paper plates, paper bowls,
disposable silverware for a while just as a temporary fix so
you can get caught up. When I was raising younger
children, my youngest kids are teenagers.
The rest are adults now. But when I had little kids and
was overwhelmed with housework on days where I was experiencing
a pile up of dishes, I would often order pizzas that night
and just serve them on paper plates or on paper towels so
that we did not add to the mess. And that doesn't happen often
now, But that used to be kind of my wild card that I would play
in an emergency, and that was ordering pizzas and not dirtying
a single plate. Cups and glasses were never
really a challenge for me because most of the time I've
had a dishwasher. There was a house where I did
not have a dishwasher. But I had the right idea during
that era. And in some ways, I think not
having a dishwasher has its benefits because at that house
where there just was not a dishwasher, I was consistently
washing dishes throughout the day because I kind of lived in
fear of a pile up. I didn't want some overwhelming
pile of dried on stuff. And it's not that I'm just some
kind of housekeeping guru. It's because I was raised with a
dishwasher. And first thing I thought when I
moved in and realized I I didn't have one was I'm going to have
to keep up on these dishes. Granted, I had a smaller
workload. I only had two kids at that time
and 1 was an infant. So we weren't dirtying up as
many dishes as say, during times when we've been a family of five
or six or seven. Wipe down the kitchen counters,
stove top and table. By the way, if you're enjoying
this content and you're getting a lot done, please take a moment
to give this podcast a five star review and positive rating on
whichever app you're listening on.
It would be greatly appreciated and special thanks to those who
have already done so. OK, Hopefully you've have had
enough time to do the dishes. You can always pause the episode
or rewind it. That's kind of an old term,
rewind. Do people even say that anymore?
Anyway, the next thing I want you to do is a 5 minute pickup.
We're going to spend the next 5 minutes picking up.
This is probably going to be in your outer areas like your
living room or family room, or maybe you have two living areas.
You're going to return items like books, blankets, gaming
controllers, TV remotes to their proper places.
You're going to straighten couch cushions and throw pillows.
You're going to clear whatever off of the floor, whether it's
shoes or some other clutter toys.
And of course, you're also going to be clearing your furniture.
OK, There might be items on the couch that don't belong, you
know, a sweater that was haphazardly tossed onto the
couch or maybe a throw blanket that's crumpled up and needs to
either be draped over the back of the couch or folded neatly
into a square. And if you don't have a lot to
pick up because some of us try to keep these living rooms, you
know, perpetually tidy, you can always start dusting the
furniture. But tailor this episode to fit
your current situation. You might be just removing
clutter off of the floor and furniture, and then maybe you'll
wipe surfaces after the episode or tomorrow just be working in
your outer areas, getting them picked up and vacuum or sweep
ready, we'll call it. In a messy room, if you tell
yourself you're going to sweep or vacuum afterward, that's
going to help you resist the temptation to leave a few things
out. You're going to do it right
because you're getting it vacuum ready or sweep ready or Roomba
ready if you have one of those robot vacuums.
I don't, but some people do, so I'm just throwing that out
there. And the times in these episodes
are approximate because I do go back and edit them, you know,
for a better listener experience.
So sometimes I might say, you know, we're going to be doing
this for 5 minutes and it ends up being 4 minutes or 6 minutes.
I apologize for that. But I want you just to be up and
moving while I talk. And you're going to get a lot
done, I promise. Maybe this is your cleaning
session where you're working alone.
You know, if you have kids, maybe you're cleaning while
they're at school or during their nap or while they're
playing outside or after they go to bed or before they get up in
the morning. However, some of you can
delegate to your kids. And when you're picking up a
room and you find things that belong to other people, you can
always call them in and say, hey, come, come get this and put
it, put it away. You don't want to always be
returning things to someone's room.
And I'm talking about school age kids who are old enough to pick
up after themselves or even older teenagers and adults.
You want to mention, hey, can you come get your shoes?
Because you want them to be mindful of the fact that they
left it out and not just think that the house cleaning fairy is
going to come behind them and pick up after them.
That said, you don't always want to leave other people's stuff if
if they're not around, you're going to go ahead and just pick
it up because the goal is to get your house presentable.
Right now. I'm just talking about when they
are there. Get them involved in putting
their own items away. Now today we're talking about
your living areas. But as far as your daily reset
routine, you might not need to reset your living room every
day. You might not have kids
spreading toys out. You might not be in that season
of life. But I challenge you to choose
one space each each day and just spend 5 minutes putting things
back where they belong. And that space might not be a
living room, family room, hallway.
It could be an office, a guest room, a bathroom, a bedroom.
But small resets like this keep the mess from multiplying and
making you feel overwhelmed. Maybe it's going to be a few
days before you spend a lot of time deep cleaning, but you want
your space to feel tidy throughout the week.
And it's possible you might not even have the time or energy for
a big clean this week. Maybe you go 2 weeks in between
deeper cleans. Everyone's workload is
different. Everyone's lifestyle is
different. Everyone's priorities are
different. But everyone, and I mean
everyone, can benefit from doing small things each day that allow
you to keep up on housework and that keep your house looking
presentable in between deeper cleaning sessions.
OK, this last segment is another flexible segment.
I want you to either reset your bathroom sinks and counters and
floors, basically a bathroom straighten.
I'm not talking about the deep cleaning that you do in your
bathroom where you scrub with chemicals and you clean the
mirrors. I'm talking about clearing
clutter off of the vanity area, making sure you've got plenty of
toilet paper and stock a fresh hand towel, and then picking up
items off of the floor and taking out the trash.
It's what I call a bathroom straighten.
You can either do that or if the floor is more of a problem in
your main living areas and kitchen, then you're going to do
a quick floor sweep or vacuum or both.
OK, So again, for these last few minutes, you're either going to
straighten one or two bathrooms and I talked a little bit about
what that involves, or you're going to do a quick floor sweep
where you vacuum your main living areas and kitchen or
alternatively your bedroom floor might need attention.
We have to vacuum our bedroom floor often because we have a
sliding glass door in the bedroom and sometimes the dogs
track in stickers that we don't want to step on.
So vacuuming that bedroom floor is just a just as much of A
priority as vacuuming the living room and hallway, which are more
visible areas. And of course, the kitchen is
probably the most important floor of all to keep clean
because you don't want to track pests.
You've got to get those crumbs up and you've got to sweep or
vacuum before you can spot mop those sticky areas.
If someone's spilling in your floor, if you know, you know.
So maybe you're working on floors right now or maybe you're
doing a quick bathroom reset. And if you did not have a lot of
clutter on your bathroom, vanity or floor, and it didn't take you
long to take out the trash or maybe your wastebasket wasn't
even full, of course you can do a quick wipe down.
It's definitely ideal to do a wipe down in your bathroom once
a day to prevent grime from building up.
I don't talk about this as often, but just like it's harder
to wash dishes that have been sitting, it's harder to scrub
any surface that's not getting cleaned often enough.
A lot of people just have the habit of, after using their
bathroom sink, wiping down the vanity area.
I'm talking about when a little water gets splashed around
because you washed your hands, your face, brushed your teeth.
That moisture that's getting splattered onto the sink and
vanity kind of allows for an opportunity to clean because you
can grab a hand towel or a paper towel and wipe that up.
Obviously you're going to be cleaning with a disinfectant
during a deeper cleaning session, but I'm talking about
these little touch ups. And if it's possible for you to
keep cleaning products in the bathroom, you could, you know,
spray your mirror even and wipe it with a microfiber cloth just
as part of your routine after you get ready in the morning.
And you can use something natural if you don't like
spraying chemicals. It could be a bit a mixture of
vinegar and water, maybe with some essential oil in it to make
it smell good. You can always research things
like that online. I'm not so much about the
products and the ratios as I am just getting you through the
actual tasks of cleaning. Some people keep disinfecting
wipes in the bathroom to wash the flusher handle and the
exterior parts of the toilet. A lot of young moms will wipe
down the bathroom surfaces while supervising a child in the
bathtub, and that would be a situation where you would not
want to use heavy chemicals, obviously.
But you can still wipe things down using natural products or
just water, you know, as a way of touching up your bathroom in
between deeper cleanings. I hope you got at least four
things done during this episode. If you chose to work in the
bathrooms instead of the floors or the floor, do the floors
instead of the bathrooms because I really didn't give you time to
do both. Maybe put on some music and keep
working after this, or listen to another episode that focuses on
an area that you need to work in.
Like maybe your your bedroom needs an overhaul.
Maybe you made the bed but the rest of your room's a problem.
If you've made it this far in the episode, you would probably
benefit from cleaning along with longer episodes.
Special thanks to those who are already supporting the show
financially and have unlocked those episodes either through an
Apple Podcasts subscription, Spotify subscription, or by
joining my Patreon page. OK, for those of you who don't
know this, you can unlock longer episodes for a small monthly
fee. I don't expect anyone to do it,
but I sure appreciate it when someone does.
And I feel like your house will thank you, your spouse might
thank you, but mainly just do it for yourself.
I appreciate each and everyone of you.
And as always, happy cleaning. I'll talk to you in the next
episode.