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Most people clean their bedrooms everyday. Make the beds, pick up
the dirty clothes, and generally straighten up. It is good enough to
get you through until the next deep cleaning attack on your
bedrooms. You know the kind, the one cleaning spree you have to
split into two days. It is so much work, you burn off a weeks worth
of calories. Well, no more ladies. I'm here to change you way of
cleaning from twice a year cleaning marathons to fifteen minutes a
day and thirty minutes once a week. That's right. Follow my methods
and you'll have clean bedrooms (even the kids rooms) and more time to
yourself.
Step one is to create a schedule and make time for fifteen minutes a
day for the bedrooms. If you have more than one room, change this
thirty minutes to begin with. I have three bedrooms and I've gotten
my daily routine (for all three bedrooms) down to under fifteen
minutes. The bedrooms are part of my morning routine and are usually
finished before nine am.
Start in your bedroom and work around the room. Make the bed, fluff
the pillows and straighten the sheets. It is so nice to get into a
bed that is made. Pick up everything on the floor. Put shoes and
clothes where they belong. Don't keep a dirty clothes hamper in your
bedroom. It only creates clutter. Take your clothes straight into
the hallway. (Don't worry they won't be there forever.) Make sure
nothing extra is sitting around on the dressers or tables. Put
everything up. Use a feather duster to knock down dust as you go
along. Make sure to dust pictures, corners, windowsills and even
toys. Carry a wet cloth with you to wipe away fingerprints and other
spots of dirt. Clean all glass surfaces with a squirt of glass
cleaner and a quick wipe. Move on to the next room. When you
have "swept" through all the bedrooms like a superwoman cleaning
tornado, you'll have a pile of clothes in the hallway. Step over it
and get the vacuum. Make a quick run over the high traffic areas in
each room with your vacuum (or broom if you have hardwood floors).
Put the vacuum away. Take the laundry to the laundry room and sort.
Prop your feet up and relax until the timer goes off, you deserve it!
Now I know what you are thinking. I can't possible do all that needs
to be done to our bedrooms in fifteen to thirty minutes. Yes you
can! Only do the things I listed and don't get side tracked into
alphabetizing your bookshelf. That can wait.
On to step 2. Schedule each bedroom for one day each week to "deep
clean" Don't get scared by those words, "deep clean", read on. Say
Tuesday is deep clean your bedroom day. Set your timer for thirty
minutes. The first time you use this method, grab a notebook and
take notes. Write down all those big bedroom projects you want to
do. Like, clean out the closet, re-organize the clothes, etc. Work
on one of these projects each week. Don't get side tracked. Stick
to the plan. If you are cleaning out from under the bed and run
across another project, add it to your list for another day. After
about two months of using this method, you'll be amazed at how
organized your bedroom is and how quickly you can deep clean it.
Also on your bedroom day, make sure you wash and change the
bedcovers, dust your room completly, vacuum every crack and corner,
clean your ceiling fan and other light fixtures, turn the mattress,
wash the curtains, clean the carpet, declutter the closet, and
rearrange the furniture. Is your heart racing yet? I don't mean for
you to do all these things every week. You generally have four
Tuesdays every month. On the first Tuesday, do all the regular
bedroom deep cleaning duties but also concentrate on vacuuming,
changing the covers and dusting. Then on the second Tuesday, along
with the regular deep cleaning duties, wash the walls, scrub the
baseboards and other surfaces. And so on and so on. Until you've
come a complete circle in about four to five weeks and then start the
circle over with again.
Schedule your time wisely and you'll be able to get around to those
projects in only thirty minutes a week. If your
timer goes off and you are not finished, it'll keep another week. If
you don't want to stop, work for 30 more minutes. You don't want to
burn yourself out. Use this same method on all the bedrooms. You'll
find that even the kids will help keep their rooms clean.
My final piece of advice is to make sure the cleaning routine you
choose works for you. Mine is constantly being revised to fit my
ever changing lifestyle. Don't be afraid to stray from your schedule
a little. Nobody ever died from being attacked by a dust bunny!
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