We are on a theme of keeping the house clean on a regular basis. And this is part three. I’m going to keep it really simple. Have cleaning products in every area of your home so that you don’t have to go somewhere to get something to clean what needs to be cleaned.
Always keep cleaning supplies readily available in the bathroom for regular use. If your house has two floors, designate a specific area on the second floor for cleaning products. This way, you won’t have to go searching for supplies when you need them.
I’m going to get into what you actually need to clean because people have way too many cleaning supplies.
In the bathroom, it’s a good idea to keep items for cleaning glass, something for the toilet, and some kind of general cleaner for the floor, counter, and tub/shower. Having washcloths and also having paper towels in the bathroom is a good idea. Alternatively, those pull-out wipes can also be useful. The wipes and paper towels are convenient for cleaning the toilet since I can use them and then toss them. This way, I don’t need to worry about reusing them for other things.
I keep one specific rag that I use, and I usually place it on top of the spray bottle that I utilize for a few days before cleaning it. In every other place in your house, it’s a good idea to have some cleaning products, but not an excessive amount.
Make sure that in your kitchen, you have what you need to take care of everything on your first floor. Be sure to have some cloths that work well for dusting, including wands and tools to manage cobwebs and baseboards. You’ll want to have something for cleaning glass, as well as a product for polishing if you polish your furniture. And don’t forget an all-purpose cleaning product.
There’s a product called Thieves that’s great for disinfecting and cleaning. I really love it. It’s versatile—you can use it in your bathroom or for general cleaning around your house. It lasts a very long time, and you can also use it in other areas of your house. It’s made by a company called Young Living. If you’re interested in finding out more about it, I have someone I could connect you with. But really, any kind of general house cleaner, go to the Dollar it doesn’t matter. You can make your own too, vinegar, water, and a couple of drops of dishwashing soap.
Now, my sister Maria does this and I loved it, so I do it too.
Have a bunch of rags, crappy towels that weren’t good anymore and you’ve ripped up or actually bought to use for cleaning. Have a stack of those in your laundry room or somewhere that makes sense in a basket or something. And then in your kitchen, you’d have just a little stack of them. Every time you use one, throw it by the laundry area. Have a little basket for them because they’ll usually be wet, you don’t want them sitting with other laundry. You always want to have like a little stash of rags to use. Then just replenish the major stash as you wash them and you put them. You want a broom and a mop, but you don’t have to have a mop.
A lot of people like to wash the floor on their hands and knees. I actually do it with my foot and a rag a lot of times. There’s a specific mop that I like a lot. It’s the kind that has little tiny clothes coming from it. See the image on the video… I’m not an affiliate with them, but I do like them. And the reason I like these mops is that they actually get into the corners and don’t just push dirt around. They actually do clean it. I don’t like sponge mops. They don’t clean very well. They just push the dirt around.
Often I’ll get down on my hands and knees to wash the floor, or as I mentioned earlier, I use my foot along with a rag that’s been dipped in a cleaning solution after I’ve wrung it out. Occasionally, I’ll have a spray bottle on hand and just give the floor a spritz before wiping it down with a damp rag, using my foot. The key here is that if you maintain a consistent cleaning routine and address things before they need it,, you can avoid the need for intense cleaning.
Then once a week, I’ll do just a once-over kind of thing. And then once a month, I do a detailed cleaning. But I’m telling you, that major cleaning is always easy when you do this on a regular basis. And it makes everything so easy.
We’ll talk about a system that works really well for maintaining the house from top to bottom, where it’s kind of scheduled. But for this, what we’re talking about is just having cleaning supplies in the areas that need cleaning. If you have a second floor you want stuff on the second floor and in the kitchen.
In the kitchen would be whatever you would use for the entire first floor. But you do want to have something in the bathroom on the first floor too. Just a spray bottle, some paper towels, maybe something for the toilet. To clean the toilet I actually use just whatever I’m using for the other parts of it. If you do it on a regular basis you don’t need anything crazy.
I understand that things don’t miraculously clean themselves, but having the necessary supplies within easy reach enables us to efficiently complete our tasks without the hassle of searching or struggling to locate things in hard-to-find spots. This makes the job much less challenging.
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I’ll see you next week with another tip on keeping the house clean on a regular basis.
With so much LOVE!
Kathy Roberts
The Tidy Tutor
