Monday, June 8, 2009

Walk By Cleaning

Does your house look like this? (Do you like how the clothes are on the floor right next to the basket?)
Or this?
Personally I am a fan of the second pic. Amazingly my laundry room looks like this almost all the time. I feel so much better when I can walk around in my home and everything is put away and clean.
I began doing a simple chore list that I have certain things scheduled for each day. These chores even include meal planning time, exercise, shopping days, etc. If you are a goal oriented person like me then you won't be able to stand not crossing something off the list. Hence, all of your goals for the day get done. Including exercising, which all of us could stand to do. Our bodies will thank us! But I also gave the 3 kids who are old enough to be responsible rooms to keep up with. To make sure the cleaning actually got done I introduced the "walk by" cleaning method. My kids scrunched up their faces as if to say "walk by? mom's finally lost it". But I explained that every time they walk thru or into their room if they will just grab an item out of place as they breeze past it and put it where it belongs quickly then they will almost never have to stop to clean. This got their attention. Not have to stop playing to clean? Tell us more.
For the living room cleaner I said. As you breeze through the room you have to pass the kitchen right? Yes he says. I say if something is in the living room that belongs in the kitchen then as you pass thru pick it up and place it in the kitchen as you leave. The kitchen is right off the living room. Each time you enter your room just do a quick scan of the room. If something is out of place or left behind walk by it and pick it up and place it where it belongs. You clean as you walk by.
I have a rule in my house. If you leave shoes or clothing or any other belonging laying around then when it gets picked up it is tossed/thrown into your room and it lands where it lands. They have to pick up whatever is thrown into their rooms. I find it useful to throw stuff onto their beds since they actually need the bed to sleep in they have to pick it up. If I find it on the floor they can't leave the room until it's put away, he he.
For Lexi, she has the kitchen. I say to her with the exception of the dishes each time you come in here to grab the phone or get a drink/snack just pick up one item or two if they are not put away.
I have to say, "walk by" cleaning has really transformed our house. As you walk by a room, if something is out of place and especially if you are heading towards where that item belongs then pick it up and put it where it belongs. It takes seconds to put something away this way and the home is being cleaned constantly without having to stop to clean. My house is clean every single day now. I can't believe it!! My husband is very happy about this.
Why am I posting about this? Because we all had a rough day on Saturday and Sunday we were at church like, the WHOLE day practically. We even had an ice cream social after Sunday service and then a game of kick ball. Too much fun. But as we got ready for church Sunday and came and went very quickly we were all tired out those days and guess what we didn't do? Yep, we didn't do any cleaning OR any walk by cleaning and do you know what my house is right now? A MESS!!!! So as I looked around at the chaos before me every place I turned I truly realized how impactful "walk by" cleaning was in our home. In just 2 days the place went to poo. And I mean poo. Boy, we'll all have to stop and do some meaningful cleaning ha ha. The only clean room in my home today is the laundry room. Thankfully!!
A clean home brings peace. A clean home is calming. And your husband probably would love to come home to a clean home if you are a SAHM. If not, you would probably love to come home to a clean home too since most working moms also do the majority of house work too. Which isn't fair and stinks I must say. Been there and done that. So all the more reason to give walk by cleaning a try with the kids. It's a competition with 2 of mine as to who can keep their room cleaner. I'll take it. Now, if I can just train my husband........
*** A heads Up***
I just remembered something that happened with my son and I thought I should share it with you in case this is something your family does too.
My kids love video games, don't most of them? Well, being frugal we trade in lots of games and buy used games. We also buy USED MEMORY CARDS. Recently my son was able to buy a PSP by trade ins for only $20. We also received a used memory card for like, nothing. Well, the PSP is also a digital camera. I never thought to check the memory as I would have thought Game Stop deletes all memory. Well, I guess that doesn't always happen. My son came out and told me there were some "naughty pictures" on his PSP from the memory card. YIKES!! I spent almost 2 whole hours deleting porn off his PSP. Hundreds of pictures of naked women, blah. I didn't want to see that but I sure as heck wasn't letting my husband delete those pic's lol. No way Jose. Some things I sure could wish I never saw. Did you know you can put two winkie dinkies in your love cave at the same time? I never knew that, I wish I hadn't seen it let me tell ya. Hoping the 12 year old didn't either. So, if you are a frugal Game Stoper like we are, PLEASE check your memory cards first!!
Jennifer

3 comments:

Ladybug's Mom said...

Are you sure you haven't been over to my house? That picture of the laundry NEXT to the hamper looks suspiciously familiar...

Perhaps there is a gene on the Y chromosome that makes men fear putting the laundry in the hamper. As if the world will self destruct if they put there underwear in a vented, plastic receptacle....

Shanda said...

My son's room often looks like the first picture...it's like he cannot even really see that he has missed the laundry hamper!

Love you idea of getting the kids to do the "walk by's." I do it all of the time; but never thought to articulate it to them.

So sad that those pics made it all the way to your house! There is SO MUCH to be trying to protect/preserve our kids from these days. We will keep that in mind as we often swap games, etc. too to save $.

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