Most days my house looks like the Queen of Chaos lives here, not the Proverbs 31 Woman. My home has a mind of its own and quickly slips out control. While I’m cleaning the kitchen, entropy takes over in the bathroom. I do a quick room rescue in the living room, but by bedtime it looks like World War III.
I know that the wise woman watches over the affairs of her household. (Proverbs 31:27)
I get that bottom line faith-in-action is caring for my family, and that includes looking after my home. Totally get that.
I want my home to be a place of peace, beauty, and order for my family and visitors.
But my reality right now? I just don’t have much time or energy to focus on my house. Homeschooling two kids in high school, serving as a pastor’s wife, encouraging younger women, a weekly community service project and a bible study make my plate full.
I imagine you have a full plate too. Maybe like me, you abandoned an organized cleaning schedule a long time ago. So today I thought I’d share my “Not-So-Super” Housecleaning Strategy for busy women:
Tackle what’s bothering you most!
Determine Your Bottom Line Priority
What frustrates you the most if it’s left undone? A cluttered entryway? A dirty bathroom? For me, it’s a dirty kitchen floor, so the rest of the house can fall down around our ears, but if that kitchen floor is swept and mopped, I’m happy. Determine your bottom line priority and do that even if you don’t have time for anything else.
Establish 2 or 3 next-in-line priorities, and get to them as time permits. For me those are bathrooms, laundry, and vacuuming floors.
What’s Driving You Crazy Now?
Once or twice a day, take a few minutes to tackle whatever’s bothering you the most NOW! Cleaning a dirty kitchen window or clearing a cluttered surface changes my outlook towards my house. Over time, tackling small jobs one by one makes for a more peaceful home.
Housekeeping is an unseen job that we don’t receive many thanks for. Most of us don’t really love it. Looking on the bright side, however, it does give us a chance to put our faith into action by serving those we love.
What about you? How do you feel about housework? Have any tips for getting things done that you can share with the rest of us?
Thanks for stopping by on Faith in Action Friday. Join me on Fridays for shorter, practical posts about living out our faith in our families and communities. I want to learn more about putting feet to my faith in everyday life, and I invite you to grow along with me!
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Linking up with Mel Caldicott at Essential Things Devotions today.
This post has found me right where I am – today! I am tackling the spots that are making me crazy, and giving attention to the areas that greet guests first. After that our plan is to tackle the to-do list one things at a time.
Thanks for your encouraging words today! stopping by from Essential Things Friday.
Areas that greet guests first. That’s a great idea. Thanks for sharing.
Since we’ve become empty nest-ers, our home is much cleaner, but I would rather have my children here. 🙂
My main spots are the dining room table, the kitchen counters, laundry and the bedroom. I make the bed as soon as I get up, so that improves the room about 85%. The dining room table is the only table we have, so I use it as a desk, and hubby and I eat our meals there. The kitchen counters get cleaned and wiped down about 2 times a day, Laundry tends to be in 3 places -place 1 – the laundry bags are in the closet. I do laundry every other day, so at that point some of the dirty clothes are in the washer that would be place 2. After that, since our dryer is old and extremely slow, I hang our clothes on the drying rack out on our enclosed balcony -place 3. When they are dry, they are folded and put away. That is my system, and it seems to work. 🙂
Wow, you’ve got quite a system, there, Karen! Wanna come to my house?? 🙂 It’s so true that the simple act of making the bed improves a room about 85%. I’m lucky, my husband does it for me.
I don’t feel comfortable in my own home if the public rooms are messy and the kitchen is dirty. It makes me feel stressed if my living room or the hall bath are untidy or if the kitchen sink is stacked with dirty dishes.
Unfortunately, my kids don’t share this feeling!
I ask them to have all their things picked up from the public spaces and the dishwasher unloaded before I get home from work, so I can feel happy walking through the living room and starting dinner in the kitchen. The kids are usually cooperative, but often it takes some nagging to get things picked up!
I’m sort of like you, Deborah. I don’t like mess in the living room either, and it can be a losing battle unless you get others involved. That’s great that your kids pitch in!
Merhaba Betsy! Paylaşımını beğeniyorum. Her bayan gibi ben de benzer şeyler yaşıyorum. Son zamanlar çocuklarımdan daha çok yardım isterim. Mesela tozu almak – kızımın görevidir. Kızım 12 yaşındadır. Akşam yemeyinden sonra mutfağı çoğu zaman artık o süpürüyor. Bazen kapıların kolunu siliyor. 8 yaşındaki oğlum komik olsa da çamaşırları katlamayı sever. O yüzden bu fırsat ona veriyorum. Tabii ki çok düzenli yapamıyor ama tecrube topluyor. Fark ediyorum ki çocuklarımın yardımından faydalanabilmem için onları hep hatırlatmalıyım. Umarım onlar büyünce alışkanlık haline gelir.
Oğlumun yaşı 8 değil , 9tur! Ne çabuk büyüyorlar:)
Merhaba Kosi! Bloguma ziyaret ettiğine teşekkür ederim! Evet, bencede çocuklardan yardım istemek harika bir fikir! Kesinlikle yalnız temizlik yapmamız anlamsız ve münkün değil nasıl ola. (Ama ne yazık ki büyüyünce de hatırlatmak gerekecek bence. Bizim ailemizde böyle.) Rab seninle olsun bu hafta canım.
Finally, a house-keeping post I can relate to! I’m terrible at this and my house often gets away from me. Hard to find the time between a full-time job, kids who want my attention when I get home and all the other activities we do. I love your plan – focus on the small things that bug you the most. My other trick – invite someone over. Nothing like a little incentive to get you to do a quick pickup/clean. Had my in-laws come to visit and a play date yesterday – best prompt ever to get the family in action to make the house look presentable. Ha!
Isn’t that the truth! Having people over, I mean. In my old, organized days, my house was always company ready, but no longer!!! And I love the idea of getting the whole family in action. someone on FB messaged me that suggestion, which I thought was great.