Cleaning Solutions
by
Larissa Lee
Rahway NJ USA
From NEW BEGINNINGS, Vol. 19 No. 3, May-June 2002, p. 84
With a new baby, or as a family
grows, many mothers get that out-of-control feeling, as tasks that seemed
effortless before children suddenly take longer-and all of a sudden,
the house looks messier than it ever did before.
For Emily Mellgren of Rockville,
Maryland, USA, trying to get out of the house after her second baby
was born had become an ordeal. Just getting everyone dressed, fed, packing
bags, and getting out the door was taking almost as long as the outing
itself. And she didn't like the feeling of being out of control.
Mothers who have worked outside
the home and then plan to stay home full-time sometimes have high expectations
of how great the house will look once they are home. In fact, many new
mothers discover that it's harder than ever to find time for the basics
such as cooking, cleaning, or even taking a shower. When a new mother
is home all day there is much more work to do than there was while she
was employed-there are more meals to cook, more laundry to do, and more
messes to clean up. Long, uninterrupted stretches of time to clean are
no longer available. Adhering to a strict cleaning schedule can seem
impossible to the mothers of breastfeeding infants.
On the other hand, a mother
who is returning to work after the birth of a baby won't find the house
gets very dirty during the day, but she will have to squeeze a lot of
work into very few hours in the evenings and on the weekends. Making
meals, getting laundry done, and basic cleaning might seem impossible
to do when a mother returns home from work and wants to cuddle with
the baby instead of doing more work.
Enter the so-called home
organization experts. There are Web sites and dozens of books devoted
to helping people get organized in order to have cleaner homes. Many
of the authors have useful suggestions that can be tailored to meet
individual families' needs. This article provides helpful housekeeping
tips and information from the experts.
Discover the Cleaning Minimums
Cynthia Townley Ewer, the
editor of www.organizedhome.com,
emphasizes that when you are the mother of a newborn baby it is not
the time to take on major household projects or tackle all the clutter
that has built up in your closets. Instead she says this is the time
to do only "cleaning minimums-the rock bottom you have to do"
just to keep the house functioning. She suggests that the absolute core
tasks new mothers have to figure out how to do are their own hygiene,
meals, and keeping up with the laundry.
But new mothers don't even
have to do these tasks alone. Friends and family who offer to help can
be asked to do a load of laundry, bring a casserole for dinner, or keep
an eye on a sleeping baby so a new mother can take a shower. Fathers
or older siblings can keep the clutter picked up, prepare meals, and
do the laundry. New mothers shouldn't be afraid to ask for help because
most people who offer help truly want to do something, and "experienced
mothers know that you're lying if you say you don't need some help"
in the early postpartum months, said Ewer.
Ewer also suggests that mothers
won't be able to tackle Martha Stewart-inspired projects when their
babies grow into toddlers, either. "Any time you have a toddler
or infant, you are doing a massively important job" by nurturing
another human being, she said, and mothers will still have to scale
down expectations about how much they can accomplish with toddlers and
preschoolers around.
The www.organizedhome.com
Web site has plenty of information on cleaning minimums, as well as
how to clean more efficiently and how to keep a home organized, regardless
of your family size or situation. Ewer said that just paying attention
to the location of items in your home can yield dividends in terms of
greater efficiency. For example, you probably need to keep your toaster
on the kitchen counter for everyday use, but you may prefer to put away
any other tools that you use infrequently because they clutter the kitchen
counter and require cleaning. Keep cleaning supplies where you use them
so that anytime you get a spare moment, you can take a swipe at the
dirt without spending your precious free time searching for supplies.
Create a Routine That Works
for You
"New mothers need new
routines," commented Ewer, and learning a new cleaning system can
be a smart investment in time because you can begin to clean more efficiently
and effectively. Young adults may need to learn ways that work for them.
Getting your home organized and decluttered will pay dividends as the
children grow and life becomes more hectic. Bigger children make bigger
messes, and having a system to keep up with the messes will make life
more comfortable for everyone living in the home.
There are plenty of tips
on cleaning and scheduling in Confessions of An Organized Homemaker
(Available from LLLI, No. 38-7, $11.99) by Deniece Schoefield. The author,
as the mother of five children, makes it clear that schedules need to
be individualized because each family has different needs depending
on the size of the home, the number of people in the house, and the
family's lifestyle. Rather than trying to adjust your life to fit a
schedule, Schoefield suggests that people develop their own schedules
to meet their needs.
Ewer said that mothers shouldn't
be discouraged by the spotless appearance of other people's homes when
they're visiting or coming to attend an LLL meeting. "What you
didn't see was that the person ran around for two days hiding all the
clutter under the beds and in the closets." She also recommends
that mothers of young children not compare their homes to the homes
of parents who have grown children. Ewer explained that when young mothers
come to her home and see the clean, white carpeting and neat house,
she lets them know it is only because her children are grown and on
their own. "A house with children is a house with life," said
Ewer, and a house full of life isn't going to be perfect.
Judy Hain, LLL Leader and
mother of five from Cape May Court House, New Jersey, USA, said that
she is now at the point where she can invite people over without worrying
about clutter in the house. She said it is so much easier now that her
youngest child is eight because in the past most of her energy was spent
on caring for babies and young children, which made it difficult to
keep the house ready for visitors all the time. Hain stressed that if
she were able to go back in time, she would be much more ruthless in
getting rid of unnecessary things that only make home maintenance more
difficult for young mothers.
Find Support
Ewer suggests that mothers
who are struggling with balancing family care with housework find support
from other mothers. Perhaps you can meet other mothers who are working
on balancing housework with family needs at your local LLL Group, through
a playgroup, or at the park. Online communities, said Ewer, can be wonderful
sources of support because they allow you to find plenty of women who
are in similar situations.
One source of online support
comes from the Flylady-a Web site
run by Marla Cilley. The Flylady system is based on the side-tracked
home executives (SHE) system, as described in the book Sidetracked
Home Executives by Pam Young and Peggy Jones. (This book is currently
out of print but may be available in some LLL Group Libraries.)
The Flylady is on the Internet
at www.flylady.net and if you sign
up for her list she sends you an introductory email describing the system.
From then on you receive daily emails encouraging you to complete the
tasks she has set out for you. If you are interested in the Flylady
system but don't have email, Cilley has recently completed a book entitled
Sink Reflections-Flylady's Baby Step Guide to Overcoming CHAOS. CHAOS
is an acronym for "can't have anyone over syndrome" and is
a problem that causes many people to seek out a cleaning system, Cilley
said.
The first task on the Flylady
system is keeping the kitchen sink clean and shiny. Cilley believes
that people are often so overwhelmed with the thought of organizing
their entire home that they don't know where to start, so she begins
by urging them to keep the sink clean and shiny so that they feel a
sense of accomplishment as their kitchen gradually takes shape. "Clean
can be as contagious as clutter," Cilley commented, so having one
part of the kitchen clean allows you to continue through the kitchen
and gradually through the rest of the house.
The Flylady system also includes
morning and evening routines. The morning routine encourages readiness
for the coming day and evening routine is the key to getting the next
day started on the right foot. Cilley insisted that her system is "not
about cleaning all day" but rather it gets you to focus on a task
for a very limited amount of time, usually about 10 to 15 minutes. Many
women who join the Flylady system are "all-or-nothing" types
who want the house completely clean and organized right away. Cilley
stressed that it is important to take baby steps in organizing the house
and to focus completely on one task so that you feel that you have made
progress. She observed that people who decide to clean everything and
start by doing 10 things at once tend to get overwhelmed and give up.
Organizing an entire home is not something that can be done immediately.
Instead it's "like learning a new dance or aerobic routine"
which "you need to break down into small steps before moving onto
the next section." Each small step probably only takes a few minutes.
Jodie Lucas, an LLL Leader
and mother of two from Athens, Ohio, USA, said it wasn't difficult for
her and her family to take 10-minute intervals throughout the day to
put things away. Lucas said limiting each task to 10 minutes prevented
her "from becoming obsessive" and "made a huge difference
without seriously interfering with being an attached mother."
Cilley wants the people who
use her system to "feel good about themselves," thus taking
time for daily hygiene and getting completely dressed, including wearing
shoes, each day makes people feel better. It also sends a "signal
to your head that it's time to go to work," said Cilley. However,
some people find that once they have worked out a system, they can find
what works for them and leave the rest. Lucas says that now that her
house is under control she is her own boss and the Flylady is only a
"reminder system" to help her she keep it up.
Emily Mellgren, who had such
trouble getting her children out the door, uses the Flylady system now
and says she no longer struggles when she's trying to get her children
ready to go out. Part of her evening routine involves getting everything
packed for the next day. She even has time to prepare healthier meals
and snacks because she no longer reaches for processed convenience foods
as she rushes out the door. Mellgren adds that the Flylady system has
become almost a game since there are 70,000 other people using the same
cleaning system.
Part of the Flylady system
is a focus on decluttering for about 15 minutes a day. There is an assignment
of getting rid of 27 things, and you are supposed to work on decluttering
until you have found 27 things you can get rid of. Cilley also said
her system works very well if a pregnant woman begins using her system
and gets a lot of decluttering done before the baby arrives. Then the
new mother can focus on caring for her new baby, and housework can be
accomplished through simple morning and evening routines without working
around all the clutter in the house.
Other Resources
Decluttering is also a key
aspect of the cleaning books written by Don Aslett. In Aslett's books,
he says that clutter and junk in the home make it difficult to get anything
clean because people have to expend so much energy maintaining, storing,
and protecting things that they don't really need. Aslett's book Clutter's
Last Stand will help you determine what is junk in your home and
how to part with it. Doing the hard work of decluttering is also a way
to teach children to value relationships instead of things.
In addition to decluttering
advice, Aslett has a wealth of information on the most efficient way
to clean a house, how to keep it clean longer, and even how to design
a new house so that it will be easy to keep clean. His books, such as
Do I Dust or Vacuum First? and Is There Life After Housework?
are classics that explain cleaning in a simple, easy-to-read manner.
Aslett is humorous and sympathetic to women who spend time cleaning
up after other people.
Another system mothers have
found helpful is described in the books written by Jeff Campbell and
The Clean Team. Speed Cleaning describes detailed methods for
cleaning efficiently and effectively. The routines should help people
clean better in less time.
Mothers who are able to afford
household help can hire help either on a regular basis or for the larger
jobs that need to be done only a few times a year. Other mothers can afford
to hire a teenager to work as a mother's helper so that they can concentrate
on a few big projects that are difficult to complete with young children
around.
Get Everyone Involved
Another valuable idea is
to get partners and children involved in maintaining the house. Husbands
may need help seeing what needs to be done. Children will need to be
taught how to clean up after themselves. While it can take twice as
long to do a cleaning chore with a child, there are big dividends in
your time when the child recognizes that mother isn't the only person
who is going to keep the house neat and organized. Jodie Lucas says
she no longer asks her children and husband to "help her"
do a task; instead she points out what needs to be done so that they
can see that they all share the responsibility of completing chores.
Schoefield, in Confessions
of an Organized Homemaker, also has ideas for including other people
in home organization systems. Whether you have a packrat husband or
children who don't see the need to pick up after themselves, Schoefield
says you can get them involved in home organization. Her method includes
setting an example, talking about the new system, trying to tradeoff
chores, being understanding while your family adjusts, and pouring on
the praise as you see improvement. (For more ideas about involving children
in cleaning, see Chores Without Wars, reviewed in this issue.)
An additional tip that might
help is hiring a professional organizer. Linda Stevens, a professional
organizer from Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, said that a two-hour session
with an organizer can give you an unbiased opinion on what you should
concentrate on in order to get your home running more efficiently. A
friend or relative, said Stevens, may be "equally helpful if they
are gently honest" and help you see some of the problem spots in
your home that you don't notice.
Remember, cleaning systems
are tools for you to use. Being more organized can help you feel in
control because it enables you to keep your home the way you always
wanted it. This allows you to spend more time enjoying your family and
less time worrying about housework. Whatever system you use (or even
if you choose not to use any system at all), people before things is
still the most important system.
Page last edited Wed Sep 17 17:03:01 UTC 2008.
