Finding your Clean Enough

I am not a good housekeeper.  I cannot claim that I ever have been, but I do try to do my best.  The key is my best.  Not your best, not my mother-in-law's best, not my best friends best, my best.  We all know that if we do not keep up on the day to day stuff in our house, it becomes overwhelming.  A good friend of mine, my "Georgia Peach", just wrote about this on her blog, http://susannorris.blogspot.com.  She called it Chemical Warfare.  I call it taking back the house.

I always said that when I get really sick, sick enough to be in bed for a day, I am ten days behind.  Think about it, if we as moms take one full day off, we are at least ten days behind.  That is because we have little elves in our house that go around messing it the heck up.  Okay, the elves are our children and husband, but you get my drift.

As I came downstairs today to read my bible, pray and blog, there is a blanket crumpled on the floor next to the couch.  I did not leave it there, one of my kids, after watching TV, left it there to go up to bed.  Now, I could leave it there all day to prove a point (it is just laying there, mocking me and my house) or I will probably get up after this, fold it and put it away where it belongs.

Which brings me to your "clean enough"  We all have a breaking point where we feel the need to do the deep cleaning.  Usually in the spring or before the holidays, so when we have people over, they don't get disgusted.  I am not talking about deep cleaning, I am talking about your day to day stuff.  I do have a list, it may help, it took me a while to make it right, but it is pretty good.  Make your own list, because different things bug different people.

1. If you have a child or many children, you gotta do the laundry every day.  That commercial for the washing machine that hold six months of laundry detergent, with the big ball of clothes rolling at your house, that could happen.
2. You have to feed your kids every day, and not pop tarts all the time.  Embrace your crock-pot, there are great recipes that even the kids will eat.
3. In the morning, empty your dishwasher so you can load dishes in it all day.   That way they aren't all in the sink when your pastor just drops by for a cup of coffee.
4. The big ticket stuff, bathrooms, vacuuming, all those things can usually be done on a weekly basis.  If you have little babies, crawling around on the floor, I would vacuum daily, because the cheerios can get ankle deep in one week.
5. You have children, they need chores, assign them some.  They can dust and do the floors and shake out rugs and stuff.
6. The really massive stuff, floorboards, ceiling fans, windows, that stuff can be done monthly and be kept up pretty well.
7. Clear away clutter, a place for everything and everything in it's place.  At least on the level of your house where company can see.  

In saying all of this, I have fallen short and ended up with black rings in my toilet.  We all have those times.  Finding your "clean enough" is okay.  My marker is if I can take the house back in a day or less.  My house looked the best the summer the kids were fighting and I made a chore jar.  Every time they started to go at it, I stopped them, they picked a chore and then had to do it.  It was awesome.  

What is your awesome cleaning tip or way to get your house in shape?  I would love to hear it.

God bless you and yours.