Cleaning & Organizing
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
How do I become a clean freak or at least cleaner than i am?
Any suggestions, talking cleaning, hygiene, stuff like that.
Re: How do I become a clean freak or at least cleaner than i am?
Marry or at least live with a guy who is a clean freak.
That will change you...changed me!!
June 2012 Bride!
When you discover the secret please let me know! lol
I so wish I was more motivated to be cleaner and better organized.
Everyone's idea of clean is different. There was one a discussion on here about how often windows should be cleaned. I didn't even know it was something that should be cleaned. As long I can look through them they're clean enough.
When I was unemployed there was always something to clean. Now that I have a full time job I let things slide but I keep the clutter at bay.
I read somewhere and I have tried it.
Set an egg timer for 15 min...that is how long you have to clean a room in the house.
I set mine for 10min...and its amazing how quick things get done, not to mention the calorie burning aswell!!
Flylady for sure! It teaches you how to start gradually so it isn't overwhelming
My Planning Bio!
I used to be terrible at cleaning and organizing.
Very helpful.
I just make sure that first thing I do each morning when I wake up is showering. I could go 2-3 days without it, I don't sweat, or get greasy ... so its fairly useless, but I think its kind of nasty to not shower for that long lol ...
First things first - always make that a shower.
Instead of sweat pants, put on jeans each morning, don't let yourself be a shlub each day.
I think sometimes it all comes with age, don't allow clutter in your house. box up stuff that you don't use and put it away. Its so helpful to have crap put up and you don't use and you have to clean around all the damn time.
Create habits that help you in the future. This help so so so so so much.
I used to just leave dirty dishes in the sink, but I rinse everything that I put in the sink now, that way its clean for when I load the dishwasher. I never have to wash stuff to put it in the dishwasher.
I have literally 8-9 laundry baskets all around the house in closets, bathrooms, bedrooms, 2 in the laundry room. This way there aren't piles of laundry laying around the house, all my laundry is packed neatly in these baskets all around the house.
I hate vacuuming, so that is always something that needs to be done around the house... but I keep the vacuum out so its easy to get to, and doesn't take forever to start if I get the urge.
I do at least a load of laundry a day, so its not something that needs to be done constantly.
Organize stuff so that its easy to get to, if something isn't easy to get to and you take it out you're less likely to put it away.
Hygiene is easy, all you need is a shower. If you want your hair curly, shower early and put it in a bun. =D
Plucking your eyebrows might take a while and might be one of those things that will take a while but needs to be done, so take your time and make it feel like a pampering thing. =D
Good luck!
This sounds like an idea I would use, Thanks!
It is possible! For me, it was a gradual process. I finally committed to it because I knew I was draining so much energy from my poor neat-freak husband who was always cleaning up after me. When people would try to drop by unannounced or with little lead time, I'd turn into a Tazmnanian devil trying to make the place presentable, and each time realized it was all my stuff and my messes. It was tiring, and also a little embarrassing.
I grew up in a chaotic and messy house, and was never tought basic housekeeping or chores. I've had to train myself on one area/room at a time. If you try to do it all at once, you'll get overwhelmed, discouraged, and give up. You can't change who you inherently are, but you can develop new habits.
Rather than trying to become a total clean freak at once, I set a goal each month/every few months.
For example, one goal was to stop leaving things in my car (I used to accumulate quite a lot of random stuff in the back seat and trunk - a CD here, a water bottle there, a hat, extra sunglasses, magazines, etc). After a month of making sure that every day when I got home from work all excess items were brought into the apartment, it became not only a habit, but a point of pride for me, making me want to do it. I love that if someone wants to carpool with me, I no longer have to rush to my car to shuffle things out of the way for them to sit. I don't have that stress anymore. Now I can't stand having anything that doesn't belong in the car.
For the kitchen, rather than take it all on at once, one month I committed to making sure to hand wash any non-dishwasher items immediately after dinner. Now I can't stand the clutter of a dish being left overnight on the counter. Once that was habit, I moved onto things like scrubbing down all of the counter tops, stoves, appliances, etc weekly. Then after that became habit, my next step was getting used to cleaning the fridge out every week, cleaning out the cabinets to get rid of expired food, and so on and so forth.
For my bedroom, I started with the most visible: making our bed every morning. Now it drives me batty if it isn't made when I come home in the evening. Then I moved onto things like making sure my night stand was organized once a week, etc.
My biggest hurdle was dealing with laundry - it took about a half a year before that could become a good habit. I had to break it down into steps. Step one was making sure that as soon as I took off clothing I either hang it up or put it in my hamper, not setting it on the foot of my bed or in a laundry basket to deal with later. The next was making myself fold laundry as soon as it came out of the dryer. I used to throw it in a laundry basket that would sit by my bed or the foot of the couch for a week or two. Then I had to train myself to reorganize my closets and drawers regularly so things fit in them properly, and also to pull items to donate that I don't wear regularly.
Like I said, it's a long process, but if you focus on one thing long enough for it to become a habit, it's easier to start adopting more clean habits as you move forward. Rather than having to keep a million things in a mental check list, you have to make things second nature to you.
When I bring things into the apartment, such as groceries or luggage from a trip, no matter how tired I am, I unpack and put things away immediately. I put away the items, and also put away any reusable bags or suitcases.
I also try to comb through the apartment every few months to find items to donate, sell, or trash. The less things you have, the less things you have to keep organized.
The biggest things to do are:
to always put something away when you are done with it
if you see something that needs cleaning, do it away.
Don't let things pile up. The longer you put something off, the longer it will take to clean, and the less you'll want to do it.
By taking 5 minutes a day to take care of something, you'll save yourself an entire weekend of accumulated mess in the future. What I had to basically accept was that there are a lot of things I will just never feel like or be in the mood to do, so I might as well do them when they are a 5 minute chore than lose a whole day or weekend doing them later.
Another thing that helped was announcing my goals to my husband, and asking him to share his strategies/tips/frustrations with them. It's really helped our communication, and he's really encouraging.
I love being as tidy as my husband now - it makes me feel more like his partner, because our place looks great not in spite of me, but because of our combined efforts
Good luck..it's worth it, I promise! You'll love the peace of mind a clean, organized environment can provide.