Best Organizing Tips for House Cleaning Jobs

What is the best way motivate and organize yourself to clean your home? Honestly, I never thought I'd try to answer such question. You see, I can be an incredible slob when I put my mind to it. Not always, but I've had days where my place could pass for a landfill.

That said, I was sitting around with some friends and the subject came up and I was surprised at the number of easy, helpful tips that came out of the conversation. I figured I'd try a quick article.

None of these are particularly ground breaking but they certainly helped me to get better organized and see the cleaning job through to satisfaction.

Before you do anything, get some old clothes on that you don't care much about.  The more expendable the clothes, the more likely you'll get down and dirty with your home cleaning project.

Don't wear anything you don't want to get dirty. Think about it, would a firefighter wear his Armani Suit to the fire? Did Jacques Cousteau wear his mink down in the water? Get the right clothes for the right job on now!

You want to motivate yourself to clean the house before doing anything. Get yourself psyched up for your next cleaning job. To do this:

1. Turn off your televison, turn off your computer, turn off the cell phone, gag your mother-in-law. Turn off anything that can take your visual attention away from your cleaning job.

2. If you like music, especially if you find it invigorating, put it on. Anything from Lawrence Welk to DeathMetal. If you like it, scrub to it.

3. Envision what your home will look like after you have cleaned it. I don't care how you do it, while in the lotus position or while you stuff the dog in the pen, just envision it. It helps.

Get all of your cleaning supplies together. Get out supplies for everything you plan to do. Window cleaner, bleach, floor cleaner, dry detergent (comet, etc), whatever it is you feel you'll need. Get it out now and put it neatly on the counter or, preferably, in something you can carry around like a bucket.

Get it out now and you'll be more inclined to use it. Leave it in the closet and you might just get lazy and not use it like a sniveling, sheepish, runny-nosed kid who just quit the powder puff team.

When pre-organizing your house cleaning jobs, get the big guns out too.  Be sure you get the mop out, the vacuum, the broom, the dust brush, the dust pan, all that stuff. I want to see some serious cleaning equipment lined up like tanks before battle.

When carpenters redo a gutted tenement do they start with the bathroom stenciling? No! They knock the damn place down. It's the most obvious start.

Now, don't go out and knock your own place down. Please. But also don't go and start dusting the crawl space. My god man. Start with the worst home clutter. Those magazines on the floor, tidy them up. Books on the coffee table, get the on the shelf. Jackets on the back of chairs, eh, the closet please. The place will look 50% better just doing that alone.

Also.... make those beds and get the pillows off the floors. The bed will look nicer and you won't run over the sheets with the vacuum (which makes an awful whining dog-like sound I might add).

Try not to do everything at once. You might wind up doing a little bit to each room and then quitting in shame, head held low, like a sissy.

Take one room at a time. Work on each room until completion. Scrub and polish each room until it gleams back at you all puffed up like some sick, wild mating ritual .... or something like that.....

Finishing a job in sections will give you a constant sense of accomplishment during the whole project.

I hope this helps. When doing a job cleaning your home, the most important and difficult thing to do is get started and seeing it through.

The only thing else I'll say is about technique. Whether you are a great cleaner or a lousy one, let your cleaning technique be best served with your own eyes.  After cleaning, look about the room and ask yourself, "If I hired someone to clean this room, would it still look clean to me? Or would I fire the cow?"

Thanks for reading.

Don't go away please :-) IF you have more time please take a moment to read some of my other posts. There are plenty of links above to help provide advice on other home improvement and maintenance jobs. If you had enough of dusting and scrubbing for today, click on my profile at the top of this page. I've written many other posts and would love to have you check them out.