This Is How We Do It: Clean the House

Today is supposed to be the day of our monthly link up: This Is How We Do It. And we were going to talk about our tips and tricks to cleaning your house. But, well, this last month has been a little busy. And if you know me, you know I don’t do busy. I don’t appreciate busy. So my house is not clean. My blog has not been frequently updated with new posts. And this is life sometimes. And so this month, we are calling GRACE!

So, there is no link up today. But send me your posts on cleaning and I would love to add them to this post! We so appreciate you and this community and all the GRACE!

And bonus, here are a few of my house cleaning tips and tricks:

We live in a fairly large house, so cleaning it completely every week is out of the question. Instead I embrace the idea of cleaning the most used rooms frequently, and keeping the others tidy. This means we feel less overwhelmed and the house is less cluttered. The kitchen gets the counters cleaned and the floors swept daily. The kids and I pick up the family room and the play room at the end of each day. The less used spaces (or less used by adults) get cleaned and tidied less. The basement is a play space so it is covered in train tracks and legos. And honestly, it stays this way for months at a time. The bedrooms get tidied at the end of each day, but only to the level the person living in that room desires. So my older children have “tidy” rooms by their standards but certainly not by mine. We are teaching them responsibility in their space and they are slowly learning that mess means things are more easy to misplace. Especially Legos.

I choose one thing to “deep clean” every few weeks. My deep cleaning list usually rotates every quarter (or every season). This perfectly aligns with adding seasonal decor and changing out the kids clothes for the next season/size. My deep cleaning list isn’t long and honestly, doesn’t exist. It’s just items that live in my head and get accomplished as I see the need. This leaves me without the stress and overwhelming feeling of constantly deep cleaning. Or being left in the middle of deep cleaning everything but without fully finishing any of it. I write the current item on my calendar. Some weeks it gets done, and others it gets pushed back to the following week. Right now it’s the blinds. Man Child had a project for school to count all the windows in the house. I think the number was in the 50s. And each window has a set of blinds on them. (Cringe)

I clean when my littles are around. I know. That makes almost no sense. But I value my quiet times, so I refuse to use the times that fill me up to clean. This also gives my littles the chance to help out and learn what it means to live in community. Granted, it’s not super helpful to have a 2 year old sweeping with you, but it’s life. And grace. Because let’s be real, I clean because I am thankful for my home and treasure the people that live in it. Not because I love to clean.

As I mentioned earlier, keeping the house clean and tidy is a family job. My husband helps out with dishes if I’ve been out or overwhelmed and haven’t been able to get to them. Man Child cleans his bathroom. Each child is responsible for their own room (except Baby Boy). Man Child helps sweep after meals and Goose wipes the kitchen table and chairs down. We are blessed by our home and so very thankful for it so we all take responsibility to keep it clean and tidy. 

Oh and we constantly wipe the refrigerator down. Because stainless steel just means fingerprints, hand-prints, and sometimes face-prints.

Here are a few other house cleaning tips and tricks from some of my favorites:
The Boutelle Family: This Is How We Do It
The Popp Ohana: Cleaning Checklist
The Nested Nomad: 3 Small & Sustainable Spring Cleaning Habits
Still Playing House: This Is How We Do It

This is just a glimpse at our house cleaning tips and tricks mixed with a whole lot of grace. What are your house cleaning tips? Would love to hear them in the comments!