When The House Is A Mess And You Are Overwhelmed

Whether you have a young baby, are recovering from being sick, trying to catch up after having guests, or you are just behind on your cleaning, sometimes you may just look around and not know what to do, or where to start first.

First off, you're tired. Yet, you know that you can't leave the house as it is, or unwelcome pests will come in. You can almost hear the lines of ants just scrambling to get into your messy house and crawl on everything. Ugh... And, the thought is in the back of your head: what if you get an unexpected guest? The way the house is right now would be embarrassing!

You look in your kitchen, and mourn over the fact that you can't find your sink or your counter. They are covered in dirty dishes and dirty napkins. Your table still has dirty plates on it from that special dinner you hosted the night before. When you walk across the floor, you hear the yucky sticking sounds, as you unstick your feet from some invisible film of unidentifiable gunk that seemed to somehow find its way there.

Next, you look in the living room. What color was your carpet? It is covered in toys, books, papers, cookie crumbs, and yes,- even stuff that should be in the trash.

What happened?! Just a few days ago your house was clean and in order, but now it looks as if you never clean - at all. Oh the work to get everything back to normal again!

Where do you start? What should you do first? Do you have the energy? You're awfully tired...

Introducing your battle plan:

OPERATION CASTLE CLEAN (you are the queen of your castle/home. It's time to take control, and make your castle more inviting and homey.)

1. Gather all of your dirty laundry together and put it into baskets and line them up along a wall by your washing machine, and then start your first load, right away.

2. Go to the kitchen, and pile your dirty dishes on the counter. Put all dirty plates in one pile, and dirty bowls in another; stack the cups, and set the silverware in a pile, etc. Empty your sink as well. ALL dirty dishes get stacked and grouped on the counter by the sink.

3. Put your stack of dirty plates in your empty sink first, then, if there's room, put some or all of the bowls on top of the plates. Put the silverware on the sides, around the plates and bowls.

4. Either fill your sink with hot soapy water and hand wash the dishes, or start running hot water on them, and prewash them and stick them into the dishwasher. Once your sink is empty, add more dirty dishes to it from the counter, if there are still some to do. Get all of them done and out of the way.

NOTE: Did you notice that once you sorted and organized the dirty dishes, they fit in the sink better, and didn't look like as much work? Admit it - washing dishes didn't take as long as you thought it would, did it? ;-)

5. You may not believe me, but you're almost done already! Once you finish the dishes, go see if your laundry needs rebooting, and get the next load ready if it's time.

6. Moving on... Start at one end of your house, and go from room to room, changing trashes and putting things away. Work your way to the other end of the house.

NOTE: The hardest parts are over! The next few steps are quick and easy...

7. Reboot laundry if needed, and empty dishwasher if applicable.

8. Put toilet bowl cleaner in your toilets, and let it sit for a while.

9. Grab a wet wash rag, and run it over your kitchen table and counters and sink, then over the bathroom counters and sinks. Make sure you do bathrooms after the kitchen, not before. Once you are done, throw the washcloth into the laundry, then grab your toilet scrubber and scrub the toilets and flush them.

10. Do a quick sweeping of the kitchen and bathrooms. Don't worry about moving chairs and such, just sweep around them. This is just a quick sweep, not a major floor sweepage.

11. Grab your mop, and run some hot water over it. Mop over the sticky and visible dirty spots on your kitchen floor. Do this in the bathrooms next, if they look like they need it.

12. Vacuum the living room and hallway next.

DONE! Your house is presentable, and it didn't take very long, did it? Now make a list of your major cleaning chores, and divide those tasks up for each day of the week, (take the weekends OFF) and go for it. Your palace will be sparkling again in no time. :-)