It’s that time of year mom, Spring Cleaning. I know you are getting dressed up in your yearly outfit:  wading boots, tool apron,  blue work top,  bright pink rubber gloves, and  your black and white print bandana placed perfectly around your head. You are ready for action with your broom and mop in hand. A cleaning bucket, scrub brush, dust pan and mop await you at the entrance to the first room you are going to tackle. Now that you are ready, where in that room will you begin?

Perhaps the following tips will help. I give credit for some information from the book: “The House that Cleans Itself” by Mindy Starns Clark.  A great book to purchase.

1.”Choose the order of rooms you will purge, clean and convert from a messy room to a neat attractive room.

2. Focus on the public zones first, such as the kitchen and family room.

3. Clean the room that most affects you emotionally, clean it up and keep it clean no matter what.

4. Get family members involved in opinions of the condition of the house and  get them involved in the cleaning process. The appearance of the house impacts the family attitude.

5. Go on a prayer walk and ask God to help you keep your home clean and livable. Ask Him to help you with ideas to best handle organizing and making a place for every item in your house.

6. Keep a grateful heart for all of the material blessings God has given you.

7. Ask God to plant enthusiasm and energy to clean and place things in their own space so you can have a house that can clean itself. It is a process that will take time to organize but will work.”

Here are a few tips of my own for you:

1,  After you are dressed and the coffee is brewing, make your bed. Making your bed first, psychologically, will give you a great feeling of accomplishment.  You can make your bed in 2-3 minutes.

2. Clean the kitchen sink and counter tops. It makes a great difference in your attitude.

3. When you use something, put it back after you are finished with it. For example:  As you cook, get all items out at once, and as you use the item, put it back. When you do it this way, by the time your recipe is mixed and cooking, your kitchen cleaned itself.  (I learned this in my high school home economics class.)

4. As you dust your furniture, pray for the people in your life that gave you that picture, vase, candle or nicknack. It makes dusting more enjoyable.

5. Before cleaning a room, put everything that has been left out, back in its place, then when you dust or vacuum it  will cut your cleaning time in half.

6. Clean your bathroom every day, then you will not be scrubbing your time away if you only clean it once a week. You have the right to have a clean bathroom every day. A five-minute routine.

7. Clean clutter by having two bags and a basket: one bag for trash. second bag for saved items and basket for items that go in another room.

One reason for clutter is because of having too much stuff. Have a place for every item, or consider giving it away or throwing it away.  A rule to consider: if you have not used an item in a year’s time, then give it up.

Your house is a gift from God. Take care of it by cleaning it and arranging items and furniture to best fit and suit your family needs. It can be a house that is clean attractive and livable. The decision is a family’s choice. The family  must work together to make it happen. Enjoy your family first of all. Then take on the task of  cleaning and organizing your house. Many many moms have two jobs.  A job outside the home to help meet the financial needs and the job at home trying to keep the house in order.

Because you are a mom that goes 24/7, the following tip needs to be a part of your every day routine which is a follows:

8. It is so important to make sure you take the time to have an area in your home for your quiet time. You need to set a time and place every day to have time with God. Meet God at same place and at the same time. It may start out to be 5 min. and then your time will increase as you spend more and more time reading your Bible and praying. Start with easy Bible reading if this is your first time. Read John in the New Testament or read the Psalms in the Old Testament.  God knows all about us and now it is time that we learn about Him and draw close to Him.

Philippians 3:10-14  “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Exodus 33: 13a “Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: …”

I realize that in order to have a house organized and suitable for family living and enjoyment, it is going to take days and even a few weeks to get everything in its rightful place. Don’t give up. For encouragement and fun, take a before picture of a room and then take an after picture. My sweet ladies, that will bring some energy to your step and you will go forward in cleaning your clutter!!!!! Have fun, making a difference.