• Throughout my adult life my idea of clean has drastically changed. I have had seasons of a relatively cluttered home, followed by seasons of one that is immaculate. Lately however, I am leaning more towards a more clean home. That is to say that I am putting in more effort to keep it consistently clean. Before my home was clean-ish. When things got dirty, we washed them, but there was no purposeful upkeep. I certainly did not stay ahead of the mess. This is mostly because I am a mom of three young children. Much of my time is spent caring for them.

    I had this epiphany though, I can be a better more focused mom. I realize that this may not be the case for everyone. But if I had figured out how to upkeep the home and the kids sooner I would have saved myself a ton of stress.

    I do only 20 minutes a day of housekeeping. That’s how I started, just 20 minutes at a time. I would stop no matter what at those twenty minutes even if whatever room I was working on was not perfectly clean. I knew I would get back to that room soon. After a while that 20 minutes was enough to maintain the clean.

    Here are my top motivators for doing my best to keep my house put together and clean:

    1. It makes me feel good, and proud of my home.
    2. I am more likely to play with the kids longer
    3. I no longer dread someone just stopping by. I never realized it, but this happens a lot!
    4. I know where things are.
    5. I am much less likely to keep something that we don’t need. This helps us deal with clutter as well.
    6. I get more done
    7. At the end of the day, I can put my feet up and not feel like I should be cleaning.
    8. I actually have some time for a life. More time for my husband or my hobbies.