Awesome and Easy Steps to Having a Clean House 3

If you want to succeed with any plan, you need to have a strategy to execute the plan or phrased another way, you need to put your plan into action. The “three Es” is an easy method to implement because you can work on them at any time (no need to wait for spring cleaning!) and if you fall out of sync with the plan, you can just as easily pick up where you left off and continue with it.

In order to execute the plan, you need to have a good idea of how you want your home to look and feel. In step one, we got rid of the stuff you no longer use, want, need or love. If you haven’t used something or worn it in the past year, more than likely it’s something you can live without. In step two, everything you decided to keep was given a home – a specific place in your home (preferably a cupboard, a drawer or a cabinet spot out of sight) and if you didn’t have room for something, you got rid of more stuff to make room.

Now it’s time to make decisions about how you will keep everything in the place it belongs. The best habit you can develop for execution is first: put things away as soon as you’re done and clean up messes as soon as it happens. Just these two habits alone will go a long way toward leaving your home in “Bed and Breakfast” condition. Get in the habit of leaving a room as good or better than you found it and you’ll be surprised how easy it is to keep your home clean, tidy and ready for friends or for a night of relaxing with a good book.

Executing your plan for the kitchen is just as simple. Clean up messes as you go. If you’re cooking dinner or baking, keep your counters cleaned up and have a sink full of hot, soapy water to clean up along the way. If you have a dishwasher, keep filling it up as you use dishes so that nothing is left lying around in the sink or on the counter. Each night before bed, start the dishwasher so that you can empty it in the morning and start again. If you wash dishes by hand, everything should be washed and left to drain as soon as dinner is over. Never save dishes until the next morning, this will ruin your day before it even begins.

The bathroom will take just minutes to keep clean. When you visit in the morning, make it a habit to clean the toilet quickly, wipe down the sink and counter areas and empty the trash if necessary. Keep a small scrubber in the shower so that you can put a little shampoo on it and clean a small portion of the tub, walls or fixtures each day. Instead of setting asides hours each weekend, give your bathroom a few minutes each day and it will shine.

Your bedroom should be a place of peace and relaxation. This should be comfortable and inviting, a place where you look to for recuperation from a long day, and a place that allows you to sleep soundly. If you have stuff piled up here and there, it will cause you more stress than you need. During steps one and two you were able to get rid of lots of the clutter and you found a permanent home for all the belongings you plan to keep. Now you need to make the room your special place that makes you feel you’re on vacation. Decorate sparingly, with few pictures on the walls, fresh flowers in a beautiful vase, and a comfy chair with a light nearby for curling up with a good book. Whatever you do, make it the one place where you are happiest and it makes you feel good to spend time there. Each morning, make sure you make the bed as you soon as you get out of bed, pick up and put away anything out of place, and then take a survey of the room before walking out to make sure it is exactly how you want it to look.

Keeping house is an every day job, not something you should save for the weekends or a week each spring. In three easy steps, eliminate, establish and execute, you can have a home that makes you feel happy, relaxed and inviting for friends and family. In a few minutes each day, you can maintain your home so that it continues to be the home you want, not a place that is out of control with stuff.

For the previous articles in the series and other articles of interest, the following links may be helpful:

Awesome and Easy Steps to Having a Clean House 1: Eliminate

Awesome and Easy Steps to Having a Clean House 2: Establish

Tips to Transform a Messy House Into a Clean Home the Easy Way

Ten Quick Ways to Declutter and Get Control of Your Home and Your Life

The Law of Attraction is Not a Secret: Part 1 — What is it?

Anne Mathews is pursuing a graduate degree full-time and teaches part-time at a major U.S. university. If you are interested in writing professionally for this site and others, Ms. Mathews would appreciate the referral bonus: http://www.triond.com/rw/39827.