How to keep the house spic and span?

Hi,

1. Its not wrong if you reuse old bottles and boxes. But am sure you will be able to sort them by sizes, ie you will find some same sized ones(more than one boost boxes, more than one pickle bottles of same brand etc). Just arrange evrything by sizes, instead of keeping everything mixed up. And for the left out spices, pack the packets with the use of a candle, then put all such packets in a big container (sambadam, covered bucket or watever). Alternatively you can store in the fridge also if you have enough space in the door side or the freezer.
2. You also find some items to be showcased and put them. As for the pins, hairbands etc put them in nice bottles or boxes. You can even cover them with aluminium foil or any craft paper to decorate it. you can stick small buttons, chumkies etc. So you store your small things and at the same time have a gud show case.
3. You should just make sure that a bedding set is changed completely. If you have unmatching ones thats okay. Dry them on the wrong side out, so that they dont fade in the sun.
4. I find this problem in my house too and get very mad sometimes. Solution is to keep instructing the kids to put the things in right places and also we ourselves following it. They will gradually start doing.Ignore them when they dont do but make sure to appreciate the kids when they do correctly.
5. Try keeping a vegetable basket lined with cloth or a stand for all the creams and lotions..
Hope all these helps you. Apart from all these, we need to wait for the kids to grow up a little...Good luck.
-Vinodhi

 

Hi,
Even I face the same pblm. I clean the house when my son goes to school. But when he comes back the whole house is in a mess again and Dh's rude comments make things worse. Help!!!

 

Nice post
i was thinking the same some time back.
My house is clean as long as i dont touch anything. one weekend and my house is a mess. i feel lazy putting back stuff i take it from. my hubby is the same so i guess people who have such houses invest a lot initially and then they maintain it the same way.
like nice curtains, sofa set exp crystal ware ( kept in the show case )
most of our stuff is from ikea so it's not classy its just basic household stuff like a normal everyday lived in kinda look.
i think when i have a new house i will buy expensive stuff and then i will be forced to keep it that way .

 

pman

I felt like I was reading myself when I was reading your post! The same thing happens to me, like 1/2 filled dal, jeera etc. and using any bottle that is available. Ohh... how I wish I could keep my house like some of my friends do :-(

I think one of the basic things we need to do (at least I think I should do) is to throw all the little unwanted things like random post-it notes with just a few stickies left, pens, markers, staples etc. I think it's these little things that ultimately add to the clutter, stuff that we feel we need, but cannot really find a specific place to keep in. Random wires and little USB drives and coupons are other things that lie all over my house.

My entertainment center is like yours, we have a few pictures etc. but along with that pushpins dabba, a clock that doesn't work, some free gift from JCPenney that we got at Christmas etc. At least you have an excuse that there are kids. In my case, it's just me and my husband, two grown up adults and we still have trouble maintaining the house! And with a little one on the way, I just hope the house doesn't get any messier than it already is :-( I hope some of the suggestions given to you by others will be useful to me too in implementing at my house.

 

Start by putting a few similar bottles together atleast and slowly decide what you like best and keep only those bottles and recycle rest. OR simply buy in a place like IKEA once and for all. As far as half opened covers, keep one big dubba and put all these covers in that one place and that way every time you run out of something, you check there first before buying.

Unfortunately you just have to buckle up and just say it is for special items only. As for bedspreads, change the whole set or pick a neutral color from the spreads and buy plain pillow colors.

Unfortunately everyday picking alone will help.

A couple of things that have helped me is marking off areas as clear 'big people only' area. So in my house, the living room/formal dining room cannot have any clutter. As for kids bedroom, since mine are small I pick after them though I am teaching them to put away dirty clothes in a bin and to pull out their fresh clothes nicely. As for our bedroom I make the bed everyday and put away thing in the bathroom before taking a bath. I change linen everytime the cleaning lady comes. As for kitchen, if your cupboards are closed, then it should not be a problem if dubbas are uneven. The only solution that seems to help is constant picking and once a month deep cleaning (of unwanted stuff) and throwing away. As kids are growing up it is gettig better though. My house is not spic n span but it is not too bad either and kids are getting an idea that they need to learn to be picker uppers.

 

We live in a huge 6 bedroom house with 2 bathrooms and plus we have a 24 year old disabled son that lives with us due to his disability and our home is always clean, spotless and immaculate and plus super organized. We clean it everyday and it takes us no more than 45 minutes to do it. We cannot stand to live in a home that is just lived in or go to a home that people like to live like that. Before we go out anywhere our home has to get super clean and smell like Bleach along with Mr. Clean with Febreze because our home should be a reflection of us. We have to look our best to leave the house and that is how our home has to look before we go anywhere. We take much pride in our home and we love it and the excuse that I hear from most of my friends with or without children is that they rather play or do something with their kids instead of having a spotless home or rather live like they would say "just lived in" that is a very poor excuse and that is just being lazy. Anyone that comes to our home compliment us on how our home looks even though we have a disabled son in the home and they know the rules no eating in the living room or if you are going to bring kids over and they are going to make a mess please stay at your home. Our home has to be spotless, clean, immaculate and super organized every day.

 

Dear OP,
Try mixing beauty with utility. For your showcase try and buy some showpieces which have a theme either similar color, or idea and mix and match them with personal photos which will give the showcase your character. For safety pins, clips and small miscellaneous articles buy small decorated boxes for storing . As for the kitchen slowly start collecting container sets i.e large for dals, smaller for masalas , smallest for the spices and beverages all arranged size wise. If the containers are brightly colored with floral designs will add some cheer to the kitchen. As for general cleanliness it takes consistent effort initially it gets easier as time passes. So pick up everything then and there and return them to their rightful place.

Patiently teach the children to put the clothes in the proper bins. Hope these tips help.

 

Hi pman,
I usually buy stuff in multiples of small amount. Say for example, I am going to be using 200gm of jeera per month, i buy 2 100gm packets. I open only 1 pack and empty the whole thing into a container designated for that. So I dont have to worry about half stuff or a opened packet. I have a big plastic box with lid into which I store the rest of the stock like the unopened packs. When the stock is empty in my kitchen, I open a new pack and empty the whole thing into the container. I do this for all items like sugar, tea, wheat flour etc. For wheat flour alone I have a big canister which can hold about 4-5 kgs of flour, since we consume rotis on daily basis.

For storing kids play items like blocks, lego pieces have a big basket. Put all of them into it. Keep rubber bands in a small box , safety pins in another. You can invest in some desktop organizer that has provision to hold all these items and store it in some place.
If there are some kids soft toys, you can place them in showcase. If you are interested in investing in some show pieces, plan and buy them on some monthly basis.

Make it a point to change the whole set. Segregate the laundry into whites, light coloured ones and dark coloured ones. Wash each of them separately. If you are doubtful of colour bleeding of some cloth, wash it separately for first few times. Always dry clothes inside out. Chances of fading are minimum then.

My DS is just a year old. So I still have some time left to worry about loose clothes lying around But toys, yes. They are scattered all over. So what I do is after he is done playing with them, I put them all into his toys basket. Also one tip I read in a book "toddler tips". Give only few toys a week to the kids to play. That way, you can manage the toys clutter much better and they will also be interested in playing with the toys. Rotate the set of toys the next week. Give them a new set of toys from the "master" basket. That will keep them interested. They will learn more from the toys too. Also they will have a feeling of playing with new toys each week.

Even if do not have colorful mats, potpourri etc, keeping a very clean bathroom is fine. Keeping the house cleaning is not just one person's task. Its a team work. Involve everyone in the family. Tell them that it is their duty to keep their stuff clean and neat. Once the elders in the family do, the young ones will follow. They might take some time but one day they surely will. A simple way is, put all DH's stuff into a tray and keep it in the closet. Have a tray for each member of the family if needed. Keep the common ones in one. That way clutter is reduced. If your DH does not put his items back into the tray, you just spend a minute in putting them back to where they belong.

Hope these are helpful.

 

OP: I am just like you. I re-use certain dabbas for keeping condiments,dals. its better to use them rather than leaving unopened packets. In the US, since we get everything jumbo size. I use a masala tray(you will get in indian store) for keeping different masalas. So you dont need a seperate bottle/container for everything. It will have small containers inside for holding each masala. I am sure you would have seen it before. The rest of the masala which is not opened or left-over packets you can keep in a big box with snap lids. (so, it is all in one place and less messier).

For me, I cant seem to be able to optimize the use of vessels and end up having to wash vessels multiple times in a day. I have seen some old ladies using very little vessels.

For the bathrooms, it is essential to do it everytime you leave the bathroom to see if it clean and fine. Baby wipes are a good way to keep the sinks and toilet seats clean. I also put some lysol since i have a little potty training kid

it is a bit difficult to keep it clean all the time with small kids. But i am really trying to follow the policy - "think more and do less".Still a long way to go for me As someone said, it is better to do things immediately when you see rather than doing it later. It always takes a longer time and planning when we dont clean as we go and adding to it the guilt of having a messy home.