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They are everywhere. All over Pinterest and Facebook. The mile long cleaning checklists that have you cleaning your house top to bottom over a 30 day period. It’s those 30 Day Cleaning Challenges.
Sound reasonable enough, doesn’t it?
But there’s some really flawed thinking to this method of cleaning over a month.
It Takes Too Long!
DITCH THOSE 30 DAY CLEANING CHALLENGES
I’m the type of person that cleans my home in one full swoop. I take the time to start early in the morning and work diligently for a couple of hours and do a whole house cleaning.
I’ve always instinctually believed in this method of cleaning for one reason: the entire house is clean at the same time.
I love to take a step back and relish in the way it looks.
I like to see the entire job completed from start to finish with nothing left to do but sit in my favorite chair, grab a good book and a coffee and relax.
Most of all I feel proud of my accomplishment.
So I’m often left scratching my head when I see these 30-day cleaning challenges or other types of cleaning schedules that have you cleaning the toilet on Monday and scrubbing the shower on Tuesday.
I mean do we really believe this is the most efficient way to get our house clean?
Imagine for a moment if I applied those same methods in my cleaning business.
Imagine me telling Mrs. Smith that I cleaned her toilets and I’ll be back tomorrow to do the shower. She’d look at me like I had ten heads!
Why? Because Mrs. Smith wants to have that same feeling when the housecleaners leave. Even though she didn’t do the tasks, she wants to see and feel the accomplishment of the entire house neat and tidy looking and smelling great.
I even fell into the trap somewhat when I developed my Rescue Your Messy Home Challenge. I gave the participants ten days to get their homes in order. Of course, this was more than a cleaning challenge it was a decluttering challenge too, so I cut my readers some slack and gave them a chunk of time.
But truth be told, it’s not the best method to cleaning your home.
Now I know what I’m about to say will not be popular for many.
You enjoy spreading out your cleaning tasks throughout the week.
But let me ask you?
What feeling does it evoke when you do one task today and know you’ve still got an endless amount of cleaning chores that never seem to end?
For me, it would suck the motivation to clean at all. And I bet it’s doing the same thing to you.
People are obsessed with how to clean their homes faster, easier, simpler. But cleaning is cleaning, and there’s no magic bullet to getting your house to magically clean itself no matter how we wish it were so.
Let’s go back to the example I gave you earlier about Mrs. Smith and her home but this time, let’s look at if from the cleaners perspective.
When we step into a home to clean it, we have a plan. Every member of the cleaning team knows what they will be tackling. One staff takes the bathrooms, another person dusts, yet another does the vacuuming. People buzz along and accomplish their assigned duties. In the end, we come together, pat each other on the back for a job well done and move on to the next home.
If I were to take that same group of people and ask them to do part of the job and go back day after day to complete yet another task, there would be zero motivation to finishing anything with any amount of pride or skill. It would just drag on and drag on and on and on and on…
You get the picture, right?
So if you want to really get your home clean, I suggest you do the Do It All In The Same Day Method of Cleaning!
Part of the reason you’re struggling to get you home tidy has to do with the way you’ve approached the task.
If you’re splitting it up and doing a little here and there, you never have a sense of real accomplishment. What you have instead is the realization that tomorrow you have more cleaning chores ahead of your and every day after that.
There’s no light at the end of the tunnel.
No day off where you don’t have to scrub something.
No day when you can just do a few tidying activities and your house looks neat and clean.
Instead, you’re stuck in this endless cycle of having a home that’s only partly clean and having to face yet another cleaning task tomorrow.
Where is the motivation?
You’ve eliminated any motivation or reward to keep a clean home.
PART OF THE REWARD OF A CLEAN HOME IS A CLEAN HOME
If you never get rewarded, your motivation is lost and sometimes forever.
If you’re ready to change all that and get your mojo back, you’ll want to adopt this method.
TIPS TO MAKE IT EASIER
1. Get your family involved. Nowhere does it say it’s totally your responsibility to clean your home.
2. Don’t know where to start? There’s lots of great suggestions and tips for getting your family to step up to the plate in the Rescue Your Messy Home Challenge.
3. Have a family meeting and let your family know you need help. More hands make light work. You could have your whole house clean by setting aside a few hours once a week if everyone pitches in and helps. Then everyone in the family can go about the rest of the weekend knowing they accomplished the task together. And, you can all take pride in seeing your incredible accomplishments.
4. Assign different tasks to each family member. Have one person vacuum, the other dust, while some else tackles the bathrooms and kitchen. Make the chores age appropriate and make sure you take the time to teach your children HOW to clean. Don’t expect them to clean if they’ve never been shown how.
5. Reward your family for a job well done! Besides everyone stepping back and seeing how amazing their house looks, order out for a pizza or take a trip to the park for some quality family time. It doesn’t have to cost money; you can get creative here!
The point is to let your family know how what a great job they did!
6. Join our Facegroup Group were we problem solve and discuss our cleaning challenges!
In the end, your house will be clean; you won’t have an endless list of chores to complete, and you’ll get back the motivation you lost along the way.
The 30 day cleaning schedules and challenges that promise to transform our homes. But, what if these same 30 day challenges could be snuffing out your motivation to clean? Find out how to get it back and finally have a clean home! Clean | Tips | Strategies | Cleaning” width=”594″ height=”1024″ />
