GETTING BACK ON TRACK WITH YOUR CLEANING ROUTINE

PAUSING ROUTINES

I don’t know about you, but many of my regular routines had to be put aside to get through the last month leading up to Christmas and New Years. Although I was able to keep up with the minimums, I definitely was not keeping up with everything in the way I would like to in less busy times of life. Depending on the season, it can be easy to get out of our routines, and especially cleaning routines. A certain level of cleaning is always needed, but this is definitely an area that often gets put on the back burner when life gets really busy. This often occurs during the holiday season.

Even if we are going crazy cleaning for visitors, there are often other things behind the scenes that are getting put aside. It is totally OK that this happens, and you should plan on it happening when you have busy times coming up. Letting some things go when life gets super busy is important to do so that you do not burn yourself out. However, when life gets back to normal we often wonder how to get back to the good routines that we had in place. One of the members of our Facebook group was recently looking for some tips to get back on track with her cleaning routines. It made me think that a lot of us could probably use some encouragement and tips to get back into our cleaning routines at this time of year.

KNOW WHAT YOUR MINIMUMS ARE

If you have really gotten off track with good routines you had in place, it is important to remind yourself that you do not need to catch up. You need to just start where you are and move forward from there. Trying to catch up can feel overwhelming and will likely cause you to be less productive. When a project seems to large it can slow us down because it seems like it’s not possible to accomplish it. Focus only on the task you are doing.  Try not to think of all of the things you still want to get done. It’s important to have minimums established for your daily routines. These are the things that need to get done no matter what else is going on.

You might have daily minimums and weekly minimums. For example, my daily minimums are doing the dishes, feeding the animals, cooking dinner. Doing the dishes and cooking dinner could be skipped if needed, but not in the long term.  They basically need to be done daily. My weekly minimums are cleaning our guinea pigs cage, doing a water change in my fish tank, doing laundry and watering the plants. In the weekly list, laundry could be skipped if needed.  But, again it’s going to have to get done pretty soon or you will run out of clothes. By knowing your minimums you have a place to start.  As long as you are keeping up with your minimums, you can add from there.

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO GET BACK TO ROUTINES?

If we have to skip our cleaning routines a few times, it’s usually pretty easy to get right back into them. But when it goes on for a longer period of time it can be more difficult to get back into them again. If you don’t remember exactly what your routine is, that’s OK. Don’t let that hold you up. Start a new routine.  Don’t forget, you didn’t always have a cleaning routine. You had to create one from scratch at some point.  So, there is no reason you can’t do it again. You might even end up liking your new cleaning routine better than the old one. Getting hung up on getting back the exact routine we had before can cause us to procrastinate.

START SMALL

If you feel like you are not sure where to start with getting back to your routine or staring a new one be sure to start small. One way to get started is to start with your minimum tasks, those that must be done just to get by, and then maybe add one more thing. By adding just one more cleaning task above your bare minimums you are making progress to getting your home back to the way you would like it. Once you have that routine down, add something else to it. You can continue to add additional tasks until you are using all of the time you have available for your cleaning routine.

CONSIDER OTHER LITTLE ROUTINES YOU CAN DO THROUGHOUT THE DAY

Are there little things that you can add to your day to help you keep up on things? For example, sometimes my bathroom gets messy from my daughters getting ready and rushing out of the house. If I do not want to wait for them to be able to clean it up, I will pick up just one or two things each time I enter the bathroom. Before I know it, the bathroom is back to normal again.

Try to take advantage of the “microwave minute”. What can you do while you pop something into the microwave for a few minutes? Maybe you can put a couple of dishes away, wipe down appliances, wipe down the stove top, restock toilet paper, empty the bathroom trash can. There are many little things you can do when you have short periods of time to help you get things caught up or to just get ahead.

DON’T GIVE UP ON YOUR ROUTINES

Routines are so important because they reduce the amount of decisions we have to make each day. It’s just like when you get ready in the morning.  You know the exact order you will wash your hair, brush your teeth, etc. You don’t sit there thinking what you should do next. It’s the same with cleaning routines.  By creating an order to do certain cleaning tasks we can quickly move from one to the next without spending time making decisions in between each task.

So, just because you may have fallen out of cleaning routines that you had in place, don’t give up on getting them back. Take it slow and try something new if you need to. Make your cleaning routines fun. I love I love to listen to podcasts or audio books while folding laundry or putting away dishes, or really just about anything. Now that my son gave me his hand me down airpods, it’s even easier to do this!

PROGRESS OVER PERFECTION

What helps me the most when I need to get back to a routine when it feels like too much is to remind myself progress over perfection. I literally say it to myself often when I am doing things. I might be cleaning the bathroom, knowing that it needs a really deep cleaning. But, I only have time to clean the sink and the toilet.  While I’m wiping down the sink, I have to remind myself progress over perfection. It’s better now than it was before.  It is 100 percent worth doing what I am doing, even though I would like to have time to do more.

Thanks so much for checking in! If you would like to hear the podcast version of this topic check out Lola’s Frugal Life Podcast! Also, be sure to check out my other blog posts on this site!

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