Secrets from the Playbook - 9/3/2007

This week's tips are of the "more clean with less cleaning" variety...

Swish N' Swipe
This is a tip that I picked up from FLYLady. I have to say that this one revolutionized my whole perspective on cleaning. I realized that I needed to stop having a cleaning day and just apply the principle of the Swish N' Swipe all over the house. Anyway, a Swish and Swipe is basically cleaning your bathroom when you have one extra minute to be in there, every day or near every day. By giving it a quick wipe down often, the nasty stuff doesn't have time to grow! I usually do this as the last thing before bed. When I'm in there, rinsing with mouthwash, I grab the windex and a paper towel. I squirt the mirror, wipe it, then wipe the counter (with the same paper towel), then wander over to the toilet wipe the top of the tank and seat lid, then I wipe the seat and discard the towel. Then I squirt a little windex in the toilet, grab the brush and give it a swish. Then I spit out the mouthwash, wash my hands and go to bed, feeling like a goddess of house management :-).

Obviously, you do need to give it a good antibacterial scrub now and again, but this will keep it respectably clean for a while. If I'm sitting there and see hair on the floor, I don't whine that I can never keep the house clean, I grab some toilet paper and do a quick sweep where I see the hair. Unsightly problem fixed, no whining or guilt involved!

Fire Drill on Clutter
This is another FLYLady tip. Take 2 minutes (and I mean only two minutes!) and do a quick spot check of your clutter hotspots. One of the last things I do before heading to the bedroom is give a quick glance to our kitchen bar area - that's where the mail, the boys' precious scribbles, etc pile up. I do a quick run-through. I only spend two minutes. At first, I only reduced the pile. Now, as I do it everyday, I rarely have more than a minute's work there.

For me, these two tips make the house basically company ready all the time. I do vacuum and dust of course, but those are 10 minute jobs I do when I see they need to be done.

The sketch above is from a WetCanvas reference image, just a quickie to keep the drawing muscles limber this weekend.