Once the disorder and chaos in your house is under control, it’s time to clean those areas that have been beneath the clutter. But first…where are your cleaning supplies?
If you are like most people, your cleaning supplies are scattered all over the house. There are some under the kitchen sink, some in the bathroom cabinet, still more in the laundry area or garage or basement. In order to clean efficiently (and that means quickly, getting it over with in as short a time as possible) you need a single, portable repository for your household cleaning supplies…and nothing works better than a good quality rectangular plastic laundry basket.
If you are tempted to think “oh, I know where everything is, I can skip this step,” think again. You need a cleaning basket. That means a basket with everything you are going to need must accompany you to the room…no excuses for leaving the room and getting distracted! Remember how your home got into this condition in the first place: lack of focus on the goal. By putting all of your cleaning supplies in one place, a place you can easily transport from room to room, you greatly increase your chances of success because you will not need to leave the room in which you are working to fetch additional supplies. Leaving the room breaks your focus and if you are distracted by something more interesting or compelling while you are out to get the bleach, you…and your clean up project…can get permanently stalled.
It’s not necessary to use a laundry basket, per se. You can substitute one of those wheeled storage containers or a large rectangular basket with handles or whatever suits your fancy, but nothing works as well for as little money as a laundry basket, and the rectangular shape accommodates more items than round or oval.
Setting up your cleaning basket
The first thing you must do is determine the kind of supplies will you need. For safety purposes, make sure that all containers in your basket are unbreakable (in case you drop them on the floor). Also, label all bottles into which you have decanted liquids: not only will you know what is in them, so will other people. And finally, never use beverage containers for cleaning supplies: you do not want to take the chance that a child will mistake your cleaning solutions for something drinkable!
What your cleaning basket needs:
1. A window cleaner that can be used for windows, mirrors, chrome, and other shiny surfaces. You can opt for one of those blue ammonia-based cleaners or you can mix up a solution of vinegar and water and put it in a spray bottle.
2. Scouring powder: You can purchase one of those chlorinated, bubble-action, super-duper scrubble bubble thingies…or you can put a cheap box of baking soda in the basket
3. Disinfectant: there are a million of them on the market but nothing is cheaper (or more effective) than plain old bleach. Buy a 1 quart bottle of bleach that you can keep in your cleaning basket and refill from the gallon bottle in your laundry area.
4. Degreaser: Add a bottle of your favourite degreaser for cleaning soap scum and those grease marks your kids leave in the strangest places. White vinegar, straight from the bottle, is an amazing degreaser and baking soda sprinkled on a damp sponge does well, too.
5. A bottle of your favourite dishwashing liquid is helpful. It’s amazing what plain old soap will clean.
6. Teak oil: Wood furniture loves teak oil: the oil penetrates and nourishes the wood, keeping it from drying out and giving it a warm, inviting look. Avoid wax build up on furniture by staying away from the aerosol products that spray waxes that seal the wood. What the manufacturers don’t tell you is that the wax should be periodically removed from the wood (in the old days we used to scrub it off with steel wool!), the wood cleaned, and then the wax re-applied. You can get around the whole thing by cleaning and polishing your wood furniture with teak oil on a soft cloth. (Works on wood floors, too.)
7. Water: yep, plain old water. You need something to dampen those sponges with!
8. A couple of rectangular reusable plastic containers (Glad or Ziploc or whatever you have in your plastics cupboard)
9. Rubber gloves. Invest in good-quality, flannel-lined gloves so that your hands don’t sweat inside them and your risk of puncture is reduced.
10. Sponges: two or three cellulose sponges, preferable the kind with the green scrubby thing on one side. If the sponges are not new, dampen them and put them in the microwave oven for one minute to sterilize them…or better yet, sterilize them at the end of your cleaning spree before they are stored.
11. Brushes: Several kinds of brushes are helpful for cleaning, but at minimum, a small stiff brush that can be used for scrubbing away grime, and a large stiff brush (one with a grip like a steam iron handle is particularly useful) for floors and large surfaces.
12. Rags: You will need something to clean with: the most economical option is rags…pieces of old cotton T-shirts, towels, and sheets work wonderfully! Once they have come to the end of their useful lives, cut them into 10” squares and use them for cleaning. They can be repeatedly laundered, and will save you a ton of money on disposables.
13. Paper: For certain tasks you really need paper instead of rags, but newspapers actually work better than paper towels and are much less costly. Save the paper towels for making poultices, where the newsprint might transfer onto the surface being soaked.
14. Toothpicks, cotton swabs: Sometimes the most difficult cleaning is not getting the grime off the door knob, it’s getting the little bits that are stuck in little crevices. These can often be removed using cotton swabs (to apply the cleaning solution) and toothpicks to gently scrub away the offending bits. Keep them in a zippered plastic bag in the basket.
15. Bags: Vacuum bags, trash bags…you need bags. Plastic supermarket bags make excellent liners for small trash cans around the house and are convenient additions to the cleaning basket. If your vacuum cleaner uses bags, this is the place to keep at least one.
What else you will need:
Well, this stuff won’t fit into your basket, but no cleaning effort is complete without
16. A vacuum cleaner with accessories. Not only can you suck up debris off the floor, the wand can be used to suck down cobwebs, and the various attachments are useful for draperies, blinds, and furniture. Sweep floors with a broom before vacuuming to remove large items the vacuum might choke on. You can also sweep carpets for the same purpose and spare your vacuum (and your wallet) the trauma of burning out the motor due to a clog.
17. Make sure your broom is in good nick. If it is worn to a point, replace it.
18. Brush and dust pan: these are not absolute necessities, but they do make it easier to pick up your sweepings and discard them.
19. Mops: You should actually have two mops: one for your floors and another for walls and ceilings. Yes…the easiest way to clean a ceiling or wall is with a sponge mop!
20. Mop pail: some thing in which to mix up a mopping solution
Now, you may have noticed a few things are conspicuously missing:
Feather or lambs wool duster. Feather dusters just scatter the dust around so it can settle back down onto your furniture later. Lambs wool dusters collect the dust better than feather dusters, but you have to leave the room and take them outside to whack them and remove the dust…leaving the room you are cleaning before you are finished with the task at hand (dusting, in this case) is a no-no.
Mop and shine products: these things are not good on all types of floors and they leave a sticky residue behind. Sticky residues attract dirt, which means you have to clean more often.
Carpet cleaner/spot removers: most of these products also leave a sticky residue behind. You end up with dirtier carpets than you began with.
Sprinkle-on carpet deodorizers: a complete waste of money: baking soda does just as well and at a fraction of the cost.
Toilet bowl or bathroom cleaner: Save yourself a ton of money: pour a cup of bleach in the toilet, let it soak, then don your rubber gloves, sprinkle some baking soda on a sponge, and give it a wash. Cheap, sanitary, and fast. (Keep this sponge separate from the other cleaning sponges…use it only for cleaning the toilet.)
Now that you have a cleaning basket, you will need a place to keep it. Best bet is to find a cupboard into which it can be slid, but whatever you choose, do not put in a difficult-to-reach space, and don’t leave it in a place where you or other will be tempted to toss things on top of it (like on top of the dryer).
With your cleaning supplies assembled, you are now ready to tackle those rooms you rescued from disorder and disarray…just how to do it without being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task is our next instalment.
Showing posts with label laundry basket. Show all posts
Showing posts with label laundry basket. Show all posts
Monday, December 17, 2007
Sunday, December 16, 2007
House a cluttery mess? Try the Laundry Basket Treatment!
Bet you thought laundry baskets were just for laundry, didn’t you? Well, they actually have an amazing versatility, not the least of which is their usefulness when blitz-cleaning a messy room.
I used to be the queen of the untidy house. With a full-time job, a husband, three kids, an assortment of dogs and cats, a five-bedroom house, and no maid or cleaner, I was housework-challenged. My husband was firmly of the opinion that housework was “woman’s work,” a sentiment eagerly embraced by the boys, and my teen daughter…well, let’s say that if there was a clear path from her bedroom door to her bed (so I wouldn’t impale my foot on some buried artefact while delivering clean laundry), it just wasn’t worth the effort to tangle with her roiling hormones.
With so much house and so little time to keep it, it was an endless chore to keep things picked up. I also tended to get distracted…I would begin cleaning the living room by picking up dirty glasses and cups and toting them to the kitchen, where I would get distracted by a couple of kid’s sweaters on the table which I would carry to their rooms…where I would get further distracted by attempting to collect dirty laundry from the debris-strewn floors. End result? hours spent running from room to room with little bits of the mess, and none of the rooms ever getting tidied up.
I can remember my mother telling me “clean your room!” and being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task and baffled as to where to start. Helping my youngest child, who suffered from ADD and learning disabilities, to clean up his room taught me a few valuable lessons. First of all, “clean up” is too vague: the task needs to be broken down into smaller steps. And secondly, what do you do with something once you have picked it up? If the item in your hand belongs in the kitchen, can you stay on task long enough to take it to the kitchen and return to the room? And how many trips to the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, etc. are you going to make? And at what cost, in terms of time?
I came across the solution to my untidy house quite by accident. Having a mountain of laundry to do each weekend, I had invested in a stack of large rectangular laundry baskets into which I could sort the various loads and easily carry them to and from the washer and dryer. While upstairs gathering laundry from a bedroom one day, I stuck a few items that belonged downstairs into an empty laundry basket so that I could carry them easily back to their place of origin. Pulling dirty clothes out of another room, I spotted some items belonging to the kitchen and put them into an empty basket for easy removal. It didn’t take long for me to take this to the next level, and in a short time, I evolved a system that has stood me in good stead until this day (those children now have teenagers of their own!).
Here's how it works:
Invest in at least three large rectangular laundry baskets: you can get more, but get them in multiples of three. Boxes will work, but they aren’t as sturdy or as versatile and they exude a subliminal message of “storage” to which you do not want to succumb. The ultimate objective is to put possessions away and throw away trash, not to store the stuff.
Now, mentally label the baskets “Here,” “Another Room,” and “Trash.”
Take the baskets to the first room to be cleaned, put them near the door, and begin. Go through the room, starting at the door, and pick up each item that is on the floor, bed, tables…everything that is out of place…and place the items in one of the baskets. If a basket gets full, do not empty it! This will distract you from your task of removing the clutter from the room. Either pile stuff around it or bring in another basket. If an item is too large to fit into a basket, put it beside the appropriate basket. The objective here is to clear the room of clutter in an organized manner, and in such a way that you will not get distracted by other tasks in other parts of the house.
When all the bits and pieces have been cleared away, take the trash basket outside and empty it, returning to the room with an empty basket. Now, take the basket you mentally labelled “here” and remove each piece and put it in its proper place in the room. You will now have two (or more) empty baskets.
Now, go through the “Another room” baskets and sort the contents into the baskets you just emptied. Perhaps you’ll have “Kitchen,” “Family Room,” and “Kids’ Rooms” baskets. Maybe you'll have "Upstairs," "Basement," and "Patio" baskets...mentally label the baskets according to need. Now take those baskets to the appropriate spaces.
Chances are, each of those spaces need the Laundry Basket Treatment, too, so just put the baskets down at the appropriate doors and mentally label them “Here.” Bring in two empty baskets for the trash and things that belong in another room, and repeat the process in each room.
You’ll notice that no dusting, sweeping, vacuuming or other cleaning has been done…there is a reason for that. It is important to stay focussed on the immediate task…removing clutter and restoring order to the rooms. Cleaning, which is actually a different set of tasks from restoring order, can be done after each room has been relieved of its accumulated clutter. Order brings a sense of calm, disorder brings a sense of chaos, and if you are feeling unsettled and anxious, it scatters your energy. Hence the importance of focussing intently on only one task…restoring order to a space through the removal of those things that do not belong in it and putting the remaining items in their proper places.
When your whole house has been restored to order, then it is time to clean. We’ll talk about that next time.
I used to be the queen of the untidy house. With a full-time job, a husband, three kids, an assortment of dogs and cats, a five-bedroom house, and no maid or cleaner, I was housework-challenged. My husband was firmly of the opinion that housework was “woman’s work,” a sentiment eagerly embraced by the boys, and my teen daughter…well, let’s say that if there was a clear path from her bedroom door to her bed (so I wouldn’t impale my foot on some buried artefact while delivering clean laundry), it just wasn’t worth the effort to tangle with her roiling hormones.
With so much house and so little time to keep it, it was an endless chore to keep things picked up. I also tended to get distracted…I would begin cleaning the living room by picking up dirty glasses and cups and toting them to the kitchen, where I would get distracted by a couple of kid’s sweaters on the table which I would carry to their rooms…where I would get further distracted by attempting to collect dirty laundry from the debris-strewn floors. End result? hours spent running from room to room with little bits of the mess, and none of the rooms ever getting tidied up.
I can remember my mother telling me “clean your room!” and being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task and baffled as to where to start. Helping my youngest child, who suffered from ADD and learning disabilities, to clean up his room taught me a few valuable lessons. First of all, “clean up” is too vague: the task needs to be broken down into smaller steps. And secondly, what do you do with something once you have picked it up? If the item in your hand belongs in the kitchen, can you stay on task long enough to take it to the kitchen and return to the room? And how many trips to the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, etc. are you going to make? And at what cost, in terms of time?
I came across the solution to my untidy house quite by accident. Having a mountain of laundry to do each weekend, I had invested in a stack of large rectangular laundry baskets into which I could sort the various loads and easily carry them to and from the washer and dryer. While upstairs gathering laundry from a bedroom one day, I stuck a few items that belonged downstairs into an empty laundry basket so that I could carry them easily back to their place of origin. Pulling dirty clothes out of another room, I spotted some items belonging to the kitchen and put them into an empty basket for easy removal. It didn’t take long for me to take this to the next level, and in a short time, I evolved a system that has stood me in good stead until this day (those children now have teenagers of their own!).
Here's how it works:
Invest in at least three large rectangular laundry baskets: you can get more, but get them in multiples of three. Boxes will work, but they aren’t as sturdy or as versatile and they exude a subliminal message of “storage” to which you do not want to succumb. The ultimate objective is to put possessions away and throw away trash, not to store the stuff.
Now, mentally label the baskets “Here,” “Another Room,” and “Trash.”
Take the baskets to the first room to be cleaned, put them near the door, and begin. Go through the room, starting at the door, and pick up each item that is on the floor, bed, tables…everything that is out of place…and place the items in one of the baskets. If a basket gets full, do not empty it! This will distract you from your task of removing the clutter from the room. Either pile stuff around it or bring in another basket. If an item is too large to fit into a basket, put it beside the appropriate basket. The objective here is to clear the room of clutter in an organized manner, and in such a way that you will not get distracted by other tasks in other parts of the house.
When all the bits and pieces have been cleared away, take the trash basket outside and empty it, returning to the room with an empty basket. Now, take the basket you mentally labelled “here” and remove each piece and put it in its proper place in the room. You will now have two (or more) empty baskets.
Now, go through the “Another room” baskets and sort the contents into the baskets you just emptied. Perhaps you’ll have “Kitchen,” “Family Room,” and “Kids’ Rooms” baskets. Maybe you'll have "Upstairs," "Basement," and "Patio" baskets...mentally label the baskets according to need. Now take those baskets to the appropriate spaces.
Chances are, each of those spaces need the Laundry Basket Treatment, too, so just put the baskets down at the appropriate doors and mentally label them “Here.” Bring in two empty baskets for the trash and things that belong in another room, and repeat the process in each room.
You’ll notice that no dusting, sweeping, vacuuming or other cleaning has been done…there is a reason for that. It is important to stay focussed on the immediate task…removing clutter and restoring order to the rooms. Cleaning, which is actually a different set of tasks from restoring order, can be done after each room has been relieved of its accumulated clutter. Order brings a sense of calm, disorder brings a sense of chaos, and if you are feeling unsettled and anxious, it scatters your energy. Hence the importance of focussing intently on only one task…restoring order to a space through the removal of those things that do not belong in it and putting the remaining items in their proper places.
When your whole house has been restored to order, then it is time to clean. We’ll talk about that next time.
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