Yes, if you know me, the first thing you'll say is, "Ha! Lisa, you're a "person of clutter." What makes you think you have the expertise or clout to offer REAL solutions to messiness?"
Oh! But actually this makes me just the person to do it. You see, I like things clean, especially germ-free, but I'm not what you would call "meticulous." Plenty of other things get my attention before being tidy does. Finally, I look around, and I say, "Things change NOW!" I'm also trying to be more proactive, so deep cleaning happens less.
Here's some tips that help a messy person like me.
1. Maintenance. I hate to feel like I'm cleaning all the time, and maintenance is what tidy people call cleaning when it happens all the time.
I'm a bit more practical. If it makes a big difference, down the line, in time spent on housework, I try to do it. I have found some short cuts that make a huge difference, but I won't kid you, "maintenance" coming from a tidy person, just means, "I love to have continual order. My house WILL be clean and tidy. period. I call that maintenance to make it seem less neurotic." For me maintenance is a short burst of clean up to save me a load of misery later. Like I said, I'm no neat freak. Ask my husband, or any of my friends!
2. The grubby microwave: (bonus 2 tips in 1)
a. First be proactive, even though it means a few extra seconds of delayed food gratification. Cover up heating food. It saves loads of time later. (I try not to use a plastic cover because I've heard the toxins in the plastics leech into the food, and that's not so healthy over time. Think cancer. Not so good.) I usually keep a paper plate, napkin, or paper towel handy, and that way messes are more minimal.
b. Here's the jewel of the tip! To clean your microwave, you'll hardly have any scrubbing or too much work at all if you heat up a nice wet washcloth for about 60-90 seconds. It makes the crud loosen up, and then you just wipe it off, with barely any trouble. (Don't burn yourself on the heated wash cloth. Let it cool down for a minute or so.) If you put a tiny bit of lemon juice on it--oh boy! I'll leave it at that.
As you can tell, I don't like cleaning or scrubbing very much. I won't even go into my reluctance to dust (allergies, plus I hate it). Here are a few techniques I use for big time short cuts to get the same cleaning power!
3. I try to ALWAYS rinse out pots, pans, or other cookware, I've cooked in *right after* they've been used/cooked with. I don't like leaving it on the stove, or just popping it into the sink. If I blast the thing off with the sink hose for 15 seconds, it will literally save me 5-15 minutes of clean up later, when the stuff has caked on.
4. If I have a garbage lid that's getting funky, or a cutting board that needs a rigorous scrub down, (etc.) I don't do it. Here's my trick. I use Clorox clean up spray, put the object in the sink, spray it down, wait 3-5 minutes, and then blast it off with my sink hose, and then let it dry, or dry it myself. It's super clean, has no germs, and I didn't have to scrub AT ALL.
5. Here's how I get out of scrubbing the shower.
I keep a spray bottle of bleach and water in the shower, and a green scouring pad. At the end of my shower, I spritz the shower curtain and walls, and wipe them off. It takes about 40 seconds, and it puts off a hefty scrubbing for years...months, I mean. No, I mean a few weeks. You get the idea.
Which ones sound good to you?
What short cuts do you have?
thanks for reading. Use some, then stop back and tell me which ones have helped you.
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