Cleaning challenges ..aargh!

I'll be very honest on this post. More than one person asked me, in so many words, if I needed help with keeping the house clean. Here's part of my response:

Do I Need Professional Help?
When asked if it would help to hire someone, I said I hadn't done that yet because I would have to have someone come regularly. They could come and do a good thorough job but I would still have to work on keeping it up and maintaining it. I have days that I have the whole day to clean and I clean it and it looks great and then it has to be done again. It takes regular maintenance to keep it clean and it comes and goes (times when I can keep it up, and when I don't). It takes improving habits for children adults and it takes child training in maintenance.

But I'll take the help. Regular professional cleaning... sure! In the meantime I'll keep working on improving my game.

Advice from others

I hear mixed advice and information from other people. Including, "I have young children and my house is always clean" (yeah right, I've never heard that). But I HAVE heard people who have young children now and those who had young children at one time.

1) Some say they get really stressed out about the fact that cleaning and keeping it clean and training kids to clean is so hard and frustrating but thank God the kids become older and more able to help.

2) Some say like this older lady whose children are now grown, that they did the main areas of cleaning and other things they didn't stress about because it was more important to spend the time with the children, that they need, like talking to them, reading to them, enjoying those moments that will never come back after the kids grow up and are out of the house. One lady told me that years from now your kids won't remember the house being tidy or not, when they grow up as much as they will remember the time you spent with them and the things you taught them.

3) Some just let their house go! I do not do that. I actually work really hard!

4) One friend's parents paid for someone to come and clean her house and her floor and she said she appreciated it, she really did, but she was left with still having to maintain it and work on rules and habits of keeping things tidy. And she's still working on that.

5) One friend's house I thought always looked immaculate. She told me about the challenges she has throughout the week. I was like what? Not her! That let me know almost everyone has challenges.

Chores

Just last night I put together a new chore/chart system for the kids to remind them of areas to clean on their own, without me having to remind them (hopefully). They get stickers for what they do and that earns them the privelege to watch movies and to go see this show they want to see at the Children's Theater at the end of the month. They have improved a whole lot in that area. I used to not stay on top of them about dropping things on the floor and not putting things back where they belong and having stuff right in the middle of the floor. Now I do that. It is hard, constant work though!!

Energy

I have a lot more energy did than when I was pregnant (of course) and more than I did when Baby was first born. Before I say more about my cleaning challenges, I can say that lately I have been spending energy on another area where I really needed to improve. That's in the areas of cooking. One of the things my husband has talked about over and over and over is healthy eating, and not eating out.. not to just to save money but so that our bodies are healthy and less likely for disease and fatigue. I was bragging to my mother and sisters the other day and telling them that last week I actually cooked 4 times out of 5 nights of the week!!!

Back to energy and issues with keeping up with cleaning...... I have to allocate how I spend the energy in a given day and these are the things I spend that energy on --- reading books to the kids, listening to them read, washing the dishes, fixing breakfast, lunch, and dinner, clearing and clearning the table, sweeping the kitchen, mopping the kitchen, washing each category of clothes, folding and putting away each category of clothes, giving baths and showers, doing hair, cleaning bathrooms and tubs (we use the master bathroom for almost everything so that's the main one I clean.... and the kids bathroom toilet now needs to be fixed but when it works I have to work hard to keep it clean for guests right?) the list goes on.

It's similar to the challenge that it was when the kids were in school and I worked. It's just that season of life, having little kids in the house.

So if I had a long day and was out of energy one night or if I was sick or whatever there may be days where I have absolutely no energy, and if someone knocks on the door on those days, I literally don't want to answer the door. I don't know when those days will come but I know they will. I have really really good days and every now and then I have much worse days. And some of those are when I have someone drop by. I'm working on having more of those drop by days also be clean house days!