Schedule your cleaning.

As a writer, it's a challenge to keep the home tidy and picked up; especially when writing a novel. Here's one idea to help keep your home in order.

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Schedule your cleaning.

Eeewww, yuck, you say. I hate cleaning as it is and now you tell me to make a date to clean?

Yes, because that is the easy way to do it. If you do a thorough bathroom cleaning every Wednesday, for example, then it will get done every week and it will not be so bad.

If you leave your cleaning the bathroom chore until you can "get around to it," until it really needs it, or until you cannot stand it anymore, then you will have a much worse job on your hands, and you are far more likely to put it off the next time it needs to be done because it was so yucky.

If you set up a schedule, you are more likely to remember to do the cleaning, the rooms will stay cleaner, you will feel less harassed about it all, and your home will be a nicer place for you to relax in.

It is a good idea to break up the major cleaning chores; don't schedule everything for the same day.
If you plan to do all your cleaning on one day, say Saturday, then something is likely to come up that prevents you from taking care of it on Saturday and you will be back at square one with a dirty house and a whole week to wait until your next "cleaning day."

Instead, make Tuesday your bathroom cleaning day, Wednesday your living room cleaning day, Thursday your kitchen cleaning day, Friday your bedroom cleaning, laundry collection, and sorting day, etc. This way, if you miss the bathroom cleaning-day because of a school conference or staying late at work you can catch up the next day. It is only 5 to 30 minutes of cleaning you missed, not the whole house.

Now, when I say that Thursday is kitchen cleaning, I do not mean that you let the dishes and counter tops  etc. go all the rest of the week. I am talking about the one day a week that you do a thorough job of cleaning- cleaning the stove, refrigerator, microwave, floor, etc. Naturally, if any area in your house needs cleaning or straightening during the rest of the week you would take care of it: wipe up spills, and so forth.