New Year's Resolutions - Resolving to Keep Your House Clean? Impossible? NO!

If you’re like me you’ve spent the past three weeks taking down all the holiday decorations and also noticing all of the things that need to be done around the house. You go to take down garland and think, “I clearly haven’t dusted this bookshelf in a long time”. Or, you follow the trail of pine needles only to be reminded that the floor beneath the couch is suffering from serious neglect. This year, we’ve got a New Year’s resolution for you that is easy to follow and comes with a great incentive.

First the resolution. We officially declare 2014 the "Year of the Clean House"! Sound boring? It’s not! Because I love to decorate I decided to think of this resolution less as cleaning and more as maintaining a well-kept backdrop for my keepsakes and during the holiday season, my decorations. Now, this where the incentive comes in. For every month that you stick to your cleaning schedule, you get to reward yourself with something new for your home! If you’re anything like me keeping the clean house  resolution will be its own incentive!

Every time I think of cleaning I get SO tired and feel completely overwhelmed so I decided to make an itemized spreadsheet. I divided the house into separate areas each with their own individual sub-areas as the focus for deep cleaning one week of the month. Then, I divided up the different chores for each area so that one job is assigned to each day of the week.  Sound confusing? It's not and here is an example of how it works:

Area: Living Room

• Monday:  Floors
• Tuesday:  Dusting
• Wednesday: Windows
• Thursday: Tables/Lamps/Fans
• Friday: Sofa and Chairs

For a 1300 square foot house, that breaks down to about an hour’s worth of cleaning a day. It’s doable!  But don’t beat yourself up if there is a day that just doesn’t work with the schedule. It’s life and it happens.  Plus, there is always tomorrow!

Contributed by: Terrie Petree for Sterling Pear