Subscribe to Our Blog


Subscribe via RSS

Or, Subscribe via email:

Delivered by FeedBurner

About Us

Founded in 2004 by parents struggling to create a nurturing family life while balancing the demands of everyday life. Families with Purpose is dedicated to helping all those busy and "struggling" families find time for the little things in life.

Blogroll

Search


Newsletter

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

Social Network

Twitter - Follow random thoughts, information, and cool ideas and links on Twitter.

Facebook - Visit our Facebook page for all the latest and greatest updates.

« Family Fitness Challenge | Main | Creating a House Cleaning Schedule »

House Cleaning - The Thorn in Every Family’s Side

By Polly | April 22, 2008

Our house cleaning philosophy here at Families with Purpose is simple - clean it to your standards, minimize the distraction it takes on your family life, and don’t beat yourself up when it doesn’t get done.   And with this philosophy in mind you won’t find us spending a lot of time writing about how to clean your house.  We would much rather write about creating an authentic family life for yourself and children than how to clean your house.   We will leave the nitty gritty of cleaning up to the experts like FlyLady, Real Simple, and Organized Home.  They can teach you much more about cleaning than we ever could and really are the experts.

So if you haven’t deserted us for one of the cleaning experts, here are the details behind our house cleaning philosophy.  Tomorrow we will talk more specifically about how you can create your own house cleaning plan.

Clean It to Your Standards - Just like everyone has a different tolerance for pain, everyone has a different tolerance for a dirty house.  Some of us won’t be satisfied if we aren’t Martha Stewart clean while others go through life just fine being pleasantly blind to the 1 inch covering of dust on the furniture.  The point is to be honest with yourself about what is important to you (not your mother! ) and what in reality you can accomplish.   After you have determined what a realistic standard is for yourself and family, accept it and find peace with that standard. 

Minimize the Distraction it Takes on Your Family - We have talked in the past about the peace in having a plan, and establishing a house cleaning plan is no different.  Just knowing that you have a plan to get the cleaning done brings a lot of comfort to any busy parent.  The key to any house cleaning plan though is in finding that delicate balance between having a clean house and getting it done without sacrificing too much family harmony.  Your plan has to be robust enough so that the kids aren’t embarrassed to bring over their friends, but not so over the top that you have no time for fun.    You want your house cleaning plan such that you find yourself saying yes more often than no to last minute requests for a game of Family Fun or fun bike rides around the neighborhood.

Don’t Beat Yourself Up When It Doesn’t Get Done - The reality of life is that everything on our do list is not going to get done.  There will be days when house cleaning will take a backseat to late work nights, science fair projects, and Little League baseball games and THAT IS OKAY.  After all, how do you want your kids to remember you?  As a parent who was always cleaning or a parent who made it to every game?  You decide and remember the little things really do matter.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google

Related Entries:
Creating a House Cleaning Schedule

Make Your Own Household Cleaners

The Difference Between Mothers and Fathers (at the beach)

St. Patrick’s Day Fun

Organizing Your Shopping List


Topics: Conquering the Chaos, Family Organized, Home Organizing Tips |

One Response to “House Cleaning - The Thorn in Every Family’s Side”

  1. Creating a House Cleaning Schedule | Our Busy Family Life Says:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 4:01 pm

    [...] House Cleaning - The Thorn in Every Family’s Side [...]

Comments