Small Gains

Like it or not, we ALL have to do some amount of housekeeping.  Even if we have a maid (wouldn't that be nice!) to do the heavy cleaning, we still need to organize our 'stuff' to our liking, and for a degree of neatness.

One mother I know told her young son, "The maid's coming, pick up your toys."  The son looked her right in the eyes and informed her, "If the maid's coming, let her do it!"  Not one to spoil the boy, the mother looked him back in the eyes and informed him, "YOU pick them up NOW!"  And he did.

Some folks love to keep their house clean and vacuum, sweep, dust, and clean bathrooms EVERY DAY!  There's certainly no harm in that; we call women that dedicated, "Mrs. Clean."  But most of us simply have too much responsibility for that level of cleanliness.

Personally, now that I'm retired and living by myself, the house doesn't get all that dirty and it's a lot easier to tidy up.  My goal is to do a little bit every day so I don't have an enormous task before entertaining 'events.'

Another goal is to keep 'things' from getting cluttered.  Long ago, I heard a good maxim: "Storage at the point of use."  If that can be accomplished with most of your 'stuff,' half your housekeeping battle is won!

My perfectly organized daughter #7, Marie, has a closet so well organized that at a bridal shower she hosted recently, her friends gave tours of the closet to those who had not seen it.  Marie has bought inexpensive Dollar-Store shoe boxes, and labeled the contents, for her shoes.  Her clothes are hanging according to colors.  I've taken her cue and done this also.  It helps!

It was just before my second child was born that we could afford to buy a washer and dryer and not drag our laundry to the laundromat.  What a luxury that was!

Now, of course, laundry is no big deal.  But the other day I discovered a new way to save a small amount of time with laundry.  Instead of tossing my dirty clothes in the hamper, then sorting them into whites, colors, and dark items, I thought of just putting the white and colored clothes directly into the washer after use, and the dark items into the hamper!  Now my clothes are pre-sorted and my first laundry load is ready to start!

Lord, we've heard that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness."  Please help us fight our laziness and not allow much clutter to happen!