Keeping your clean home is not only good for both yours and your family’s health, but it is also good for your wallets!
Dear Home Owners/Dwellers Everywhere,
Your house called me yesterday and asked me to relay a message. “Clean me!” Harsh words. But, hey, it was not me. It was your house. (I must remember to stop posting my number online). Therefore, your house wants to feel more like a home, and less like a locker room/storage facility. Where to start? First, you should understand the bigger picture. The beauty of having a clean home is not that everything is dust free and untouched, but that the living space you dwell in is functional. People will sometimes stop using parts of their homes because of the filth, rather than clean it. Sometimes the mess gets too big. Have you not ever seen an episode of hoarders?
Now, I’m not saying your house is in such extreme conditions that it could make an appearance on such a show, (although your house did call me), but what I am saying is you work so hard to live where you live and you should enjoy the conditions around you. Is it not nice to breath deep and know that for the most part, you are likely not breathing in flu causing bacteria? Everything about your living space is personal, and yours. You will make most of your memories there, you will cook and share your meals there, and you will enjoy holidays and family gatherings there. In addition, I think all of us know that none of these beautiful things is quite as enjoyable when they are ridden with filth.
Picture your children running down the stairs, after joyfully awaiting the surprise of what Santa has brought them. Now picture their faces when instead of a beautifully wrapped gift or two, they see massive piles of laundry beneath the mistletoe, and dust bunnies with legs scavenging about the tree. Little Joey looks miserable, does he not? In addition, poor Annabelle is in tears! (She has always been a bit dramatic). Now understandably so!
The dust particles in the air give way to your spouses’ allergic reactions, and the crumbs that have been sitting on the stove top for months finally catch fire when you attempt a homemade hot chocolate. Now you are spending your potentially lovely holiday in the local ER treating allergic reactions and minor burns. It could be worse, yes. But, it could be better.
Picture your children again, running down the stairs on Christmas morning. They see a few presents delivered by the man in red himself, the smell of Christmas is in the air (a scent you can fully enjoy since you dusted the mantle and swept the floors), the laundry is folded and put away in drawers waiting to be worn again, the hot chocolate that is simmering on the stove contributes to the sweet smell of Christmas and the mistletoe has nothing under it but you and your loved one.
The clean home. Now, that is better, is it not?
Obviously, cleaning your house does not make things in your life picture perfect. However, not cleaning your house simply contributes to the chaos.
What makes a house a home is the people in it, and the love and atmosphere you cultivate. When you keep your home clean, you cultivate an environment where it is okay for things to get a little messy! You create the freedom to walk around, lay on the sofa, or play a board game on the floor. A mess can be cleaned up. And, a home should be lived in! However, living in your home is not the same thing as letting it go.
Think of the many beauties that a clean home provides:
- Loving the space you live in
- Clearing away the clutter
- Freeing yourself of guilt
- Having a home others want to visit
- Relaxing in your environment
- Feeling free to think beyond the tasks
- Knowing where everything is
- Appreciating the joys of your home
- Keeping yourself healthy
- Saving money
Keeping your house clean is not only good for both yours and your family’s health, but it is also good for your wallets! Think of the money you could save on plumbers, floor installation, paint jobs, flea treatments, or medical bills, if you continuously kept up to your home. Now, of course, all of these things are likely to rise up at some point or another, clean home or not. Keeping your home clean dramatically decreases how often these things may arise. Why add to the unknowns when something like keeping your home clean is within your control?
“But I don’t have the time!” you say. On the other hand, maybe you feel like it is a never-ending chore, which, honestly, it is. It is easy to get discouraged when you are cleaning the same messes every single day.
Try to come up with ways to make the goal of a clean home easier on yourself. Many people do not outsource in order to save money. However, depending on your circumstances, outsourcing a few house-cleaning projects a month is not a waste of money! Think of it as an investment towards your sanity.
If you simply do not have the means to outsource, try to get the whole family in on it. After all, they all make messes, right? Make sure every member of the home has a chore and that they stick to it. A few other ideas for making home cleaning easier on yourself could be as simple as keeping up with your pets grooming, scheduling certain days of the month for bigger tasks (large appliance clean ups, etc.), or organizing your cleaning supplies.
The goal is not to pass a white glove test, but to truly enjoy the freedoms of a clean and organized home.
There are so many more important things in life than the crumbs on the kitchen floor or the dog hair in the lint trap. Making sure that these things are taken care of, gives you the freedom to enjoy what truly does matter. The fact that the crumbs got there because your family could not help but devour the delicious meals prepared in your kitchen and the fact that the dog hair came from the best pet you have ever owned after you got home from a long walk together are the things that make your house a home. Those are the memories you can fully marinate on when you are enjoying the relaxation and the beauties of a clean home.
To read more about keeping a beautiful clean home, here is Rosann Cunningham, an expert, talking about the secrets to keeping a beautiful home. An exciting read.
— Shelby Ballew
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