No one of looks forward to spending half of every weekend tidying up the house. Or, if you’re a parent, making the round at the end of the day, picking up stray toys and runaway Lego bricks, taking down pillow forts. No one wants to, but we all have to. Even if we do it when the pile of clothes on the chair (that one chair, which all the clothes end up on) gets tall enough to topple down on the dresser.
Cleaning is an undeniable truth of the human existence. That’s a tad dramatic, I know, but here’s the good part- Just because it’s a chore, doesn’t mean it has to be a bore. Here’s five ways I make my cleaning routine something I look forward to, instead of avoiding.
- Jazz it up!
Or Rock, if you prefer a little headbanging to go with the folding. Music is the easiest way to turn a mind-numbing sequence of pick, sort, fold, stash into something you’ll be doing with a beat. Put on something light and peppy if you feel lazy. Put on dance music, something new on the charts could end up being your new favorite. And the whole time, your hands are working away, scrubbing the crayon off the wall, or fixing the tipped over kitty litter back into its tray. Unglamorous? Yes. Time consuming? Definitely. Necessary? Of course. Boring? No! You’ll be done with your cleaning before you know it, and it’ll have been time well spent, too!
And there’s always the added bonus of getting a little bit of a workout in, too. You don’t have to do jumping jacks with your dusting- but dancing, you can! While it won’t be a substitute for a session at the gym, it still beats sitting cross legged in the same place, scrubbing away cross eyed and Cinderella style at a stubborn stain.
- Tune in!
When was the last time you heard the radio?
I thought so. Listening to the radio doesn’t have to be something you do only when you’re stuck in traffic and your phone isn’t connecting to the Audio. There’s still a huge number of active radio stations, catering to every music taste imaginable. And it’s not just music that’s aired. A lot of local programming is very rich and very comprehensive. It’s one of the best ways to stay up to date with what’s happening around you – all while sorting the laundry out.
- Relaxation, you got this.
Cleaning can be a more relaxing chore than cooking, if you think about it. You don’t need to be as actively engaged as you are in the kitchen. Especially if you’re cleaning up at night, or on the weekend, you can take this time to enjoy some genuine peace and quiet around the house. If you like, you can put on some classical music in the background, too. Work your way through Beethoven and Debussy, and let the melodies just wash over the background, as you put the house back into a semblance of order. And if you don’t want to wake anyone up? Earphones are your best friend!
- Learn something new!
If you have the kind of household that makes it necessary to clean up every single day, thanks to kids/assorted cats and dogs/birds, making a chunk of your day completely dedicated to cleaning, is a waste. Not to mention, it’ll leave you feeling overburdened and burnt out, if you can’t have a little fun while finishing it up.
Podcasts are your biggest help here. Whether you’d like to work your way through a series about humor-challenged friends, or a series of motivational talks about getting your life in order, all of this is doable while you clean.
If that’s not your cup of tea, Audiobooks come to the rescue. Sometimes, you have a whole bunch of books on your must-read list that you can’t get around to. Or, you want to revisit an old favorite, but haven’t gotten the time. With audiobooks, you can accomplish both. In fact your cleaning time of the day can be turned into a much more productive use of that time than just filling it up with dusting.
- Make a project out of it!
Cleaning is generally boring- except when it isn’t! A little superficial spitshine works when you’re just tidying up on a small scale. Some cleaning needs to be made an event of, like a biannual scrub down of the house and closets, or a massive Spring cleaning for the carpets and couches and curtains. And some cleaning, you can make a project out of. Overcrowded dressers and closets, kitchen cabinets, rotating your wardrobe, shuffling up the larder, whatever it is. Everything from making a big furniture change, to restoring one beat down corner table can be turned into the perfect DIY project. It’s one ways to recruit your creative skills, and not to mention, put a really personal touch to your house as well.
Author bio – David is a blogger at FlipFlopsandAppleSauce where he reviews and roundups the best products for any given product.
