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The past few weeks have been super busy in my family. I’ve been driving different kids to different places, going out for appointments, and the usual grocery shopping.

All of this additional time outside of the home has really taken a toll on my normal housekeeping routine.

I’ve been feeling perpetually behind, and getting frustrated with my inability to get back on top of everything.

One of the main tenets of housekeeping for me is that if I’m out of my routine, it will be harder to maintain the status quo. In my home, when everything is humming along as it should, it’s easier for me to be a better mom and a happier wife.

Then clutter and dirt starts to pile up, motherhood gets overwhelming really quickly.

I took the time a few weekends ago to do a thorough cleaning of my home.

I ended up spending about 3.5 hours deep cleaning, organizing, and throwing things away. When I was done, everything felt so amazing, and my home and my attitude had a huge reboot.

Grab my FREE Housekeeping Re-Set Action Plan!

Although I am a huge advocate of cleaning as you go, little by little, sometimes, doing a big hours-long over-haul is exactly what you need.

Let me explain!

WHY DOES A HOUSEKEEPING RESET WORK?

You know how it is, Mama. Sometimes the messes can pile up faster than you can clean them up. A lot of the time, a small mess can attract a bigger mess, and it ends up turning into a giant mess.

And one thing that I have noticed more than anything else is that if I have a few messy spots in the house, everyone else in the house stops trying to keep things tidy.

Myself included.

It is so much easier to keep a clean home clean. There is momentum that keeps you going. A tidy, organized home inspires you to keep everything spic and span.

But, if the standards start to slip a little, the kids and the husband (and ok, me too) naturally start to slip as well. Pretty soon you have an all-out mess that short bursts of cleaning will NOT take care of.

Grab my FREE Housekeeping Re-Set Action Plan!

Spending a few hours re-setting the home is exactly what is needed to pull everything back together, and adjust the mentality in the home.

HOW DOES A HOUSEKEEPING RESET WORK?

It is easiest to do this if you don’t have your little children underfoot. If it’s an option, ask your husband to take the kids somewhere for three or four hours, and then get to work. But you know how it is, you have to do the work. Don’t fritter your time away online or on things that don’t matter. Get right to it.

If having your children out of the house isn’t an option, you can always shoot for nap time. If that isn’t even an option (it wasn’t for me when I did my major cleaning), then just go for it and do your best.

Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by less important things. Just clean, clean, clean. Throw away as you go. Keep a damp cloth close by. Pick up, throw away, wipe clean, and on and on.

Go room by room. Don’t leave a room until it looks like you want it to. You may not be able to do every room in your house, but by staying in a room until it’s done, at least you’ll be able to see the fruits of your labor.

Grab my FREE Housekeeping Re-Set Action Plan!

If you flit around from room to room and never really finish anywhere, your efforts will be look diluted and it won’t *feel* like you accomplished anything.

UPKEEP FOR YOUR HOUSEKEEPING RESET

Once you get a room clean, it’s so much easier to keep it that way. All it will take are a few minutes every day to put things back into place, sweep or vacuum, wipe away some dust, etc. You won’t be starting from scratch and it won’t feel overwhelming anymore.

Make it a point to walk through the clean rooms everyday and re-set them. Keep them that way as much as you possibly can, and when you have another chunk of time, work on turning another room of your house that’s messy into one of the clean rooms.

If you are diligent, before you know it, you will have all clean rooms and then you will be in upkeep mode all of the time. Upkeep mode is a beautiful place to be. You feel ahead most of the time, and rarely overwhelmed by housekeeping.

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