502: Working In Cleaning Routines

desalobification process as I figure out ways to keep my own home under control. I share

the truth about cleaning and organizing strategies that actually work in real life for real people, people who don't love cleaning and organizing. Thanks for joining me today. This is podcast number 502. And I am going to call it working in cleaning routines. So I'm answering some questions that we're asked over at AskDynikaWhite.com. You can ask your questions there to be answered on podcasts and in my live Q&As that I do most Tuesdays. And it is spring right now.

Is it? I don't know. Please don't quote me. It's not really spring yet. You know spring doesn't

start until but it'll allow whatever. I'm sorry. But you know like it's the internet. And so if you say

“anything wrong people are going to help you. They're going to help you. Anyway, so I know I don't remember”

when spring starts but it is spring-ish season-ish. Okay. And so there is a tendency to start hearing about spring cleaning. The reason I say hearing about spring cleaning is that I have come to believe doing what I do on the internet as my business and so I watch marketing and I watch, you know, what works and what helps and what gives people, you know, excited. And I have come to believe that most of the deal with content based around spring cleaning. It's just a marketing thing.

Like marketing people are like, oh, it's spring cleaning. We need to talk about this. Y'all, I cannot tell you how many I know that every time when it's spring break, I actually spring break for my kids,

“right now as I'm talking for several, a couple of my kids, not all of them. But as I'm recording”

this podcast, but like spring break, how many times I have had to stop in the middle of whatever we were doing as a family, didn't have to, but I chose to do an interview with magazines and newspapers and sometimes, you know, different, all kinds of stuff. Like I do a lot of interviews about spring cleaning because that's when they're like, oh, we need to have an article come out in our magazine work. But, but I do. Like I just do all kinds of things and they, it's a content.

It's like, oh, we should have spring cleaning content. I have not in personal experience from seeing what actually resonates with people and what gets people excited and consuming my content. It's not

“spring cleaning. It's, it's the week between Christmas and New Year. Some people are talking about”

decluttering, but nobody wants to have articles about that because they're all taking their own vacation time during that time. Um, so anyway, it's spring. We're going to talk about cleaning routines, but this is not a spring cleaning podcast. This is just, hey, I keep seeing all this stuff about spring cleaning and it makes me feel like, oh my goodness, well, here's some realistic practical practical answers to realistic questions about cleaning routines and things like that.

I'll just send you by one's upgapest in best nets. We hired house cleaners to clean twice a month while my baby was still small. I thought I would implement the daily tasks and weekly cleaning routine slowly as my son got older, but now he is

too. And I still dread having the cleaners come because I am always way behind on the daily stuff.

Is it possible to build my own cleaning habits while we still have the cleaners or is it time to do it all on my own? I only have six more months until baby three arrives to make it all much harder. Okay. This is the layers of a clean house. Daily stuff has actually nothing to do with what house cleaners do. Daily things are the things for you to focus on, especially as you have young children because they will take less and less time, the more that you do them daily

and that will free up so much time that you desperately need at this phase of your life. That's incredibly busy with three young children. So daily tasks are the things. So if you have six months left, then focus on your daily tasks and see the impact of those daily tasks. Because your house cleaners, if they are spending time patching you up by doing the dishes,

pile or something somewhere so that they can actually get to the cleaning, focus and on that daily stuff. It is shocking. The impact that daily tasks like doing the dishes, checking the bathrooms for clutter, sweeping the kitchen floor and doing a five-minute pickup. If only thing you can do is do the dishes, do the dishes. If you can do one more thing, do a five-minute pickup. Those things will change your home and they will completely change this dread over the cleaners coming.

I, because you'll be ready for them. If you're doing the dishes and the kitchen doesn't have to be caught up and they can just walk in and clean the kitchen, which is not doing the dishes, doing the dishes is not cleaning the kitchen, doing the dishes is a daily task. If you've already got things picked up because you've been doing five-minute pickup somewhat regularly, then when it's time for them to come, you might have to do a few little pickup, a few little things,

but it's not going to be this huge big deal. Those are the important things for you to focus on. When I mentioned Layers of a Clean House, the Layers of a Clean House, which I have videos and podcasts on this as well, but the first layer is the daily stuff. The second layer is decluttering. The third layer is the actual cleaning. Cleaners only do that third layer, but those first two layers are the things that make a house manageable and look like it's under control and look

clean. You can get away with the not doing the deep cleaning as much or as often if you're doing those first two things. Those first two things are the reason why some people say,

some people whose houses look great, say they never clean. Does that drive you bananas? That you

should drive me bananas. Now I understand, I was thinking cleaning was catching up on daily stuff, doing all the picking up and putting away, doing all the dishes, all the things I should have been doing every day. I thought cleaning included that plus moving all the stuff out of the way because I didn't

“have places for things to go and I had piles and places and then cleaning. That's why my house”

looked bad and also why cleaning was such a huge exhausting task task because I wasn't just cleaning. I was doing layers one and two as well. Doing the dishes every day and doing a five minute pick up every day is going to change your life and then with the whatever time you have also get stuff out and it will make it all easier. I grew up at home with no cleaning routines at all. My lovely nurturing mother didn't like housework so she generally didn't do it. She had some mental health

issues. My dishes and laundry are always done and my house is generally tidy. Although my walk

in closet and garage could use more decluttering. However, I sometimes don't see dust, etc. Until I walk by and say, how do I develop cleaning routines when they're not second nature? If I had a cleaning person, I would not even know what to tell her to do or him. I added the or him. Luckily my husband picks up a lot of slack with cleaning but I would like to do better myself. Okay. By had a cleaning person, I would not even know what to tell her or him to

“do. Here's the thing. You don't have to tell cleaning people what to do. They know what to do.”

If your house is picked up and your daily stuff is caught up, they're going to know what to do. That's the beauty of it. That's their job. They are such amazing experts. The ones that I have had experience with. So they'll know. You don't have to worry about that. But not knowing I don't see the dust. What I did for years, for seven years, that worked really well for me before I started having a cleaning person come in, was I would assign a day to different tasks.

So I would, I think Thursday, dusting and mopping was on Thursday or dusting and vacuuming. I don't remember. Anyway, something along those lines, I don't remember what it was. It's all in how to manage your home without losing your mind. That's how I did things. I know I did month. Monday was laundry. Tuesday was bathrooms. Wednesday was errands because that was the

day. I was always out all day. Thursday was maybe dusting and vacuuming and Friday was mopping,

I think. But it was not that I got those things done every week. It was that when Tuesday came around. The fact that it was Tuesday generally made me go bathrooms. Oh my goodness, I haven't cleaned the bathrooms because I was out this last Tuesday and it was just a rhythm that helped me remember to do those things, which it sounds like that's kind of what you're looking for. Is a way to remember and notice that it's time to do these things instead of just having to

“notice that you need to dust. Okay. So that was what I found to be very helpful for me.”

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level is the actual cleaning of the bathroom mopping the floors, et cetera, that are done weekly isht in the fourth layer, they say I'm not saying is the less than weekly baseboards windows, et cetera.

“First of all, I think you're in the wrong place because I don't really talk about the perfection.”

Like, I don't talk about how do you make sure that everything is always perfect. That's not me.

I'm like, listen, if you will clean your bathrooms on a weekly basis and you can do that because you've been dealing with the daily stuff and you've decluttered to the point where you can actually just clean the bathrooms. I'm not going to tell you how to be perfect because that's really good. Like that, that is really good. You're good. What I will say on this is that when I have those other things under control, like my daily stuff's being done daily, I have decluttered to

the point where things all have a home. I don't have a bunch of stuff that's just, you know, shuffling, shifting, whatever, or all around my house. Because I'm at that point and my house is

“being cleaned, the basics are being done regularly. Then when I have a moment, like I'll have a”

Saturday where I'm like, oh, goodness, I've got all morning. Huh, I'm going to wash my windows. And I can do that without filling guilty because I'm not like, what's the point of washing the windows, when the toilet's dirty, which is the way it used to work for me. Okay? The other thing I'm going to say here is as possible. And I say this because I have talked so many people about their home organizing blah, blah, blah solutions, right? This is what I do for living. And I've had so

many conversations about it. It is possible. In my experience, a lot of times when people ask me a question like this, they haven't actually done any of the things yet. Because if you notice,

the question is not worded like, hey, I've got the first three layers all under control.

So now tell me where, when to do the detailed things like baseboards and windows, they're saying, how am I gonna manage the fourth layer of a clean house? They actually said, how do you manage the fourth layer? If the third layer is actually the cleaning of the bathrooms. So many times. And I know this from my own personal experience. It comes down to me saying, oh, my house is a total disaster right now. I want it to be perfect.

I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna make it perfect between now and then. I want to have my plan laid out. I want to know exactly how I'm going to do this because I know that I haven't

“actually picked up anything and I don't remember what color my carpet is. But my goal is to have my”

baseboards clean and everything. And so we're trying to figure out exactly what it's going to look like. But when you get the daily things under control, you go, oh, wow, wow, if I will just do the daily things, I am kind of so much better off than I ever was before. By doing the daily things,

you're never going to understand the power of the daily things until you do the daily things.

And you're never going to understand the impact that decluttering will have until you have decluttered. And then after you've done the daily things and you've decluttered, you're going to be like, oh, wow, cleaning is so much easier now. It's not that I never needed to clean before. It's not that I never cleaned while I was doing the decluttering. It's that I now understand, oh, it's not as hard as I always thought it was going to be. All right. And then

you're going to have a different perspective on when you're going to put this in. When you are just going, okay, I'm daily stuff. Oh, if you don't, if you haven't been doing the dishes daily, you have a completely incorrect understanding assumption, whatever about how long it takes to the dishes. The only way to fully understand is by doing the dishes. Okay. Let's see. I am pretty

depleting the bathroom is a biggie. I've tried saying I'll do it on a certain day of the week

but that never, that day never comes any advice. Okay. So instead of saying I'm going to do it on

this day, say I'm going to do it on Tuesdays because guess what, Tuesdays always come. They always come. Yeah. I mean, the other thing I would say here is that if you're pretty good at keeping up with the daily stuff, could you go with a little farther in your daily stuff? Maybe you've been checking the bathrooms for clutter, but you add the, I know that wasn't it fly lady who loves the like wiping down the bathrooms every day. That's not one of my things that I do, but maybe you could add that

because you're like, I'm pretty good at the daily stuff. I've been picking and checking the bathrooms for clutter every day. So, and I'm now going to add a quick wipe down of the cabinet every day. You know, and then that would keep you from having to do the big cleans. It would go a little bit farther. You know, you might be like, okay, well, I'll wipe down a little bit here on this day as a little addition, and then I'll wipe down the toilet on a different day as an addition or whatever,

and it could really make an impact on those, those things. Let's see. How do you manage microfiber cleaning clubs? For instance, I'm working on wipe now, so I don't have to scrub later. One of my, I think that was one of my tips that I included in organizing for the rest of us, one of my books. Do I use the microfiber cloth and then toss it in the laundry or do you hang your cloth somewhere within reach? I hate having the cloth just sitting around. Also, I wanted

to share. This is a good thing. I implemented the five-minute cleanups in my preschool classroom. The kids love when I set a visual timer on our smart board and challenge them to find everything that is not put away or on the floor. They bring me the item, I ask where it goes, and if they correctly tell me where it goes, I say, take it there now, and they think it is so silly and fun. Thanks Dana. I love that story so much. Okay. Yeah, as far as the microfiber cleaning cloths,

“if that's what you're using, what I personally do, and I'm not saying that this is what you”

have to do, because I know people have weirdnesses over, you know, I cleaned this with it, and I got quite just to warm up the washing machine, and then they go through the wash with whatever load comes next, because I have ones that are not going to bleed onto other things. I know that

could freak some people out. Basically, do whatever you need to do. I know that sometimes people

will put like a little hooks, you know, the little stick them to the wall hooks on there, or or it could even be one that slips over the door on their bathroom cabinets, under the sink, and then they can hang it there so that it's ready to be used in the future. But whatever you need to do to make it work for you. It's been Sharisa and Maina and Feliung and Al'Onto Pranura, started a choppy fry in full size. I often chop the choppy fry on the first day, and the

plate will make me no problem. I have many problems, but the plate is not a step from it. I have the feeling that choppy fry is a plate from continually optimised, everything is super simple, integrative and easy, and the time and the money that I can't understand at the same time. For Al'Onto Pranura, thank you for your methods of decluttering. I am working through the processes, but my question is, at what point do you find time to do the dirty work,

the dusting, vacuuming, and mopping? Do you do those while you're decluttering or after you are done? Okay, so this person is not asking about routines for cleaning, but they're asking like,

“"When do I clean as part of the decluttering?" Because the dirty little secret about clutter”

is that you can't clean when there's clutter blocking the surfaces that you need to clean. So, I'm sure I've told this story, but when I was in college, there was one semester right, only had night classes. I don't know how that's relevant to the story, but whatever. I only had night classes, and I remember this one, so you were like in somebody's class for three hours at a time. Those you've all heard professors, thank you. But oh my word,

those are hard, right? Like night classes are a challenge. And I just remember this one professor, I remember him specifically, because he would lecture lecture lecture lecture lecture, I would take all these notes, and then I would go to take the test, and he only tested over what was in the

book that we had never talked about, nothing from his lectures anyway. So, did not do well on the

“first test, and had to learn all that's what he does. But I remember, he was just kind of quirky,”

right? He was kind of quirky. And he would ask randomly, he would ask people to tell us a fun fact about themselves or a fact about themselves. And I said, whenever comes into your brain, is what you end up saying. So, he asked me one night, you know, tell us something about yourself,

but I have a lot of clutter or something along those lines. And he was like, he was like,

well, you know that underneath that clutter, it is dirty and dusty. And there's probably a lot of germs hiding in all of that clutter. And of course, it was kind of embarrassing. You know, I mean, I was at an age where I was still confident, absolutely no question of my mind that in the next phase of my life, when I was a real grown up, it was all going to be easy. And this wouldn't be a problem for me anymore. Bless Dana's heart anyway. But I was, I was a little like, it was kind of

shaming honestly, you know, and I was a little bit like, okay, okay, Mr. Shut up. Um, but don't say

“shut up, kids. That's not what you should say. Should say. Um, but in my, I didn't say that out loud.”

It just in my head. But you know, it was a little bit like, but I often think about the unfortunate truth that he was correct. He was right. It didn't help me whatsoever the way he said it. You know, I was like, be quiet. But I didn't say that out loud. But he, he was correct. I mean, unfortunately, you can't actually claim when there's clutter everywhere. And meaning like this question here, you do uncover dirt when you clutter because it's I don't get it. I don't get how

dust gets up under inside of things when they're just sitting there. Like you would think it would just kind of fall on top of what's on top and instead somehow it ends up that counters or dirty

“and floors or dirty and, um, you know, floor, closet floors are, I think in my video that I did”

recently have cleaning out the storage closet in my office here. I vacuumed up some dead spiders

that I found underneath the the stuff that I was cleaning. Uh, so it, it's just a fact. Here's what I

would say. Here's my advice. When you are decluttering and you come across the dirt, okay? Do the lowest, least possible amount you can do to be able to continue moving forward on your decluttering. If you finish decluttering this space, it's going to be so simple and easy to clean because your floors and your surfaces are going to be, you know, clear and you'll be able to access them and very quickly be able to wipe them down. If you can't move forward because it's bothering

you so much the thing that I recommend is that you have a duster of some sort, either a microfiber duster, it can just be a old t-shirt that you're using to dust. It could be a swiffer, whatever it is

“that you have as a way to quickly just dust it. Here's the thing, when you see globs of dust,”

dust bunnies, dust balls, whatever it is, like that you're uncovering. It looks horrifying. But you can make a huge impact with one quick swipe with a duster there. And so make that one of the things that you bring along with you. If this is an issue for you, as you bring things along with you, do that bring your dust buster, your handheld vacuum, whatever it is to be able to, okay, I decluttered this space. It is dirty. I'm going to do the least amount that I can do. It's not the

time to do a deep clean of that space. You want to do a surface clean and I think that's one of the things that was a big change for me was seeing the value in a surface clean and it's kind of that all or nothing mentality that I used to have. Why would I try to maintain my house when I haven't gotten it perfect yet? Why would I want to maintain something that's not perfect? And because I was

always putting off cleaning until it was a big project, when I did it, oh, I did it full out.

I did the scrubbing and I did the, all that, okay. But the way people keep their houses under control is by really embracing and taking advantage of surface cleaning. So do that quick swipe and you'll be like, oh, okay, actually it looks pretty much fine. Yes, do I want to come back here and do a deep clean? Of course I do or maybe not. But because my goal and my purpose right now is the decluttering and the moving forward with the decluttering, I am not going to stop decluttering

to come in here and really, you know, get every last little bit of stuff done. Because once

also gotten rid of the, the dust bunnies and things like that by just swiping it with a duster,

“it's going to be so much simpler and so much easier to come in here and then you're, then you're”

going to experience how incredibly satisfying it is to do the deep cleaning that you wanted to do

and not have to move a bunch of things around and not have to do anything first. You're going to

really experience that which then is so incredibly motivating for the maintenance of that space for the five-minute pickups and the keeping it, you know, the one-in-one outing when new stuff comes in because you're like, this makes my life easier. I'm able to do the things that I do it ideologically, I really, really want to do and I'm able to do them with so much less effort and be able to do the deep cleaning that I really want to do. Okay, so I answer that question.

“So it's specifically said by question at what point do you find time to do the dirty work?”

Do you do these while you're decluttering? While you're decluttering do the minimum cleaning

that will allow you to keep on with the decluttering? If you can keep decluttering and not worry about it till you're done with the space, great. If you are stopped in your tracks by the dirt in the space, then do the minimum that you're willing to do. Do a quick swipe, do, you know, when I did that video in my office, I had my back and cleaner right there with me. I think I wouldn't got it at some point. But that was great. Let that allowed me to keep on moving.

And the decluttering is going to help you not have to find as much time to do the dirty work.

It's going to take so much less time once the space is decluttered and it's going to be so much easier. Okay. Let's go back to what I talked about, you know, with those detailed things. When I do experience some spring cleaning energy, when I do go, oh, oh, that sun shining through makes those windows look so bad. I go with my general way that I look at all things to do with the home and getting stuff done. And I view it as what can I do right now completely that would be

something that would be done if I ever did the big spring clean. Okay, meaning I'm going to wash this window. I'm going to go grab my window cleaner and either a microfiber cloth or an old t-shirt or some newspaper if we have any that anymore or paper towel or whatever and I'm going to clean this window. And I'm not going to do this huge gather up all the supplies for all the different things that I would like to get done in the spring cleaning session. I'm not going to

bring in all these things and, you know, like make this huge, like prep time to be ready to do some big spring cleaning. Instead, I'm going to say, okay, I have this energy and this focus right now, I'm going to clean this window. And then, oh, that was easier than I thought. Okay, I'm going to clean this window. Okay, I'm going to clean this window. But each one of those things I view as success and it's all stuff that I would get done if I was to do the big clean. So I'm going to do it in a

way where I'm doing the small things completely. And use that spring cleaning energy and focus if it does happen for completing small projects. Oh, I am going to take down my shower curtain and go throw it in the washing machine and then hang it back up. You know, so that this thing that I

“maybe don't do is often as I think I should, I'm going to do this one thing completely. Okay,”

I hope that was helpful. And I will talk to y'all next week. Bye.