A Clean Bedroom, All the Time

© Roxanna Ward

Most people clean their bedrooms everyday. Make the beds, pick up the dirty clothes, and generally straighten up. It is good enough to get you through until the next deep cleaning attack on your bedrooms. You know the kind, the one cleaning spree you have to split into two days. It is so much work, you burn off a weeks worth of calories. Well, no more ladies. I'm here to change you way of cleaning from twice a year cleaning marathons to fifteen minutes a day and thirty minutes once a week. That's right. Follow my methods and you'll have clean bedrooms (even the kids rooms) and more time to yourself.

Step one is to create a schedule and make time for fifteen minutes a day for the bedrooms. If you have more than one room, change this thirty minutes to begin with. I have three bedrooms and I've gotten my daily routine (for all three bedrooms) down to under fifteen minutes. The bedrooms are part of my morning routine and are usually finished before nine am.

Start in your bedroom and work around the room. Make the bed, fluff the pillows and straighten the sheets. It is so nice to get into a bed that is made. Pick up everything on the floor. Put shoes and clothes where they belong. Don't keep a dirty clothes hamper in your bedroom. It only creates clutter. Take your clothes straight into the hallway. (Don't worry they won't be there forever.) Make sure nothing extra is sitting around on the dressers or tables. Put everything up. Use a feather duster to knock down dust as you go along. Make sure to dust pictures, corners, windowsills and even toys. Carry a wet cloth with you to wipe away fingerprints and other spots of dirt. Clean all glass surfaces with a squirt of glass cleaner and a quick wipe. Move on to the next room. When you have "swept" through all the bedrooms like a superwoman cleaning tornado, you'll have a pile of clothes in the hallway. Step over it and get the vacuum. Make a quick run over the high traffic areas in each room with your vacuum (or broom if you have hardwood floors). Put the vacuum away. Take the laundry to the laundry room and sort. Prop your feet up and relax until the timer goes off, you deserve it!

Now I know what you are thinking. I can't possible do all that needs to be done to our bedrooms in fifteen to thirty minutes. Yes you can! Only do the things I listed and don't get side tracked into alphabetizing your bookshelf. That can wait.

On to step 2. Schedule each bedroom for one day each week to "deep clean" Don't get scared by those words, "deep clean", read on. Say Tuesday is deep clean your bedroom day. Set your timer for thirty minutes. The first time you use this method, grab a notebook and take notes. Write down all those big bedroom projects you want to do. Like, clean out the closet, re-organize the clothes, etc. Work on one of these projects each week. Don't get side tracked. Stick to the plan. If you are cleaning out from under the bed and run across another project, add it to your list for another day. After about two months of using this method, you'll be amazed at how organized your bedroom is and how quickly you can deep clean it.

Also on your bedroom day, make sure you wash and change the bedcovers, dust your room completely, vacuum every crack and corner, clean your ceiling fan and other light fixtures, turn the mattress, wash the curtains, clean the carpet, declutter the closet, and rearrange the furniture. Is your heart racing yet? I don't mean for you to do all these things every week. You generally have four Tuesdays every month. On the first Tuesday, do all the regular bedroom deep cleaning duties but also concentrate on vacuuming, changing the covers and dusting. Then on the second Tuesday, along with the regular deep cleaning duties, wash the walls, scrub the baseboards and other surfaces. And so on and so on. Until you've come a complete circle in about four to five weeks and then start the circle over with again.

Schedule your time wisely and you'll be able to get around to those projects in only thirty minutes a week. If your timer goes off and you are not finished, it'll keep another week. If you don't want to stop, work for 30 more minutes. You don't want to burn yourself out. Use this same method on all the bedrooms. You'll find that even the kids will help keep their rooms clean.

My final piece of advice is to make sure the cleaning routine you choose works for you. Mine is constantly being revised to fit my ever changing lifestyle. Don't be afraid to stray from your schedule a little. Nobody ever died from being attacked by a dust bunny!

Roxanna Ward, Community leader and staff writer for http://www.BabyUniversity.com, lives in Georgia with her husband and her three children. As a published freelance writer the focus of her writing is concentrated on sharing household tips, her experience with her frugal lifestyle as well as the phenomenal process of breastfeeding and child rearing related issues. She is also currently the Editor of What's New at BabyU?, and At Home with Baby University.