When it comes to housework it’s not scrubbing the tub or vacuuming or washing windows that takes most of your time, it’s the little things. A jacket thrown over a chair instead of hung up, school work on the kitchen table, towels on the bathroom floor, dishes in the sink instead of the dishwasher.
These are the things that eat up our day. After all, it’s not as if your family has a dump truck bring in a load of garbage everyday, it’s just little things, adding up over time.
The things that drive you crazy aren’t the big things, everyone contributes to the dirty kitchen floor, it’s the little things that make it seem like everyone takes you for granted. Those little things will get quickly out of control and turn into a big thing if you let them.
As the person who is responsible for most of the housework I always put my clothes away, put the lid back on the toothpaste, pick up my towels and load the dishwasher. Hailey, however, doesn’t seem to see the urgency in doing those things and how one little thing left undone leads to two, then three then a whole house of things that need to be picked up.
As homemakers we can rant and rave and nag, or we can try to make it easy for everyone else to do the things we want them to do.
My linen closet is huge, so big that Hailey calls it the gateway to Narnia, it’s big enough that I can have baskets in there to sort the laundry before taking it downstairs to the laundry room. To me this is a no brainer, the linen closet is across the hall from the bathroom, but still, Hailey’s towels and clothes wound up on the floor.
After nagging for the one millionth time I finally got smart and put a hamper in the bathroom. Yes, to me it makes perfect sense to put your clothes in the baskets in the linen closet after your shower, for Hailey it was one more step. The hamper made it easy for her to keep things off the bathroom floor. This one little thing cut down on the nagging and picking up that I had to do every day.
Look around your house, how can you make it easier for your family to help you keep the house clean. Small changes will lead to big results, so start small and enjoy the rewards.