As a whole, I manage to keep our home in a lived-in but still comfortable and presentable most of the time. With three little kiddos home all day, cooking almost all of our food from scratch, and the usual messes a family makes, my house is very rarely in pristine condition, but it does go back to mostly clean every evening without too much effort.
But there are times when it gets plumb out of control.
The laundry baskets overflow.
The dishes fill the sinks and counters.
The bathrooms…I won’t even go there.
What’s a mom to do when the house is a wreck and you have no idea where to start?
Put the machines to work for you!
Start with a load of laundry.
The washer is the quickest machine to get started. Dump in a load, add soap, (I love Molly’s Suds.) and push start.
If you are like me and often forget to switch the laundry, be sure to set a timer. Once the timer dings, take a break from whatever else you are doing, put your first load on the line or in the dryer, and start another load. Since you are in catchup mode, you’ll want to keep your laundry machines working for you as much as possible.
What do you wash first? I usually do a load of colored clothing first because:
- Fewer stains to treat.
- Coloreds is my biggest category.
- I can wash them on the cold or warm setting thus preserving hot water for other uses.
If you see that another type of clothing is more pressing, by all means, toss them in the washer instead. The important thing is to get the machine working for you, not what order you wash them in.
Start the Crockpot.
After a day of working hard to put my house back in order, I rarely have the energy to cook a yummy meal. If I start it in the crockpot earlier in the day, I have a meal hot and ready with minimal work or clean up required. Cleanup is even easier if I use a handy crockpot liner.
Confession time: Sometimes I have to clear a space on the counter before doing this step, but I try to not let myself get sidetracked with cleaning the entire counter before I put supper in the crockpot.
Do up the dishes.
The third machine I put to work on a catch-up day is my dishwasher. Most of the time, that means emptying it first. Once it is emptied, I fill it with as much as I can fit and run it right away. Even if it is just shy of a full load, I run it. My dishwasher motto is “If the dishwasher won’t hold all of the dishes from preparing and eating the next meal, it needs to be started now.” Remember, you are putting your machines to work for you.
Once the dishwasher is working for you, go ahead and tackle the rest of the kitchen. Clean counters and a floor your feet don’t stick to, make the rest of the day easier.
If you don’t have a dishwasher, run a sink full of hot soapy water and wash them that way. Or, better yet, if your kiddos are old enough, put them to work for you.
Putting the machines to work for me is multitasking at it’s finest.
When the machines are working, I can be washing laundry, cooking supper, washing dishes, and completing another task (like those bathrooms we weren’t talking about) simultaneously without giving any thought to the first three jobs. As a result, the house is presentable and enjoyable sooner.
What are your tips for getting your house back in order when it spirals out of control?
This is a great idea! I’m the worst about loading or unloading my dishwasher. I need to check out more of your hacks!