A (0:00)

Welcome to A Slob Comes Clean, the podcast. I am Dana K. White. I share my personal 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 were asked over@askdanikwhite.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 on, like, it's not really spring yet. You know, spring doesn't start until whatever. Sorry. But you know, like, it's the Internet. And so if you say anything wrong, people are gonna help you. They're gonna help you anyway. So I know I don't remember when spring starts, but it is springish 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 gets 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. I know that every time when it's spring break, it's actually spring break for my kids right now, as I'm talking for several. It's 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. 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. But. But I do, like, I just do all kinds of things. And they. It's a content. It's like a. 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's when 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. 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. Ugh. Well, here's some realistic, practical, practical answers to realistic questions about cleaning routines and things like that. Anytime I can put pre made decisions into place, I am a happy girl. Thrive Market is a membership based grocery service where you can shop from wherever you are with the convenience of getting items delivered right to your door. Their yearly membership break breaks down to about $5 a month. Members have access to weekly sales, personalized shopping, auto ship and save, and peace of mind knowing there's no junk in any of the products they carry. In my first order with Thrive Market, I chose several snack options I can grab as I head out to my office. I love that they offer options with less sugar and more nutrition. It was fun trying out some new things too. And I love cooking at home with the products I got from Thrive like High Heat Original Ghee Oil Blend Spray. We love cooking with ghee. I didn't even know that I could get it as a spra. We use it all the time. Having Thrive Market delivered to my doorstep is awesome and honestly I was really impressed at how reasonable the prices were. Ready to make some healthy swaps and become a member? Join Thrive Market with my link thrive market.com slob for 30% off your first order plus a free $60 gift 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 routines slowly as my son got older. But now he is too and I 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 catching you up by doing the dishes, by picking up, which with house cleaners just means kind of taking everything and putting it in a pile or something somewhere so that they can actually get to the cleaning, focus in 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. Okay. And if they, if you've already got things picked up because you've been doing five minute pickups somewhat regularly, then when it's time for them to come, you might have to do a few little pick up a few little things, but it's not going to be this huge big deal. So those are the important things for you to focus on. Okay. 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 note 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 used to 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 pickup 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. Okay? I grew up at a 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 are not second nature? I 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? If I 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. Okay? 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. Those that how I did things I know I did. 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. Over the years I have decluttered plenty of linens, bed sheets, pillowcases, blankets, you name it. When the corners won't stay put, fabric gets thin and scratchy. It's time to let them go. Now it's my goal to replace all the sheets in our house with bowl and branch. I love my bowl and branch sheets. They have improved my sleep because they are deliciously comfortable. Are you allowed to say that? I mean, that's just how it feels. So when my adult kids come home and when guests visit, I want them to experience the same thing in their beds. Bowl and Branches Signature sheets are made from 100% organic cotton and are designed to hold their shape, stay breathable and feel luxurious night after night. And they don't wear out. They get softer with every wash. Okay. So when it hits about 8:30 in the evening, I start thinking about how great it's going to feel feel to crawl into my bed. And it's going to feel great because I love my sheets so much. Upgrade your sleep during bowl and Branches Annual Spring event take off 20% site wide plus free shipping@bowlandbranch.com slob with code slob that's bowl and branch B O L L A N D branch.com/slob code slob to unlock 20% off exclusions. Apply C site for details. Since I view my closet as a container as a natural limit for my clothes, I've become pretty passionate about choosing quality over quantity. Clothing that's well made and versatile deserves priority space. That's why I love quints. They make high quality wardrobe staples using premium fabrics and materials. A few quality items I'll wear over and over again make more sense than a closet full of clothes I won't actually wear. Spring is a great time to take a good look and one in one out some items in your wardrobe. The seasonal colors prints available at Quint are beautiful. I love that Quint works directly with safe ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen. You're not paying for brand markup or fancy retail stores, just quality clothing. Quince uses 100% European linen, crisp cotton, poplin and super soft gauze, all made to hold up season after season. This goes for accessories too. I was looking for a very specific style of wallet that would hold what I needed but also be really compact. The Italian pebbled leather compact wallet was just what I needed. Stop waiting to build the wardrobe you actually want. You don't need a closet full of options. You need pieces that work right now. Go to quint.com clean for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it. And you will now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to q-u I n c e.comclean for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quint.comclean I've talked a lot about Hungry Root so you know I love how it helps me simplify my life. Anything that helps me save time, reach my health goals and reduce stress is something I'm all about. With Hungry Root my meals are planned and groceries for the week are ordered for me. They deliver everything I need for each meal which lets me save my decision making energy for other things. They have thousands of chef crafted recipes to choose from each week with many ready in just 15 minutes or less. The Korean barbecue chicken that we had recently was so fast and so delicious and I love trying something I'd never made before. And they also send snacks. You can choose them or let Hungry Root choose them based on what you like. Whether you want smoothies or sweets, kid snacks or salad kits, ready to eat meals or supplements, it's super easy to find options that fit your tastes and nutrition goals. So many of us set resolutions that die within a few weeks of the new year. But with Hungry Root it's easy to stay on track or get back on track with your health goals. You're going to love Hungry Root as much as I do. For a limited time, get 40% off your first box plus get a free item in every box for life. Go to hungryroot.com slob and use code slob that's hungryroot.com slob code slob to get 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life. How do you manage the fourth layer of a clean house? This is them saying fourth layer. I am not saying fourth layer. They're saying fourth layer. If the third level is the actual cleaning of the bathroom, mopping the floors, et cetera, that are done weekly ish, then 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, 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 gonna wash my windows. And I can do that without feeling guilty, because I'm not like, well, 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 gonna say here is as possible. And I say this because I have talked to so many people about their home organizing, blah, blah, blah, solutions, right? This is what I do for a 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'll 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 wanna have my plan laid out. I wanna know exactly how I'm gonna 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. Okay, all right. And then you're going to have a different perspective on when you're going to fit this in. When you are just going, okay, I'm daily stuff. If you don't. If you haven't been doing the dishes daily, you have a completely incorrect assumption, understanding, assumption, whatever, about how long it takes to do the dishes. The only way to fully understand is by doing the dishes. Okay, let's see. I am pretty good at keeping up with the daily stuff, but I'm constantly procrastinating the big things. Deep cleaning 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 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 Flylady, 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, checking in 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 cloths? 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 cloths 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. I just throw them in 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 little hooks, you know the little stick them to the wall hooks on their. Or it could even be one that slips over the. The door on their bathroom cabinets like 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. When the kids are home during spring break or Easter break, there is nothing better than sitting around the table eating a home cooked meal together. I love meals that are easy, simple and delicious. HelloFresh makes it easy to put out delicious, satisfying recipes no matter what else is going on to make life busy. I really love how HelloFresh sends everything I need to my doorstep. So all we have to do is Pull out the bag for that night's meal and get to cooking. It makes it fun and easy. Choose from seafood, antibiotic and hormone free chicken and their new grass fed steak ribeyes. You can add seasonal produce like pears, apples and asparagus to your meals. Every week you have hundreds of meals to choose from, including cuisines from around the world. We had a great salmon recipe that we loved and everything we needed including the recipe itself printed was right there. Sent by HelloFresh. Nothing hits like home cooking. Go to hellofresh.com/slob10fm to get 10 free meals plus a free Zwilling knife. A $144.99 value on your third box offer valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as discount on first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. Are you really buying a car online on Autotrader right now? Really? I can get super specific with dealer listings and see cars based on my budget. You can really have a delivery delivered or pick it up. Mommy's walking kid is walking up the slide. Really? Auto trader, Buy your car online? Really? Thank you for your methods of decluttering. I am working through the processes, but my question is at what time, 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 where I 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. So you were like in somebody's class for three at a time. Those of y' all who are 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. I would take all these notes and then I would go to take the test. And he only, 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. Oh, that's what he does. But I remember he was just kind of quirky, right? It was kind of quirky. And he would ask randomly, he would ask people to tell a fun fact about themselves or a fact about themselves. And I said when he, you know, whatever comes into your brain is what you end up saying. So he asked me one night, you know, tell us something about yourself, like something weird about yourself. And I was like, well, I really, really like things very clean, 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 in my mind that in the next phase of my life, when I was a real grownup, 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, mister, shut up. But don't say, shut up, kids. That's not what you should say should say. But in my. I didn't say that out loud. It's just in my head. But it, 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, like, unfortunately, you can't actually clean 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 are dirty and floors are dirty, and, you know, floor, closet, floors are. I think in my video that I did recently of cleaning out the storage closet in my office here, I vacuumed up some dead spiders that I found underneath the stuff that I was cleaning. So it's just a fact. Here's what I would say. Here is 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. And 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 of, 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 get every last little bit of stuff done. Because once you. If you can get through the decluttering in this whole room, then the deep cleaning, and you've also gotten rid of 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 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 idealistically 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, did I answer that question? So it specifically said my 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 vacuum cleaner right there with me. I think I went and got it at some point, but that was great. 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 split, some spring cleaning energy, when I do go, 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 of that anymore, or a 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 as often as I think I should, I'm gonna do this one thing completely. Okay, I hope that was helpful, and I will talk to y' all next week. Bye.