Stay at Home Dad's Guide to Cleaning

Back again with some more useful, quick tips. Like I said, staying at home and rushing to meet three children's schedules is no picnic. Mine don't even have soccer practice, ballet, or anything like that. Of course, half the fun is kid wrangling once I meet their deadlines, but that's for another article.

This time we're going to talk about all our dirty little secrets; or, at least our little secrets for dealing with dirt. Let's face it, no one likes to clean. Okay, a few do, but only a few. I'll admit I find doing the dishes a great way to take out aggression. Nonetheless, we have to keep the place clean.

As I said before, kids are around enough dirt and germs; we don't need it collecting in the house as well. I have a small place, and too much stuff. Three children and two adults living in cramped quarters can easily turn that decadent living room into a war zone. It really isn't that hard to keep everything up to par, though.

1. Keep Up: Don't let messes go for too long. Dirty dish? It needs to go to the kitchen, not the coffee table? Empty can of soda or juice box? Man invented trash cans simply for this purpose. This is really a simple concept a lot of people forget. We get busy and we're running round doing a million things at once, and we say "Oh, I'll get to that later." Every time you hear yourself utter or even begin to say this, stop and think of how busy you'll be later. If you notice it, you have enough time to take care of it now. My children even help with this. The other day, I was cleaning a mess my 7 month old had made, wiping the food from her face with a wet wipe. I put it on the table next to me, and said "I'll get to that in a minute, once I lay her down." My two year old walked over, grabbed the wet wipe and said in a very loud and clear voice "Noooooo." He then walked to the kitchen and put it in the trash. He came back around the corner, pointing toward the trash and said "There, Daddy. There." His point was made.

2. Multi-task: Another relatively easy concept. I don't have a dish washer, so the dishes need to soak and then I scrub them, rinse them, and then dry them. While the dishes are soaking, I start a load of laundry. Then, I start at my next area (see next note) and pick up a few things. Then, I go back to the dishes. In-between all this, I take a few minutes to check emails and posts, etc., but ONLY a few minutes. There are some tasks like this you don't have to be doing, but take time. Letting the cleaning solution soak into the accumulated grime on the stove is another good example.

3. Focus on an area: Look, if you try to run all around the house and do everything at once you're either going to fail, take too long, or wear yourself out. I usually start in my kitchen, near the door to the outside. Then, work my way from that corner toward the rest of the room. From there, I hit the living room, where it meets the kitchen, work my way to the other side. Then, the hallway, bedrooms and bathroom (one at a time). Just do everything in steps. Otherwise, it will quickly seem that you're not accomplish anything, you will slow down, and feel/be defeated.