A Clean house Creates a Sanctuary to Recharge

When we buy homes or move into apartments, we think of them as places we can come and relax after a long day at work. Our Sanctuaries, our places of refuge. The one place we can hide from the world and just… be. It doesn’t matter what our lifestyle is;  whether we are working out of the home, working in the home and raising children, or even going through the stress that life brings each day, we want a place where we can walk through the door and unwind. We NEED a place where we can do this.

Then we walk into our homes, or look around, and what do we see? More work to do. No time to rest. No peaceful sanctuary. Why? Sometimes our homes aren’t “the clean” that is needed to get that deep relaxation we want. But the beautiful thing about this is that our homes are things we can change. We can make them the sanctuaries we need them to be. Not only that, but we can create habits that help us keep our homes restful retreats and not another place of chaos in our lives.
It’s time to get ready to create and maintain your recharge sanctuary. Our idea and your idea of what is needed may be different, but as you read through the tips below take what you need and run with it.

SET A CLEANING ROUTINE:The best place to start, when it comes to cleaning, is in your mind. What do you want, what is your end goal? What are you willing to do to get there? What are you willing to do to stay there, and even get there a lot quicker? Walking into a clean home every day is everyone’s dream and, for the most part, it is possible. But having a sanctuary will not be an accident. Answer the questions above and once you have a mental picture, start bringing it into reality.

Once you do the major work and get things set up you can create a cleaning routine that should take you less than 20 minutes a day to maintain and keep up with your cleaning goals.  There are simple things like put the dishes in the dishwasher right away instead of stacking them in the sink, or washing clothes when you have a basket full instead of when they are thrown all over the house. Spot mop the floor instead of waiting until every floor is filthy. 20 minutes a day will prevent your sanctuary becoming another stressor by mid-week.

Remember, a little bit each day is all you need to keep your home the place you want it to be, the place where you relax, and recharge your body and soul from the rest of the world.

This is the part where a lot of people stop, but what they don’t realize is a home is a place you live, not a storage area for things you don’t use. A clean house starts with removing the unused items that clutter our space. Would you go to a spa or retreat that was full of unnecessary “items”? Would you pay to go to a place full of junk to unwind and relax? Of course not! Then why would you think your home can become the place where you can truly recharge when it is full of clutter? It can’t.

Simply put, if you don’t use it or you don’t love it, you don’t need it. If it used to be your great-great-aunt Hattie’s but doesn’t fit in with the “use it or love it” category, it needs to go. You can give it away to charity, sell it, or store it away from your haven, but something else needs to happen – it can’t stay.

Extra unneeded furniture can not only be clutter but become places where more clutter lands. That old desk in the corner becomes the place where you toss junk mail, bills, kids toys that you pick up off the floor, papers that need to make their way to the trash, or the filing cabinet. If you get rid of things in your home that you don’t need, and that have become homes for other clutter, it will help you decrease the mess in your home.

If that table is just sitting in your home because it’s there, or the chair has no other use than to house other clutter, then it’s making your home more difficult to clean, and it’s increasing the chaos that you are trying to decrease.

We can get everything set up perfectly. We can have a cleaning routine that works, and we can master decluttering. Then we notice the myriad of cords, instantly decreasing the serenity we have worked to create. But guess what? We can keep all of the electronics we love and are using, without having to be visually assaulted with cords tangled all over the place. There are a lot of wonderful products out there that can help us get our chaotic cords under control, and the nice thing is this: once we have them contained, we don’t have to do it again any time soon.

What do you smell in an expensive spa? Instantly, they make you feel as if you can relax your mind and calm your spirit. You can do the same thing in your home. Get an essential oil diffuser and a few essential oils and bring that calm right into your home. Clean house, clean air, clean mind. Simple.

You may look in your front door and feel like your home is just too much to tackle. Don’t let your ability to have a clean house stop at what you see. If you need help getting or keeping your house the sanctuary you are looking for, give us a call and let us do the work for you.