Cleanliness

“Cleanliness is next to godliness” [being clean is a sign of spiritual purity] is an English Idiom, this means that if you are living a right life it should reflect in your level of organization and cleanliness on your body, home, office space etc 

What I have realized is that nobody is dirty [you might disagree with me], it’s the secret to permanence of cleanliness that is lost. Let me ask this, is there anyone who doesn’t take care of a place within the home or his/her body on a daily basis? None! So the fact that a home looks unkempt sure doesn’t make a person dirty [except when perpetually so], there are a thousand and one reasons responsible for this.

I have some reasons that normally inform the level of our cleanliness:

• Habits formed while growing up – if parents are not meticulous about cleanliness, kids won’t.
• Experience – From experience, some people have learnt to be clean or dirty as the case maybe.
• Time – Availability of time may just be all what some need to be neat and have a better arranged home
• Level of irritability – people are irritated by different things, some people’s irritation led to their becoming dirtier because they just find it hard to touch/clean that dirty place [it’s only clusters that get me irritated, I mean cluster of anything including people] or it could make them cleaner.
• Inborn – I don’t want to agree with this but, for the people that I had met and it looks like it’s in their gene I think what is actually in them is the inability to be idle. They cannot just sit down doing nothing and so they clean everywhere just to keep busy.
• Impression – some people are clean just to give an impression maybe because of something they’ve said somewhere in a way of boast. For me I hate to put my house in too much orderliness because someone is coming, I always feel I am lying [maybe it’s a wrong approach, but that’s me]. If my home is clean, then I did it just for ME.
• Sensitivity to germs – some people are really so scared of disease caused by dirt and thus are sensitive or on the other way round some don’t just believe that dirt could harm.
• Lack of organization – some homes/bodies are not dirty, what it lacks is proper organization. It will almost boil down to the same thing if a clean home is not de-cluttered.
• Psychological illness – some people are actually sick; I know of a woman who would not touch a mail because she is scared of germs. Or a woman who washed her hands with warm water always till the hands scalded yet she did not stop. And a parent who refused her little kid to mix with others because she’s scared she might contact something in the air.

There are many more reasons and it is possible I have more than one or two why I am who I am but whatever it is we can really be better if we put our mind to it. We could make our homes more presentable, we could make our kids better at organizing the home even at their ages, we could help our spouses encourage us by getting it right. 

This is what took me to FlyLady.net, I have known this site for years but I decided to give it some dedication during these holidays and I am better for it. In flylady, all you need is 15 minutes per time, in fact you are not allowed to do more than 15 minutes at a spot at a time. You need your timer, and when it is 15 minutes you either rest or go to another spot. You are not allowed to over-do anything because this is where the dirtiness emanates, i.e. when you focus on a spot for hours to make it clean when the whole house is still in disarray. The secret of cleanliness is MAINTENANCE, I mean if you keep going back to a place every other day, every day, every month, quarterly etc [according to schedule], tell me how you will not have a spotless and organized home in a little while.

You don’t have the whole time to take care of even yourself and that is why you need just 15 minutes per time to do what you have to do. It is so funny that flylady emphasizes on shining your kitchen sink every night before bed because it is the secret to the bigger organization in the home [mind you I have shined my kitchen sink]. Right now, I have cleaned my home and I am starting on maintenance from now, I am grateful that flylady has a daily plan that is called flight plan and with this you will likely touch every part of your home before the week runs out. Of course there are also morning, afternoon and night routines, these are activities you do daily and I realized that they take less than 15 minutes on the whole per time. For example, there is “swipe and swish” as part of the morning routine/habit this involves after using the toilet use the brush to quickly clean the bowl and you are done for the morning, another of the routine is laying the bed immediately you are up, all very simple and precise.

initial shining [it should stay this way every night before bed]

As you read this whatever level you are can really be better but always understand that you can only get to your desired destination by going gradually. If you overwork yourself on a particular spot in your home, you have not only wasted your time, you have tire out the body from doing more next time.

I have a testimony! 

My sofa, I always thought it was a mistake from day one it was brought into the house because of its light colour. Gradually my fears were manifested because it eventually became dirty and I became angrier every day when I sight it, I did call on a few artisans to help with changing the fabric and, that was so much money it could be used for something else. I called on an upholstery washer and the bill was so enormous I really thought there was something special to it. Two days ago after checking the flight plan on flylady.net, I told DH we were going to wash the sofa and we did give it a thorough wash. I was really sad afterwards, I wondered why I had not done this for the past two years. My sofa came out so clean I was ashamed of myself [why didn’t I think of this?] but, I believe there is always a light bulb moment [aha!] to every discovery in life. I allowed it to dry for the past two days and today I am taking another sofa out for a thorough wash.

I learnt some lessons these past few days:

1. Don’t try to do everything in one day

2. For a woman, taking care of the house will forever be overwhelming but baby steps will do the magic

3. You cannot have a perfectly clean house especially when you are the only one that caught the vision

4. Throw perfectionism out of the window, it makes the home dirtier. I mean that all-or-nothing attitude to cleaning

5. Stick to your routines and your kitchen, bathroom and bedroom [grand areas] will sparkle always

6. Cleanliness is habit, you form it, you work on it, you maintain it and soon it becomes your character.

7. House chores never ends.

I hope you give flylady a check today and your life will never remain the same.

www.flylady.net