When it comes to the upkeep of your home, do you ever get that overwhelming feeling of, “Where do I even start?”

Our lives are constantly moving towards disorder and are in need of a maintaining touch, but I don’t believe we were meant to feel like a constant failure in the upkeep of our homes.

I have 5 young children who are homeschooled so our home is *very* lived in.  I want to share a technique that helps me. I call it The Clean Sweep. It gives me a method, an order, and a focus.

This is The Clean Sweep:

• working top to bottom
• start from the outer ends of the home
• working towards the kitchen
• once in the kitchen, start from the outer end of the kitchen
• working towards the sink
• ending at the sink

This can take as long or as little as I have available.

As I do The Clean Sweep, working quickly through the house, I pick up what doesn’t belong and wipe what needs to be wiped. Sometimes it’s helpful to have a laundry basket with me to toss in the things that need to be brought to another room.

The Clean Sweep takes away that overwhelmed feeling because once I get to the kitchen, I know the rest of the home is in order and all of the mess is in front of me.  At that point, I continue working towards the sink, top to bottom, picking up dirty dishes, throwing away trash, putting toys away, wiping counters, sweeping the floor.

Eventually, at the end, all of the mess is in the sink.

With The Clean Sweep, I can quickly feel progress and order around me. It’s brings the pleasure of checking off a to-do list as each room is mentally checked off as I go.

So, try it and see if it works for you.

When you don’t know where to begin, start from the furthest ends of your home and work towards the center, top to bottom, ending with the kitchen sink.