Homekeeping can be overwhelming and discouraging sometimes. For me it seems this is true more than not!

How many time have you cleaned your entire house, stepped back to admire your hardwork and clean floors ...

then you blink...

when you open your eyes again it's <strong>like a tornado hit</strong> and all of your hardwork is gone, and the mess has crept back in!

<strong>How frustrating, how discouraging!</strong>

It happens here nearly every day! I recently spent 2 weeks working on spring cleaning in our home just to find that things get messy all over again as soon as I put the vacuum away! It's a discouraging event that happens in most homes.

I've been tweaking my housekeeping routines over the last few weeks and things are starting to run much better.

Here are a few of the new habits I've been working on:

<strong>Have your kids clean up before the start something new </strong>(add photo) (<a href="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/ANOTHERNEWSEASON/500925_colour.jpg">http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/ANOTHERNEWSEASON/500925_colour.jpg</a>)

Bianca de Blok (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bies/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/bies/</a>)

I know this is an obvious one, but many moms, like myself have been used to cleaning up after their kids. Our daughter is only 2 1/2 and I just recently started having her clean up her own messes. I really should not have waited so long. She could have handled doing this when she was 18 months old! So I encourage you, take the time to teach your little one's to clean up their mess early. There are many great ideas out there to help toddlers know where to put their toys. One of the best Ideas I've been seeing everywhere is to take photos of the toys the label baskets, boxes or shelves with the appropriate photos! What a great idea!

Wash dishes throughout the day. (Add photo) <a href="http://www.countryliving.com/cm/countryliving/images/2D/farmhouse-sink-de.jpg">http://www.countryliving.com/cm/countryliving/images/2D/farmhouse-sink-de.jpg</a>

This is one for us unfortunate moms who don't have a dishwasher yet (... hint... hint hubby! )

Washing the dishes after breakfast, after lunch and immediately after dinner has been making me feel so much better. I try to leave the sink empty before I go to bed every night. I first started doing this when I followed the FlyLady's advice (<a href="http://www.flylady.net/">http://www.flylady.net/</a>). Waking up to a clean sink is a wonderful thing!

Take off your shoes (add photo!) Photo by: Stephanie Berghaeuser (<a href="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/ANOTHERNEWSEASON/1155242_57524621.jpg">http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/ANOTHERNEWSEASON/1155242_57524621.jpg</a>)

I never appreciated this one until we moved into the house we are now living in.  When we moved we nearly tripled our square footage and that meant lots of floors to get dirty. We also live in the middle of farm land which means a lot of dust and dirt in the air. Lots of sweeping and vacuuming! We now have a nice shoe rack at the door and we try to remember to take off our shoes which helps to keep the mess contained. We purchased this shoe rack from Ikea and love it! (<a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80099790">http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80099790</a>)

Have and follow a routine!

(<a href="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/ANOTHERNEWSEASON/684980_16228954.jpg">http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/ANOTHERNEWSEASON/684980_16228954.jpg</a>)

I have been working on this one for a while and I plan to write a series on setting up your own household management notebook soon. I've had mine for about a year and a half but it has only been over the last few months that I've found how helpful it really can be!

I have written a morning and evening routine. My morning routines includes, getting dressed, making coffee, putting in a load of laundry and quiet time. The evening routine Is really the one that saves me a lot of headaches.

Here's what my evening routine looks like:

Clean up after dinner

Wash ALL the dishes

Sweep

Prepare coffee maker

Check on items for tomorrows dinner (defrost)

Check calendar for tomorrow

Check diaper bag and refill items

Lay out clothes for tomorrow

These are simple steps that take only a few minutes but will save you lots of time and unnecessary stress!

Cleaning in  Zones

This is another Flylady (<a href="http://www.flylady.net/">http://www.flylady.net</a>) thing! It has made cleaning  a bit easier. I haven't been keeping up with this as much as I could be so I will be working on making this a more regular habit.

Zone 1: The Entrance, Front Porch and Dining Room

Zone 2: The Kitchen

Zone 3: The Bathroom and One Extra Room

Zone 4: The Master Bedroom

Zone 5: The Living Room

I used to get all the Fly Lady e-mail notifications which would give you a list of what specific area to focus on each day. For example, if we were in zone 5, the Living Room one of the tasks might be to clean under the cushions of the couch.

What I do is simply focus 15 minutes each day in the current zone. I might re-organize a closet, clean the windows or something like that. It's like spring cleaning all year round!

&lt;<a href="http://www.flylady.net/pages/FlightPlan.asp">http://www.flylady.net/pages/FlightPlan.asp</a>&gt;

These are just a few tricks that I've been using to get things done around the house!  If you're feeling overwhelmed give one of these small steps a try.

At first washing the dishes 3 times a day seemed like a burden, now it is freeing. At night I look at the empty sink and can smile!

So try something new if what you are doing isn't working!