<strong>Keeping our homes can be overwhelming and discouraging sometimes.</strong> For me, it seems this is true more often than not! How many time have you cleaned your entire house, stepped back to admire your hard work and clean floors ...then you blink...and in an instant it's <strong>like a tornado hit</strong>! All of your hard work 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:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Photo by: Bianca de Blok"]<a href="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/ANOTHERNEWSEASON/500925_colour.jpg"><img src="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/ANOTHERNEWSEASON/500925_colour.jpg" alt="Photo by: Bianca de Blok" width="300" height="200" /></a>[/caption]

<span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Have your kids clean up before the start something new </strong></span><a href="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/ANOTHERNEWSEASON/500925_colour.jpg"></a>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">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!</p>
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[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="252" caption="Photo from: Country Living"]<img src="http://www.countryliving.com/cm/countryliving/images/2D/farmhouse-sink-de.jpg" alt="" width="252" height="322" />[/caption]

<a href="http://www.countryliving.com/cm/countryliving/images/2D/farmhouse-sink-de.jpg"></a>

<strong><span style="font-size: medium;">Wash dishes throughout the day</span></strong>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">This is one for us unfortunate moms who don't have a dishwasher yet (<em>... hint... hint hubby!</em> )</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Washing the dishes <strong>after breakfast</strong>, <strong>after lunch</strong> and <strong>immediately after dinner</strong> has been making me feel so much better. I try to leave the sink empty before I go to bed every night. Waking up to a clean sink is a wonderful thing!</p>

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[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="368" caption="Photo by: Stephanie Berghaeuser"]<img src="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/ANOTHERNEWSEASON/1155242_57524621.jpg" alt="" width="368" height="245" />[/caption]

<span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Take off your shoes</strong></span>!
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">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 <strong>dirty</strong>. We also live in the middle of farm land which means a lot of <strong>dust </strong>and <strong>dirt </strong>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 <a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80099790" target="_blank">this</a> shoe rack from Ikea and love it!</p>


[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="320" caption="Photo by: Jay Simmons"]<a href="http://www.walkslow.nl/photos/"><img src="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/ANOTHERNEWSEASON/684980_16228954.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="240" /></a>[/caption]

<span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Have and follow a routine!</strong></span>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">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!</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">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.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Here's what my evening routine looks like:</strong></p>

<blockquote>
<ul>
	<li>Clean up after dinner</li>
	<li>Wash ALL the dishes</li>
	<li>Sweep</li>
	<li>Prepare coffee maker</li>
	<li>Check on items for tomorrows dinner (defrost)</li>
	<li>Check calendar for tomorrow</li>
	<li>Check diaper bag and refill items</li>
	<li>Lay out clothes for tomorrow</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">These are <strong>simple steps</strong> that take only a <strong>few minutes</strong> but will save you lots of time and unnecessary stress!</p>


[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="319" caption="Photo by:Sanja Gjenero"]<img src="http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv65/ANOTHERNEWSEASON/1193876_17551332.jpg" alt="" width="319" height="261" />[/caption]

<span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Clean in  Zones</strong></span>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">This is another <a href="http://www.flylady.com" target="_blank">Flylady</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.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><strong>Zone 1:</strong> The Entrance, Front Porch and Dining Room</p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><strong>Zone 2:</strong> The Kitchen</p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><strong>Zone 3:</strong> The Bathroom and One Extra Room</p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><strong>Zone 4:</strong> The Master Bedroom</p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><strong>Zone 5:</strong> The Living Room</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">I used to get the <a href="http://www.flylady.net" target="_blank">FlyLady</a> e-mail notifications for a while. In the e-mail there would be a specific task  to work on in that weeks current zone . 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.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">I don't receive these e-mails anymore but what I do is simply <strong>focus 15 minutes each day</strong> in the current zone. I might re-organize a closet, clean the windows or something like that. <strong>It's like spring cleaning all year round!</strong></p>
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These are just a few tricks that I've been using to get things done around the house!  If you're feeling overwhelmed, <strong>you're not alone</strong>.

<span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>If what you are doing isn't working, try something new!</strong></span>