The Hamper Cleaning Method

There are some really great home-making, house-wifey blogs out there, authored by some pretty amazing, organized women. I'm talking type-A, label-happy, energizer-bunny , catch-me-if-you-can women. They motive some of us less-energized (ahem) to step it up a little. I appreciate that. But I find it baffling, and somewhat amusing when I see women creating and selling e-books they've written on basic cleaning and cabinet organization. People actually pay $5.00 for an e-book telling them how to line up things in their pantry?

You're in luck today, ladies! You get to see a real, live, complete with demonstration photos cleaning post, absolutely FREE!

Seriously, I was at my SIL's house the other night, helping her tidy her house before our trip home (don't you wish you had a SIL like ME?? :)) and I was showing her how I clean a room in a jiffy. She actually thought it was a pretty nifty way to do it. I call it The Hamper Method.

*You line up three containers (like so--see above demonstration picture). Anywhere-on the floor, your couch, anywhere will do.

1. Hamper or box for stray toys.
2. Hamper for stray clothes/shoes/hats/gloves/need I go on?
3. Grocery bag or trash bag for trash (junk mail, long forgotten drawings, chunks of scrap wood and steel van bumpers). No, I'm not kidding. Look closely at demo photos to find the strange objects. Leave a comment and tell me where they are and you get a prize. (not).

*Next, let your three (insert number of children you have at home) children help you pick up said objects from floor and any and all surfaces or bookshelves and place them in corresponding containers.

*Have each child take toy hamper to their room and deposit their toys in appropriate places (toy box, bookshelf, etc).

*Sort through clothes in clothes box and separate dirty from clean, then have children return clean clothes to clean drawers and dirty clothes to laundry room.

When that's done, you're ready to dust and sweep/vacuum. WAIT! Maybe you have procrastinated about cleaning under your couch cushions. Do that now. There's an entire box of crayons and two containers of hair pins under there!

Here's Before:



(I think it is ADORABLE how Emma is saying "Cheese" in each picture. She thinks it's all about HER!)

Here's After:




Now, you can dust your hands together after a job well done, and move on to more enjoyable things...