The Clean-as-You-Go Principle
By Leo Babauta
I’m not obsessive/əbˈsɛsɪv/ about neatness/ ˈnitnɪs/, but I’ve learned ways of keeping my house neat and clean in a simple, stress-free way.
I call it the “Clean-as-You-Go Principle.”
That’s pretty/'prɪti/ self-explanatory /ɪk'splænətɔri/, but of course I can’t resist going into the details. And also, I’ve found this principle to be great for other areas of my life: finances, email, work tasks, etc.
The basic idea is that, instead of waiting for the house to get really dirty and then having to spend a lot of time cleaning it, you just clean a little bit at a time.
Here are some of the ways I apply it (most of the time, not perfectly of course):
1. When I’m done eating, I (usually) wash my dishes/'diʃiz/ instead of leaving them in the sink/sɪŋk/. I’ll also often put away any food that’s leftover, wash cooking dishes like the pan, knife and cutting board, and wipe/waɪp/ up the counters. It just takes a few minutes, actually.
2. When I’m done brushing my teeth, I wipe the bathroom sink and counter to keep it clean. Having a washcloth nearby makes this easy.
3. When I use the bathroom, I will use the toilet/'tɔɪlət/ brush to clean it if it’s getting a little dirty. So my toilet is usually fairly clean.
4. If I see a mess as I walk through the house, I’ll usually put a few things away. Takes just a minute, and no more mess!
5. I’ll often sweep up the kitchen if I see some crumbs/krʌmz/ on the floor. Not every day, maybe every other day.
6. If I see dust/dʌst/ on the floor, I’ll wipe it up or get the broom /brum/ and sweep it up.
7. If I lift weights in the garage/ɡə'rɑʒ/, I use my rest periods to clean the garage, a little at a time.
8. When I cook, if something has to simmer for a minute, I clean up my cooking area as I wait, in between stirring/'stɝɪŋ/ the food. So when I’m done cooking, there’s not a big mess.
You get the idea. None of these takes more than a minute or three, but by doing it as I go, it takes very little effort and I never have a really messy house.
Of course, a deeper cleaning is still required sometimes, but not as often, and it’s not as hard. Overall, this is an easy system that works really well for me. (Note: My kids don’t always follow it, but I either/'iðɚ/ pick up after them or ask them to clean their messes whenever I see them.)
用户评论