9 Daily Habits Home Keeping Made SIMPLE

Habit 1 – Get Dressed

What have I learned that will help you?

First of all I realized I had too many clothes! It made it hard to decide what to wear. I just came out with an E book called Too Many Clothes Nothing to Wear; Getting Out of A Hot Mess. It is filled with great information to help you understand why you have too many clothes and nothing to wear and steps to get a wardrobe right for you. At first when I began the challenge I was struggling what to wear each day and then a light bulb went off! I would create a daily uniform that would be my ‘go to clothes’. First I had to create the criteria. It would be they had to be comfortable clothes soft to the skin because of having fibromyalgia. My bottoms had to be elastic waist because of fluid fluctuations with fibromyalgia. I couldn’t have anything binding. In the winter I found a comfortable bra and underwear for my foundation. The bottoms had to be elastic waist for jeans and other pants and I also wear yoga pants. The tops had to be extra soft, no visible tags and easy to roll up my sleeves for washing dishes. In the summer I wear sports bra with a tank top and shorts. I have a few short sleeve shirts I can put on if I have to run to town. These ‘go to’ clothes have a special place in my closet and I created a drawer for the rest of the tops and bottoms. I decided I didn’t want to have to decide what to wear every day that took lots of thought. I wanted to be able to reach for a top and a bottom along with my undergarments and I hang them in my bathroom for my habit 8 Lay Out Clothes. For myself, I cracked my code and you can too!

Shoes. Please don’t get hung up on the shoes. I have to wear shoes. I have high arches. I have shoes that are for indoors only and that solved that problem. If you can do a home keeping system without wearing shoes, more power to you. It isn’t possible for me. I have a pair of Keds Lace Up Shoes I wear and they work great. In the summer I wear Clarks Sandals inside the house and Sloggers Garden Shoes for outside. I can easily slip them off and slide into my sandals. Get creative like I have when it comes to shoes.

Habit 2 – Swish and Swipe

Habit 2 – Swish and Swipe. You are already in the bathroom getting ready for the day. Why not swish your toilet and swipe your sink? Make it tie into getting dressed to shoes. This habit take less than a minute. We aren’t going for deep cleaning. (We do this when we do the zone work.) I used to dread cleaning my bathroom! I decluttered it and only have the things I use daily on the bottom two shelves with the other in small boxes I covered with wallpaper to store things on the top shelf. The biggest tip I can give you is to have your toilet brush handy and have paper towels along with a multi-surface cleaner and window cleaner for  your mirrors. I can’t begin to tell you how much easier it makes this habit! Some members use multi-surface wipes to make it easier. Remember it is just as important to make these habits easy to do as doing the actual habit.

Habit 3 – What’s For Dinner?

Habit 3 – What’s For Dinner? Before you leave your bathroom decide what you will be having for dinner so you can take the meat out of your freezer. Meal planning helps this habit. I live alone. How I decide what’s for dinner is I ask myself what kind of meat do I want and then decide the vegetables. I always have a salad to go with it. I eat pretty simple making the age old question easy for me. I also have a handful of meals I like to eat handy for when I get stuck. The last tip is to have 3 ‘go to’ meals with all of the ingredients to make it in your cupboards, fridge and freezer. That helps a lot.

If you haven’t noticed, preparation makes the 9 Daily Habits go so much easier.

Habit 4 – Load of Laundry

Habit 4 – Load of Laundry. If you are beginning your 9s or resetting them, it is important that you begin with small loads of clothes. Why? This habit has five steps. They are 1. sort 2. wash 3. dry 4. fold and 5. put away. It is better to do one load of clothes making sure you get all five steps done than to do two to three loads and they just sit in the laundry baskets. Put a load of clothes in after you have taken out the meat from the freezer you will be using and sort and start your wash. This leads into habit five.

Habit 5 – Declutter 15 Minutes

Habit 5 – Declutter 15 Minutes. While the washing machine is going, you can easily declutter for 15 minutes. What I have learned to do with this habit is go through my home tidying up or pick up put away. I find this to be very helpful to make the rest of the eight habits go better. I use my zone work to declutter. Each of the five zones are focused on one week in the month. You can reboot your laundry into the dryer before you do that. This is also the time where I get my weekly habit for the day done. I also spend 15 minutes each on the zone and monthly event. A load of laundry from start to finish takes a little over an hour to do leaving time to do weekly habit, zone work and monthly event.

Habit 6 – Make Dinner Early

Habit 6 – Make Dinner Early. I cannot stress this enough.  In order for the rest of the habits to be completed, making dinner early is key. Other benefits are better weight control, less heartburn and better sleep. Try making a few crock pot meals each week and notice the difference. Another option is to set a daily alarm that says time to start dinner. Lastly, in order for the next habit to be done, while you are making dinner early, fill your sink up with hot soapy water and wash. dry and put away as you cook. There is plenty of waiting time to make this work. While you are at it, keep the stove and the areas around the sink cleaned. The goal is to have everything washed, dried and put away that you used to cook your meal. After the meal, all that is left are the dinnerware you ate with.

Habit 7 – Shine Sink

Habit 7 – Shine Sink. I am going to repeat this again. Before you begin cooking your meal, always fill your sink up with hot soapy water so you can wash, dry and put away as you cook. Keep the stove clean and the area around the sink. All that is left are the dinnerware you ate with. Most have dishwashers and it is easy to place them in there right away. Then you can drain your soap water, rinse the sink and wipe it dry. Some use windex to shine it. Myself, I use CLR Stainless Steel Cleaner three times a week. The rest of the time I wipe my sink out with a cotton towel. It is the best thing I have found. I have very hard water.

Habit 8 – Lay Out Clothes

Habit 8 – Lay Out Clothes. Before you sit down to watch your favorite television show, movie, reading or some hand craft, go to your closet and drawers and choose the clothes you will be wearing for the next day. I wrote an E book Too Many Clothes Nothing To Wear; Getting Out of A Hot Mess.  It explains the reasons, the history, the evolution of clothing, methods to declutter, creating an essentials wardrobe and having ‘go to’ outfits. Creating a uniform for yourself will help with the day to day activities. Use the energy you save for other things. I put my clothes on a hook in the bathroom. The next morning it prompts me not only to get dressed to shoes but swish and swipe my bathroom, decide what is for dinner and then put a load of laundry in the washing machine. This then prompts me to have a 15 minute session of decluttering which is usually a pick up and put away. While the laundry is washing you can also do your weekly habit of the day, zone work of the week and monthly event of the month in between rebooting your laundry into the dryer. Most know what their plans are for the coming day from planning your week on Monday.

Habit 9 – Launch Pad Ready

Habit 9 – Launch Pad Ready. It is simply a fancy name for ‘Where are your keys and purse?’ What about if you have something you need to take with you to work or items to return on errand day. Create a space to have these items corralled together making it easy for you to get out the door and onto your day. If you work from home, home school, retired, or disabled, have an area where you always put your keys and purse in the same area. You can also use it for whatever projects you may have for the coming day. The idea of having a launch pad is for you to make a quick transition from being home to working or errand day and meeting up for lunch. Nothing is worse than not being able to find your keys once you are ready to leave.

Conclusion

Conclusion. I hope this gives you a better understanding of the 9 Daily Habits Marilyn’s Way. These are my ‘go to’ daily habits to make my home run smoothly. I can’t even begin to tell you all the benefits I have received from creating Marilyn’s Way. Even if I only get 6 of the 9 habits done, I consider myself a success. When the day ends I let go of it and have sweet dreams of tomorrow. Some of the benefits for myself have been I am able to garden, work a part time job, help my mom with things for her and her home, work out at a fitness center three times a week, and am Secretary for the church I belong to. In addition I run my closed group Marilyn’s Way, have this website, and write e books.  Thinking back over ten years ago when I was living in my pajamas I could not even visualize all that I am doing today. My attitude toward home keeping has improved by 3,000%! I am not sure if I will ever love home keeping. Instead I have incorporated it into my life. With it being automatic, not much thought is needed. There’s no negotiating. If I want my days, weeks, months and years to go well, I must choose to practice the 9 Daily Habits Marilyn’s Way.

The most important thing I can tell you is to do the habits in the same order each day. They don’t have to be the order listed if it doesn’t work for you. It just has to be your same order you do so they flow from one habit to the next without much energy in doing it.

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