A Peaceful Clean Home

The first step to a peaceful, happy home besides having a Christ-centered home is having a clean house.  This sucks, doesn't it?  I don't know of many women who love to clean their home every single day.  I love it some days, but most of the time chores are, well, a chore.  It's hard to stay motivated when all you really want to do is take a nap, watch a movie, crochet a blanket, learn how to make homemade mayonnaise, surf the internet, invent a better toilet plunger...anything but fold the laundry.  Who is to know what you did today anyway?  You could get by with reading a book for a while before you tackle that laundry, right?

                                                                                                        

No one is perfect.  I also know it feels harder to keep a cleaner home when your floor needs new carpet.  It isn't fun to clean house and I'd rather be inventing a better toilet plunger to tell you the truth.  Sometimes I'm a little under the weather and I do far less than I really could have under the guise of being sick.  I fail at times just like anyone else.  All I can do is keep my failures to a minimum.  My house isn't perfect, but even on it's messiest day I can have it company ready in under an hour.  This is because I don't let everything go to crap for weeks at a time.  Dishes get done, the bed gets made, and dinner is on the table 99% of the time.  Sometimes the dusting doesn't get done that week because I am not perfect, but most of the time it does because I'm maintaining self-discipline.

                                                  

We wear many hats as stay-at-home wives, mothers, housekeepers, chauffeurs, entertainment directors, medics, chefs, kitchen managers, and whatever else you can think of.  Our chief job though, is to keep home a sanctuary.  I believe this is the cornerstone to a happy home.  A sanctuary isn't cluttered and dusty.  When you envision walking into a bed and breakfast, what do you see?  A beautiful quilt on a four-poster bed, sure...but more than that it's the atmosphere.  The bed is made and made properly.  The floor is free from debris and the windows sparkle.  Why do people choose a bed and breakfast over a hotel?  Ponder this.  It's peaceful, homey, and a nice breakfast is downstairs on the table waiting for them.  You can create whatever atmosphere in your home you like.  A serene peaceful home where your family is loved and can relax is made first by making your bed and vacuuming your floor. 

You just can't create a tranquil atmosphere in a messy house.  A messy house isn't really much of a home.  It's hard to get up and make breakfast when first you have to dig through a laundry basket to find something to wear.  I can't sit and watch a movie with Daniel peacefully if I feel guilty about having let the supper dishes go.  You won't be able to try that new quilt pattern if you can't even locate your notions or iron.

We are keepers of the home.  We keep it.  What does that mean?  It means we guard it.  The virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 is the woman we look at for a role model.  Not Kim Cardashian.  Biblical truths work.  It's that simple.  You have to keep your home.  Guard it.  Ensure, to the best of your ability, nothing bad happens there.

Just as it's harder to sew a quilt in a dirty room it is just as hard to be stressed out in a clean home with a fragrant candle burning.  That quilt can be sewn, but probably through more blood, sweat, and tears than necessary.  Yes arguments happen.  Yes men cheat on their wives and vice versa.  A clean home is not the only reason couples are happy.  It is a first step.  It is a cornerstone to everything else you want to accomplish.  Keep your home a sanctuary from the world and life will run much more smoothly.



Okay, so now that we agree you have to keep a clean house, how do you go about it?  Let's figure out why your house is a filthy disaster in the first place.  It's not that you want it to be that way.  You want a home to be proud of.  Your husband wants to walk into a clean home at the end of a hard day at work.  So, why is your home dirty?  Hint: the reason is not so much that people don't pick up after themselves.

One reason could be you are a perfectionist.  It is a paradox, really.  Perhaps you feel that you don't have time to do it right so why bother?  Perhaps you feel that because your carpet needs replaced your living room won't look clean no matter what you do, so why bother?  When you feel this way, suck it up and do it anyway.  Stop stressing out over how little time you have to get it done because for one thing, once your house is overhauled, it doesn't take much time at all to keep it looking good.  I don't care if your floor has potholes in it.  It will look better if it's vacuumed.
                                                
Another reason is laziness.  Maybe you can think of better things to do than laundry.  I can too.  However, if the laundry doesn't get done you will turn around one day (and one day soon) to find you'll have to scale Mount Washmore to find that shirt you look so good in, and believe you me it won't smell too fresh either.  Want to look good for your husband and guard your home against the fears of other women catching his eye?  Clean your house.  It will alleviate some of that fear for you.

                                                           

Stop using excuses and get it done.  If you're having self-discipline issues, get motivated.  Sometimes it just helps to listen to music.  Sometimes it helps turning on a TV program where a stronger woman is running her household well.  I, myself, like The Walton's.  It also helps me just knowing there are other women doing their daily chores at the same time as me.  Oftentimes it is the thought that Daniel will come home to a clean house with a nice dinner on the table.  I can't make a nice dinner if the kitchen is disgusting.