Your Clean House Conga

Step 1: Gather your tools

·        A big trash bag

·        A laundry basket

·        A box

·        A notepad and pen that works (alternately: a phone with a note app)

·        All-purpose cleaner and a couple of rags. (I like Lysol’s All Purpose. It has a fresh, but not over powering and quickly evaporating scent, cleans wonderfully, and isn’t very expensive. And for rags, microfiber cloths can increase the power of your cleaner without having to use extra chemicals. In fact, a lot of the time, a microfiber with plain water will do a great job and you can skip anything stronger.)

Step 2: Go to your bedroom. Wash the door. Thank God for privacy. Most parents in this world have to sleep in the same room as all their children and sometimes their parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins!

Step 3: Wash the wall until you come to the first piece of furniture. Take everything off the top and put it on your bed. Clean the top of the piece of furniture while thanking God for the person who gave it to you as well as the function it serves for you.

Step 4: Decide what to put on top of that piece. Remember,

• ·        1 is a piece of art,
• ·        2 is a set,
• ·        3 is a collection,
• ·        4+ is clutter.

 Arrange that/those items artistically.

Step 5: Decide if each other item you took off the piece of furniture should be thrown away (put it in the bag), moved to a different place in the house (put it in the basket), or given to a charitable thrift store to bless someone else (put it in the box). Thank God for the item and the enjoyment you have gotten out of it.

Step 6: Open the first drawer. Take everything out and put it on the bed. Clean the drawer, if it needs it. 

Decide what should belong in that drawer. Put only that type of item back in. 

Remember, you will do the Thanksgiving Dance everyday but Sunday from now on. You will soon be caught up on your laundry and will only get behind when you are sick (or equivalent emergencies). You will never again need more than one week’s worth of clothes, maximum! (Besides, we all wear the same few things over and over while the other stuff just sits in the back taking up room anyway.)

This is:

·        8 pairs of panties (plus a couple of “special” ones, i.e the black ones that match your black dress-up bra)

·        4-8 everyday bras (plus a black one and any special ones for dresses you currently own)

·        8 pairs of socks (again, plus a couple of special ones such as “elf socks” for Christmas morning.)

·        3-4 night gowns

·        4-8 pairs of pants or everyday skirts (plus a couple dressy ones. Pants and skirts don’t actually get as dirty as we think they do. I heard of one woman who decided not to wash her brand new pair of jeans for one year. When she did wash them, the water was barely dirty at all. Denim sheds dirt and unless you are rolling in the mud or something, they just don’t need that much care).

·        8 everyday shirts (plus a couple dressy ones).

·        3-4 dresses

(Ok, I’ll admit I have more than this of each item. But I began with around 60! So 12-13 is doing good and I get better all the time.)

Lay all your, let’s say, panties, out. Pick out your 8 prettiest, comfortable ones, the ones there is no question about. You KNOW you want to keep them. 

Now add the black ones that match your best black bra, the Christmas ones with Rudolph on the back, and your “Be Mine” ones for Valentine’s Day. 

Any of the rest with holes or that are too dingy for anyone else to want, trash. 

Put your daughter’s in the laundry basket (How exactly does a four year old's undies get mixed up in her mothers?). 

The rest put in the donate box. Do NOT put “good” ones back in the drawer for when your favorites wear out! If you do that you will never get to go buy pretty new things, but will always be wearing humiliating leftovers and castoffs. 

Besides, Some poor woman just had her house burn down with all her underwear in it and will praise God for finding yours on the rack at the thrift store. Thank God for the ability to bless someone else.

Repeat Step 6 moving from drawer to drawer to shelf until that piece of furniture if completely cleaned and decluttered.

Go to step 3 and repeat, working your way around the room. Make sure you clean under anything you can clean under.

The notepad is to make notes on of things you think of that you need to do or buy while you are working. Do not leave this dance to do them, just make a note for later.

Continue this dance for no more than 1 hour, then do the Rest Dance.