Cleaning Ink, Marker & Crayon Stains!
August 19, 2015
Do you have any bad habits? I certainly do. When we last talked about breaking bad habits, we had hundreds of comments from viewers sharing their bad habits. It seems like we all have habits we’d like to break, so we decided to make another video about it! Here are 5 really common ones that I highly recommend breaking.
We all have That Chair, or even worse—the pile that becomes the “floordrobe”. This habit is truly counterproductive—it makes your entire room look messy, and the piling of clothes wrinkles everything and renders even clean clothes unwearable. Instead, clothes you take off should go to one of three places: The hamper, the hanger, or the drawer. Is it dirty? Easy. Right into the hamper it goes. Can you wear it again? Then store it on a hanger or in the drawer, wherever you typically keep that item. Done!
I’ve got news for you: No, you won’t. If you need to get something done, you’ve got two choices: Do it right now, or else schedule it to get it done later. When that appointment rolls around, honor it as if it were a lunch date or haircut appointment. You wouldn’t cancel one of those, would you?
I know, it feels good in the moment—look, instant cleanliness!—but you and I know that it’s just postponing the mess and the dread of having to deal with it. Drawers should have a designated purpose—only things that belong there should go there, not everything that’s out of place on your countertops, willy-nilly. It will be self-reinforcing—you’ll never want to mess up a neatly-organized drawer.
That feeling, that it’s not worth, say, cleaning off the countertop because the cabinets will still be disorganized, or cleaning the sink and toilet will not be worth it because the bathroom floor still needs to be done—it’s the enemy of a clean space. If you were to work just 1 or 2 items into your daily routine, everything would get clean eventually, and you’d never have that feeling of Seriously Big Jobs hanging over your head. So go ahead and start with 1 drawer, or 1 room, or whatever you have time for. You’ll be surprised and how good it feels to take care of even a small space.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed looking at a messy space and thinking that it would just be too hard to do what it would take to get it clean. One of our readers sent in the best motivating tip: When you get a room just how you like it, take a photo of it with your phone. Then, when you’re feeling uninspired to clean, use the photo as motivation to get it back to where it needs to be. You’ll remember how good it feels to have a clean, serene space.
Comment Question: WHAT ARE YOUR BAD HABITS?
** RECOMMENDED VIEWING **
