Creating a clean and manageable home while dealing with health problems

Hi, dear friend! Welcome back to our latest episode of "Happy By Design: Happiness Among the Chaos." I'm your host, Lizz Romney, and today marks our 9th episode together – a journey I'm incredibly grateful for. In this episode, we're taking a lighter turn as I share with you my journey to creating a clean and manageable home while honoring our energy and health. This episode is close to my heart as it reflects the changes I've embraced in my life due to my leukemia diagnosis and how I've adapted to maintain happiness and order in my home. Let's dive in and discover how we can design a happy, healthy living space that caters to our unique needs.

Episode Highlights:

1. The Shift in Cleaning Approach: I talk about how my approach to cleaning had to change due to my leukemia diagnosis. The realization that I couldn't clean my home like I used to when I was healthy was a game changer.
2. Breaking the Cycle of Overwhelm: I delve into how seeing my home in disarray while dealing with health challenges amplified my feelings of overwhelm, guilt, and frustration. This led to a cycle of heavy emotions that I knew I needed to break.
3. Happy By Design Philosophy: Embracing the 'Happy By Design' philosophy, I took action to redesign my home cleaning routine. This was about moving from a reactive to a proactive approach.
4. Daily Cleaning Routine: I share the specifics of my new daily cleaning routine that is easy to follow and keeps my home consistently clean in just about an hour a day.
5. Delegating and Involving Family: A key part of my strategy is involving my family in the cleaning process. I discuss how assigning tasks to family members and setting clear expectations helped maintain a clean home without overwhelming anyone.
6. Deep Cleaning Schedule: I outline my approach to deep cleaning tasks, emphasizing how I spread these tasks over the week to avoid exhaustion, with a focus on managing energy and health.
7. Creating a Manageable Home: The ultimate goal, I explain, is not a perfect home but a manageable one. I talk about how this approach aligns with our health and energy levels, and how it contributes to our overall happiness.

Special Announcement:

• Cleaning Guide and Calendar: For those who want a structured guide to creating their own cleaning routine, I've created a detailed guide and calendar, available for $7.99. It includes habits to reduce messiness, age-appropriate chores for family members, recommended tools like the electric broom, and a calendar with all the daily tasks. You can purchase it here. 

Reminder:

• Leave a Review for a Chance to Win: If you're enjoying this podcast, please subscribe and leave a review. Take a screenshot of your review and send it to me on Instagram at @lizzromney. You'll be entered into a giveaway for a 'Happy By Design' journal.

Thank you for joining me in this episode. Remember, designing happiness in every aspect of our lives, including our home environment, is key to our overall well-being. Embrace your journey with grace and creativity. See you in the next episode, dear friend!

Links:

• Follow Me on Instagram: Lizz Romney
• Purchase  "Clean and Manageable Home: A guide to happy cleaning 1hr a day

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi, my name is Liz Romney and I'm obsessed with understanding what true happiness really means, while still embracing life's ups and downs, especially during the downs. I'm a Mama 3 and a cancer fighter, making sure that my sweet family still enjoys life. Happiness was never meant to be only felt when things go right. Happiness is so much more than that. Through heartfelt conversations, you'll discover how to commit to intentional joy, no matter what's going on in your life. So make sure you have your favorite drink, because we don't shy away from any topic. Welcome to Happy by Design. Happiness among the chaos. Well, hello there, dear friend, I'm glad you're back for another episode. This episode is a lot lighter than any previous episode. I know we have tackled a lot of hard topics for the first 8 episodes, but this one is a lot lighter and easygoing. We're going to talk about how to create a clean and manageable home while still honoring our energy and our health.

Speaker 1: 1:05

As I have been trying to find a new normal while I'm dealing with leukemia, cleaning my home has been a pain in the butt Until a few months ago, I decided I needed to change the approach of cleaning my home. To be honest, I was trying to clean my home like I used to when I was healthy and I'm not healthy. I needed to be creative and find a new way. So today I'm going to share with you how I created my new cleaning routine, my new cleaning schedule that is so easy to follow and I'm done within an hour every day. And, honestly, my home has never been this clean, even when I was using professional cleaners twice a month. I can tell you, my home is so clean right now, so I want to share what I learned so you can create your own cleaning routine. So let's talk first about what was not working.

Speaker 1: 2:00

First thing was that before, my cleaning was very intuitive, meaning I cleaned whatever I felt needed to be clean. So bathrooms got clean. When I noticed them, they were dirty. I cleaned the kitchen the same way. Dishes were always in the sink and I would tackle them when it was full. It was the same way, until the baskets were full, that I was doing the laundry, and so on and so forth with everything else in the house.

Speaker 1: 2:24

So there were days I didn't clean at all and there were days where I was like, oh man, this house is so dirty, I need to clean it, and I would spend an entire day cleaning and then the house was finally clean. And the thing is that that was fine before I could handle that, but not anymore. I don't have the energy to spend an entire day cleaning. And also this is very interesting when you are going through health challenges, either physical, mental or emotional, you are already overwhelmed and stressed, and so your environment really affects how you feel. It can amplify those feelings of overwhelmed and stress. So before I was okay with the house getting dirty, then waiting to clean. Now I can't. I can't see the house dirty because, like I said, it was really amplifying how overwhelmed I felt. And also I felt guilty that I couldn't clean. And then I felt angry that I wasn't as strong as I used to be, so like something as simple as cleaning was such a burden for me. So I was in a cycle of a lot of heavy emotion because of my house. But the good news here is that I believe in the philosophy of happy by design. We don't live happiness to chance. We design it ourselves. So I got to work.

Speaker 1: 3:44

The first thing was to decide what were the things that were driving me crazy on a daily basis. The first one was, of course, the dirty dishes that were accumulating on the sink. The second thing was the amount of laundry to do. The third was the kitchen and the living rooms were messy all the time. The fourth was my bathroom sink and countertops. And the fifth was my kids living their stuff everywhere, especially shoes and socks and man, I was finding socks in every corner of the house. It drove me crazy. Then I made a list of what chores need to be done every day, which at least once a week, which once every other week and which once a month. So let's talk about the ones that need to be done once a day. First, dishes what was driving me crazy was looking at those dirty dishes accumulating in my sink. So I knew I needed to make sure the meat dishwasher was empty throughout the day so I could put the dishes as they were getting dirty.

Speaker 1: 4:40

Second, the laundry. We are a family of five people. Not only that, but my kids have different sport activities every single day, so they were changing clothes multiple times a day. So they still do, obviously. So clothes were really accumulating, plus the towels and the bedding and all that. So all of that is laundry that needs to be done. So I tested this whole do a load a day, it didn't really work, because it's too much clothes, it's too much laundry. So I did two loads a day and I assigned my kids a day for the laundry and taught them how to use the washer and dryer and fold their clothes, and now I can say laundry is not a problem anymore.

Speaker 1: 5:24

Then the third again. We are a family of five and we hang out a lot in the kitchen and the living rooms. We have three living rooms, but we only use two of them and they were getting very messy. So we assigned an adult only living room and a kid only living room. If you only have one living room, don't worry, what I share next will apply to you. Also, kids are not allowed to eat in any of the living rooms anymore and one of the kids is assigned to pick up, before bed, the pillows and trash from the kids living room and the other kids have to pick up anything else they left in the living room or the loft before bed. So I have three kids and their stuff is everywhere, like I said, but now they are assigned to pick up their stuff before going to bed.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Now, okay, now next one. I disinfect my bathroom sinks and countertops once a week, but I hated seeing those watermarks around the sink and the countertops after we use them. So I start wiping them down every night after brushing my teeth and skincare with a rock. I didn't use any disinfectant, I just use a rock, I just wipe it down so they can kind of look like they're clean. So I'm okay with that. It takes literally one minute to do it and that makes me feel so good.

Speaker 1: 6:45

Now the kitchen, the heart of the home. One thing that has helped me a lot is that I make lunch and dinner at the same time, but the rule is that they have to be recipes that are 30 minutes or less and have five or less ingredients. That way I make all the mess at once, and I have to do that what I call deep cleaning at the kitchen one time of a day. If my kids use the kitchen, then they have to clean it. Lastly, before bed I go through the main parts of the house, meaning the kitchen, the adult only living room, the dining room, mud room area and my bedroom, and pick up anything that is not in its place. Oh wait, I forgot my almost 11 year old sweeps the floor of the kitchen and the living room before going to bed, and she does it with an electric broom. I will include a link of this in the show notes, but this thing is amazing and it's so light. Anyone can use it. 100% recommended.

Speaker 1: 7:49

So those are the main things that need to be done every day to maintain the house clean. These are the ones that give the appearance that the house is clean. So what you want to do is think about the chores and tasks that need to be done every day to give the vibe that the house is clean and then decide when are you going to do them and who is going to help, because, my dear friend, your family should be part of this. It's not only you. But now wait before we keep going with that.

Speaker 1: 8:24

I believe the children shouldn't be burdened by cleaning at home. Yes, I believe that they should contribute to the home with very small tasks and keeping their mess, cleaning and helping with all that. But I feel that the cleaning is mostly responsibility of adults. And, yes, we should be teaching our kids to do all this cleaning, but I think there's an age for that, maybe around between 10 and 16, that's when we mostly have to start giving them more chores, more difficult chores, so they can learn how to clean their homes when they are adults. But when we have younger children, the most important thing is that they play. That is what they're supposed to do, just play. But again, they should contribute Absolutely, they should help absolutely. But the hardest part, and most of it, should be our responsibility as adults. Right, it's our responsibility.

Speaker 1: 9:17

Now, the deep cleaning chores. Like I said, I cannot do the deep cleaning chores in one day. I know most people do that. Most people either assign Friday or Saturday to do all the deep cleaning things. But I cannot do that anymore. I will make myself very sick and I wouldn't even finish them because I will get too sick and then I will be feeling bad and then guilty and then angry and all that thing will go over and over again. These unhealthy cycles of no good, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1: 9:45

So what you want to do is make the list of the chores that need to be done as deep cleaning, go room by room, area by area, and write down the task. For example, a bathroom needs the toilet bowl to be clean, the sinks, the mirrors, the countertops or any surfaces, the floors cleaning showers, shower doors and the tub. If they are separated, then decide which ones need to be cleaned every week and which ones every other week, and then, once a month, then decide which ones you want to do together. For me, I wanted to do sinks, countertops and floors together, and then the bowls and the mirrors together, so I do these two groups on different days. I know, I know I don't do an entire bathroom the same day because it is too much, I'm not healthy, I'm not, I'm not, and that's okay. I have to consider these things when I'm creating my cleaner routine and the sink goes to you.

Speaker 1: 10:52

You do not have to clean an entire room at a time. I have three bathrooms in my home and I have one day, and if I have one day assigned for bathrooms, that's a lot. So I divided them and it is perfect. You don't have to clean an entire area at once. Can I get an amen? Can I get an amen, please? How did I not know that? That you don't have to clean an entire area at once? This is just glorious. I love it. You have no idea.

Speaker 1: 11:26

You have no idea how good this has been for me, but what I do is that I tend to have those areas divided into two days that are consecutive, so back to back, right. So within two days, one specific area it's clean, and so those chores are every other week. I just add them to days that have easier tasks than others, and those are monthly. I do them Saturday and Sunday. Wait, I forgot to tell this. I don't have deep cleaning chores on Saturday and Sunday, except the monthly one. So doing all these chores the daily chores plus the deep cleaning chores of the day it only takes me around 40 to an hour a day to all these. And it has been amazing, on days where I have the every other week chores, it can go up to one hour 10 minutes, one hour 15 minutes, but no more than that. So I do my cleaning every morning from nine to 10, except obviously the tidying up in the night. But that's only 10 minutes, maybe 15 in. My husband is talking to me. So that is the framework I use to create my cleaning schedule.

Speaker 1: 12:29

You can create your own using this framework too. Just remember not to put too much on the schedule and do the chores when you tend to have good energy, because, as people that we struggle with our, with our health, either physical, mental or emotional we have to consider our energy, our energy levels, is always a must when we're planning our day to day activities. But here is the sherry. On this Sunday, your goal is not to create a schedule for a perfectly clean home. The goal is to create a schedule for a manageable home, meaning that you have a system that makes you feel good about your home without burning you out and without seeking perfection. There will always be something to clean and you cannot keep everything clean at all times, so let go of that. Our goal, as people that have health challenges, is to have a manageable home. Now, if you are like Liz, it sounds amazing, but I don't want to spend time creating this. It sounds like a pain in the butt. Then, my friend, you're in luck, because I created a guy and a calendar that has everything and a lot more of what I just shared with you. It's that exact same calendar I use every day.

Speaker 1: 13:51

In this guide, you will find a list of habits that we have implemented to reduce the messiness in our home, so the clean is not so overwhelming. Also a list of chores that your family members can do according to the ages, without overwhelming them and still letting them be children. You know, like I talked, letting them be and enjoying their life and having fun and all those things they're supposed to be doing. I also include a recommended tools like the electric broom and others and, of course, the best part of all, the calendar with the daily tasks. That includes the daily things and the deep cleaning things. So all that you're gonna get in this guide. So if you want this guide, just go to the show notes and there will be a link there for you. The guide is $7.99, it's a PDF guide, so as soon as you purchase the guide, you can enjoy a clean and manageable home. You can enjoy it. As soon as you get it, you can figure it out and say, okay, tomorrow I'm gonna start doing it, yes, and as I find new habits or make any changes, you will get those updates too.

Speaker 1: 14:56

I really love this guide. It makes me feel good about myself and my home. So if you want it, go to the show notes and click the link and get it for $7.99. Because really, why live happiness to chance when you can design it yourself? Before I leave you, let me ask you are you enjoying this podcast? If you are, make sure you are subscribed and you leave a review.

Speaker 1: 15:21

Reviews are really helpful to me. The more reviews I have, more people I can reach and help in this journey. So I really want to motivate you to subscribe and leave a review. So here is a giveaway If you make a review, take a screenshot of it and then send it to me on Instagram DMs, you will be entering a giveaway of one happy by design journal. So if you want a journal for free and if you have all of my other episodes, you know how much I love the happy by design journal. So make sure to leave a review, take a screenshot, send it to my Instagram and you will be entering the giveaway. My Instagram is at least Romney, so L-I-Z-Z-R-O-M-N-E-Y. I will also put the link of my Instagram in the show notes. So again, just send me the screenshot and you will be entering the giveaway. And with that, my friend, I leave you and I see you in the next episode.