Keeping a House Clean. The Married Edition.

If you have a spouse, it can feel a little like her versus him when it comes to cleaning your house and keeping it, or at least attempting to keep it feeling like a home instead of that college dorm room where you may have spent your first few years together. The fact of the matter is, marriage is and should be a constant effort to better the relationship with your significant other. But, sometimes it's the little things that grow to become big things and throw a wrench in that finely churning machinery of yours. Those little things could be the dishes that pile up every night until you forget your kitchen sink even had a drain. It could be that heap of toilet paper that's been accumulating over time. In any case, and in many cases, in fact, keeping the house clean is what most marriages struggle with most, especially the newlyweds.

Older marriages find themselves battle-scarred and complacent. They've settled on a "way things are done" and dealt with it. But newlyweds are just getting acquainted with the "way things are done" and butting heads as they watch the concrete settle on what will turn out to be their roles and responsibilities. Yeah, in today's day and age, roles aren't so clear-cut anymore. Gone are the days when the woman's domain was the kitchen and the wash closet and the Man's job was to beat the concrete with his feet and bring back the dough. Oh no. Now both the man and the woman beat feet and when it comes to cleaning the sheets both the man and the woman feel they have no heat left in the engine to get the job done. Someone has to pick up the slack, or the house will become a cave and you might as well trade your vowels and consonances for uga bugas. And someone usually does pickup the slack.

A lot of households have the man of the house or lady of the house who prides themselves in keeping the place nice and shiney. But the truth is, keeping the house clean shouldn't be the imense chore that it is and no one person in the relationship should have sole responsibility in keeping it that way. Here are three tips to keep the house clean without making house upkeep a round of her vs him every time.

1. Pickup After Yourself:

I can hear the echos of my mother's voice repeating these words in the channels of my child hood memories. Anyone can say it, but it sure is harder than it sounds. It's not hard at all to put your shoes away in the closet, until you come home after eight grueling hours of work and dealt with kids all evening.

This goes for the dishes, and the socks, and the little knickknacks strewn about your vanity that you use to get ready to go to work at the beginning of the day and to bed at the end of the day. It all pies up and when it does, picking up after yourself sounds tough. But the fact is, its easier to put the items we use away as we use them, as opposed to waiting for it to build up.

Pickup after yourself, immediately after doing something not after it builds up.

2. Everyday Pick a Room and Make Sure It Looks Good Before You Call It a Day:

Start with the hardest room to clean on a slow day. Your family's slow day may be different from others but this "slow" day should be a day no one works and there are not a lot of items pending to do. This means you have less stress to accomplish a ton of things and can place more focus on cleaning thoroughly. You can work on this one room non-stop until the job is done or you can do it in pieces, but for goodness sake, don't call it a day until that room is clean. Then, choose another room for every day after that and don't let the day end without that room being clean.

This puts you and your spouse into a routine of cleaning a little bit every day as opposed to a whole bunch on one day. It also starts to inspire us to focus more on the first tip of cleaning up after your self because you'll be telling yourself, "Hey numbnuts, you just cleaned that room" or "Thats the room I have to clean tomorrow, let's not make it worse."

For every day of the week, choose a room and make sure that room is spotless before you call it a day.

3. Outsource the Time Consuming or Specialized Jobs

This is a tricky one for those proud husbands and wives out there. It can be hard for the I can do it all couples to allow this one to fly. Some people cringe at the idea of paying someone to mow the lawn, or paying someone to come pick up junk that I can take myself to the dumps. You sure can do it yourself and you'd be saving some money doing that, but did you save yourself time?

Time is by far the most valuable resource any living thing has access to and those dollar bills you're looking to save are valued based on the premium placed on time. You just spent the entire week cleaning up after yourself and maintaining your home by keeping it tidy and working your job to pay for that roof. Use your weekends to bring your family closer together. Go to the lake, or a hike, don't waste it on mowing your lawn or taking out that old appliance you've been trying to sell on facebook marketplace.

Outsource some chores and free up time for you and your family.

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