Can we talk about housekeeping?

Sundays have traditionally been my day to catch up on housekeeping.  I’m not by any stretch of the imagination a neat-freak, but I like to get things straightened up a bit before the start of a new week. Over the past few years, my Sundays have gradually become more difficult.  If I had a busy Saturday, I would have a really hard time getting all my housework done on Sunday.  Of course now I know that’s a fibro thing, but it took me a long time to figure it out. Before I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, I came up with lots of reasons for why I couldn’t keep up with the housework. I thought I must be getting old and out of shape, and I started to wonder if maybe I was just lazy. It didn’t help when I would go to somebody else’s spotless house.  I would look at my friends or family members and wonder why they had the energy to keep their houses clean, when I could barely manage to get out of bed on the weekends.

I have been reading a lot about Fibromyalgia since my diagnosis, and I have learned how to manage my housework so that it’s not overwhelming.  But for some reason, yesterday I forgot everything I learned and I tried to do too much at once.  I fell back into my “Get everything done on Sunday” mentality.  I had a huge list of things I wanted to accomplish.  I made it through about half of that list before my body rebelled and I ended up just sitting in my Lazy Boy chair, in tears. And I am still paying for it today!

So, learn from me and don't try to overdo it when you're cleaning your home.  Read my tips for how to manage housekeeping when you have Fibromyalgia, and hopefully you will stay relatively pain free and comfortable.

(Like I said before, I’m not a neat freak, and nobody would put photos of my house in “House Beautiful” magazine.  I just try to get by the best that I can.) 

My tips:      

•  Get help.  This one is hard for me.  Really, really, really hard. I am NOT good at asking for help.  But I’m working on it, and I do appreciate the work my husband and daughters do around the house.  I’m working on being willing to ask family members and friends for help when I need it. My advice for you is to not be like me!  Ask for help! And if you can afford it, pay somebody to clean your house once a week

• Visualize your "inner Elsa" and Let it go! (For those of you who don't know any children under the age of five... that's a Disney movie reference.) Seriously, why does everything have to be perfectly clean all the time anyway?  Consider whether you need to reassess your priorities.  Maybe a clean house isn't that important in the grand scheme of things.

• Do a little at a time.  I’ve learned that I can’t do it all at once.  I try to break my cleaning tasks into small parts. If I have to unload the dishwasher, I will just empty the top rack and then take a break before doing the bottom rack. If I have to clean the bathroom, I’ll tackle the toilet and come back for the tub later. 

• Use products that make life easier.  I’ve found a few products that help to make cleaning less pain inducing. (Click on the links if you want to learn more about these products.):
 

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser- Oh my gosh, if I weren’t already married (and if Mr. Clean was a real person) I would totally marry him!  I LOVE these things.  These sponges don’t disinfect, so you won’t want to use them on your toilet or other germy areas.  But they do clean pretty much EVERYTHING easily with no painful scrubbing.

Vinegar and Dawn Dish Detergent- I don’t know what it is about Dawn dish detergent, but when you mix it with vinegar, it’s MAGIC!  Mix 2 parts vinegar with one part Dawn (I like the blue Dawn, but I haven’t experimented with the other varieties.)  Put it in a spray bottle and use it for general cleaning.  Just spray it on and wipe off with a sponge or cloth.  Easy peasy. 

Downy Wrinkle Releaser:  Because do you have the energy for ironing?  I know I don’t. 

A Lightweight Vacuum Cleaner: I have a heavy-ish vacuum and it’s difficult to maneuver when my muscles are feeling sore.  I would LOVE to have a lightweight vacuum cleaner.  Or even better… a Roomba!  What could be cooler than a robot vacuum cleaner?!  When they invent a robot that cleans toilets and does laundry, I will be truly happy.  

Grabber: I don’t own one of these… yet.  But after reading numerous reviews, I am going to grab one up as soon as I can.  (No pun intended.) You can use these things for picking up loose socks that are laying around the floor, reaching that piece of laundry that’s stuck in the back of the dryer, or grasping that bag of chips that’s on the high shelf of the cabinet.

*This post includes affiliate links, which means if you click on the link to a product you will be taken to a page where you can purchase those products.  I will receive a small commission. I only talk about products in my blog if I believe that they will benefit my readers.