My Mom Uses This Cleaning Rule in Every Room, and Now I’m Adopting It
Managing my household is an all-consuming task. With five kids, staying on top of responsibilities, like schedules and appointments, and maintaining a clean house takes a lot of time and energy. But keeping a tidy home is essential to our peace as a family.
The only hope of having a relatively clean and orderly house is if everyone pitches in. My husband does so much, and the kids have taken on increasing roles as they’ve gotten older. For instance, my two older kids alternate weeks cleaning the kitchen after dinner (including scrubbing the sink nightly!), and our younger kids have daily and weekly chores like emptying the trash cans and resetting the family room.
But I’ve found that it’s the non-chore-related habits that make the biggest difference in the general condition of our home. As you can imagine, a household of seven has a lot of stuff that needs to be put away and otherwise dealt with, all throughout the day, every single day. I have routines that address some of this; for instance, we do Power 10s to clean up nightly. However, it’s items like the dirty clothes left in the bathroom or the dishes piled up after one of the kids makes a snack that accumulate and make the whole place feel messy and stressful.
As I encountered yet another pile of clothes in the downstairs bathroom that one of the kids walked away from, I had a little epiphany. My mom always told us to “leave a room better than we found it,” and I thought about how I could get my kids to follow this rule. This simple habit of looking back before leaving a room to see what mess they made and picking up after themselves is such an incredibly hard habit to instill.
I needed to give it a name. The rhyming phrase “check it out before walking out” came to me, and I knew I’d introduce the concept the next time we had a casual dinnertime family meeting. I hoped that giving something a catchy name would help the kids remember to do it and, with any luck at all, help the habit stick and help our home become generally tidier.
Well, I got a few eyerolls and groans from the older kids when I first told them about my (admittedly somewhat cheesy) new plan for everyone to contribute to the tidiness of the house. But when I pointed out that if everyone did this, the house could stay in order rather than devolving into chaos and making me frustrated (read: cranky and naggy), they seemed more open. I still have to remind them, but saying “check it out before walking out!” in a singsong voice rather than uttering an irritated request to please pick up after themselves has already reaped rewards — even when it’s merely keeping things less tense.
As I continue reminding the kids to “check it out before walking out,” I’m hoping this phrase will develop into a nearly unconscious habit, and that over time they’ll actually remember to put their dishes in the dishwasher rather than leaving them on the table for me to clean up.
Already, messes are accumulating less and the time that used to have to be spent on whole-house cleanups is converting into more time able to relax together in a tidy home. This, after all, is the ultimate goal.
Further Reading
I Tried the 90/90 Rule and My Closet Is Now Fully Decluttered
We Tested (and Rated!) All the Sofas at Ashley — Here Are the Best to Suit Your Style and Space
I Just Discovered the Smartest Way to Store Paper Towels in Your Kitchen (It’s a Game-Changer!)
