My house is rarely clean. It’s usually cluttered, there is almost always a minimum of one or two dirty dishes, a basket of laundry waiting to be folded and put away (I HATE putting-away), more than a basket waiting to be washed, and a fine coating of dust and dog hair on top of it all.

What can I say? There are two teenage girls living here, one of whom works 25-30 hours a week and goes to school, I work full time and write part time, my husband works full time and we have three dogs…It’s gonna get messy.

So, walking the line between messy and outright nasty is a constant challenge around here. Through the years, I’ve tried just about every strategy imaginable to keep it clean – from chore charts to allowances to a half hour of required cleaning time a week and everything in between. All of it works for a week or two, then we return to our normal state of utter chaos.

Last week I tried something new. Before anyone could go anywhere on Saturday, we all four (plus an unfortunate spend-the-night friend) had to clean for one hour. The three girls put on aprons and ipods and decided to work as a team, tackling first the kitchen, then the bedroom and bathroom. My husband cleaned his “area” next to his chair (yes, it did take the whole hour) and I took on the living room.

Unbelievably, it worked! The house was cleaner than it had been for quite sometime. And, bonus, since it was relatively clean, it was easier to spend a few minutes every evening maintaining the cleanliness and this weekend there are just a few must-be-done chores. Even the plants look happier.

I don’t know how long it will last, but for now, the one hour of cleaning has motivated us all to try and keep the mess under control.

Not much inspires me to clean.  Even though I know that I will feel better if my surroundings are clean, it takes some sort of push for me to get it done.  Maybe if friends are coming over or it is someone’s birthday…even then, I usually do the minimum necessary.  The thing is, I spend a lot of mental energy worrying about finding time to really clean.

There are plenty of excuses:  I have writing to do, I don’t feel good, I’ve worked all week – shouldn’t I enjoy the weekend? Most of the excuses are valid.  I do work full time and spend at least 15-20 hours a week building my writing business.  Then there are the two teenage girls who live in my house.  I used to think when they were old enough to help with the big stuff it would get easier.  Turns out, they have the same aversion to cleaning that I do.

I’ve tried set schedules and routines for cleaning and to make it just a part of my day.  That didn’t work.  I’ve tried making chore charts so that everyone in the family could share in the work.  That didn’t work.  I’ve tried declaring Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon chore time, where we all work together for 20-30 minutes cleaning.  That didn’t work.  I’ve tried going on strike to see how long it would take before the rest of my family couldn’t stand the mess anymore and cleaned it up (I do NOT recommend this route!).  That didn’t work.

Nothing has worked for any length of time.  And this is a personal problem that goes way, way back – to even before I had a space of my own to keep up.  By default, I tried to keep my dad’s house clean as a teenager because my younger brother and dad certainly didn’t care about the mess.  Really, I wish I could attain that sort of redneck zen, where the cleanliness of my house just didn’t matter and I could be happy and at ease even if there are empty drink cans all over the end tables and piles of laundry on the sofa.

In an effort to try and help inspire myself and my fellow slobs to do a better job of cleaning up, I’ve been looking for ways to make it a little easier:

• One of the biggest things is to visit someone who keeps a really neat house.  I always come back home and think, “I’m going to do a little more around here so my house is as comfortable as ……..”
• As a big fan of Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project, I enjoy reading her posts about how outer order promotes inner peace.  Her thoughts on the topic don’t always inspire me to get up and clean up but they usually sit in the back of my mind and help me feel motivated when there is time to clean.
• A recently discovered site is the Unclutterer.  It’s been around for awhile, but it is pretty entertaining. I find the “Workspace of the Week” photos particularly inspiring because I dream of having a neat and pleasant home office someday soon.

And now, I have to go wash dishes and put the clothes in the dryer.