Monday, August 30, 2010

The House That Cleans Itself



Keep your home twice as clean in half the time by learning to adapt your house to fit your behavior. If you're tired of wrestling with messiness and disorder in your home, then it's time to consider a new approach, think outside of the box, and use creative problem-solving to get a handle on the clutter and dirt. Follow Mindy's fun and encouraging step-by-step plan to convert your home into a house that practically cleans itself.

Yeah. Right. I was staring at the bookshelf in one of my favorite stores, trying to decide which of my shortcomings was most urgent- which of the "womens'interests" I should tackle first. This book practically jumped off the shelf at me. Ironically, after such a dramatic start, it sat on my bookshelf at home for MONTHS.

A week or so ago, hubby and I were lamenting AGAIN at how messy our house always is, so I started reading. As I started reading, I realized that this may actually work for us. The one thing that struck me most was that the author claims that some people are natural neatniks, while the rest of us spend our lives fighting the mess, feeling embarrassed. Somewhere along the way, we convinced ourselves that cleanliness was a sheer matter of self-control and virtue of character- which we didn't have. She works from that place of self-deprecation, and addresses some of the mental and emotional roadblocks we may have to overcome before being able to re-structure. From there, she teaches how to organize your household AROUND your messy habits to make the house work for you.

From the first chapter:
"The House That Cleans Itself (HTCI) System begins by leading you step-by-step through a home-evaluation process. By taking a fresh look at familiar spaces, you will be able to define the various behaviors and habits that tend to create clutter, mess, and dirt throughout your home. Conventional housekeeping experts might say that once you know what the problem behaviors and habits are, you can change them. But I contend that if you COULD change those behaviors you WOULD have done so by now. In fact, you’ve probably tried and tried in the past and ended up disappointed and frustrated with yourself and/or your family members.

The HCTI System, however, shows you how to change your HOUSE, often in creative and clever ways, so that behaviors are no longer an issue. By adapting the ENVIRONMENT to compensate for and/or eliminate the BEHAVIOR, your house will stay clean longer and with less effort than you ever imagined.

Finally , my system shows you how to maintain lasting change- again, not by forcing you to develop new habits or behaviors, but by anticipating and circumventing your natural inclinations toward mess from now on.

If you follow the system from beginning to end, faithfully doing each step, when you are finished your house will stay cleaner day by day and your cleaning routine will be faster and more efficient than ever before. Best of all, these things will happen in a way that at times feels so effortless you’ll think your house really is cleaning itself!"

This is our journey, and I'm going to take you along for the ride to see if it works for two truly messy humans and two messy dogs.

Keep an eye on us along the way...