Becky Rapinchuk - Simply Clean: The Proven Method for Keeping Your Home Organized, Clean, and Beautiful in Just 10 Minutes a Day

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Also by Becky Rapinchuk

The Organically Clean Home

TOUCHSTONE

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Copyright 2017 by Becky Rapinchuk

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Touchstone Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Touchstone trade paperback edition March 2017

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Interior design by Erich Hobbing

Cover design by Jess Spataro

Cover photograph by Hulya Kolabas

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Rapinchuk, Becky, author.

Title: Simply clean / Becky Rapinchuk.

Description: New York : Touchstone, [2017]

Identifiers: LCCN 2016055720 (print) | LCCN 2016057997 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501158797 (trade paper) | ISBN 9781501158803 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501158803 (Ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: House cleaning. | Orderliness.

Classification: LCC TX324 .R373 2017 (print) | LCC TX324 (ebook) | DDC 648/.5dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016055720

ISBN 978-1-5011-5879-7

ISBN 978-1-5011-5880-3 (ebook)

To my husband and kiddostheres no one else Id rather do this life with, messes and all

W hat if I told you that you could spend just 10 minutes a day on cleaning and organizing and youd have a serene home all week long? That those mundane tasks like laundry and loading the dishwasher could become effortless? That you could become one of those people who welcomes unexpected visitors, because you know your space always looks tidy?

Well, its true. I can show you how to turn cleaning into an easy, stress-free activity that can be done in just 10 minutes a day. In fact, I can even show you how to enjoy cleaning. Because yes, cleaning can be relaxing, and it can be fun!

If youre feeling overwhelmed and dont know where to start, forget everything you thought you knew about keeping a clean house. Its perfectly normal to loathe or resent cleaning. Youve let it control your life, and youve set it on a reactive mode instead of an automatic mode. Lets change that!

Homekeeping is a learned behavior. During the past eight years I have coached millions of readers through my online community, Clean Mama. The questions and emails I receive on a daily basis are proof positive that an overwhelming number of people dont know how to keep a home clean and maintained. And I get that! No one is born knowing how to get water rings off of furniture or the easiest way to clean a slipcover. In these pages, I will show you where to start and how to keep a clean homesimply and easily.

I first established this routine when I was an art teacher. I picked up quite a few odd jobs, one of which was cleaning my fellow teachers houses after school. I found an odd satisfaction in cleaning other peoples homes, and it was fun to experiment with different techniques and try the products they used. I assumed that it would be just this easy and fun to keep my own home clean when I had one. Little did I know, cleaning your own home isnt nearly as easy (or fun) as cleaning someone elses. When cleaning someone elses house, you have laser focus and you get in, do the job, and get out. When cleaning your own home there are distractions and traps to fall into. For instance, you decide to clean the kitchen. Youre just getting started and the phone rings. The phone call derails your kitchen cleaning and youve lost track of time and now its time for dinner. Theres a pile of things to go through and you put it off until another day. Focus is essential to cleaningI didnt realize this right away but youll see how this mindset makes sense moving forward.

When my husband and I were first married, we had the most darling little apartment. It was a one bedroom, small, and just right. Despite its size, I still found it difficult to keep up with everything that had to be done while being gone every day at work. It was during this time when I was sick of cleaning and doing laundry over the weekend that I started to develop a simplified approach to cleaning.

I did my own market research, asking family and friends how they structured chores and housekeeping while reading up on how different people approached keeping a clean house. It seemed like most people cleaned all weekend and resented it. Some talked about things like washing day and market day and house cleaning day. This resonated with me. I liked the nostalgic approach, but the tasks didnt really work for me. I tried cleaning the apartment all at once and tidying during the week. This was great when it was clean but if we were extra busy or someone got sick, the place fell apart quickly. Next I tried assigning specific tasks to days and setting a timer to see if I could clean more quickly or just as well working a little differently. This was better, but I still had laundry piling up because I was doing laundry once during the week. It was just my husband and me, but I didnt always get it all put away. (Ive always been a laundry procrastinator.) Determined to figure this cleaning routine thing out, I kept switching things around and trying different approaches until I finally got into a groove and our darling apartment sparkled most of the time. I was relieved and so excited that I could keep our home clean all week long. Laundry, a spotless kitchen, clean floors, and a clean bathroom were pretty much all I had to concentrate on, but it worked and I felt like I had conquered the homekeeping world. Ha!