Bathroom plan is 'Swish and Swipe'

It all starts with that shiny sink. This feeling is contagious. When you walk into you kitchen, I want you to smile. I want peace to open up its arms and hug you when you walk in the door.

I know you can't see the importance of shining your sink when the rest of the house is overwhelming you! But you have to start someplace, and this is where I started.

Go shine your sink and practice keeping it shining. When you do this, the dishwasher will get emptied, because you need a place to put your dirty dishes. You can't put them in that clean and shiny sink after all. Then your counter tops get cleared because the sink is beautiful. Then the stove says "Clean me, too" and before you know it your whole kitchen is gleaming and all you really did was shine your sink. This doesn't happen all at once.

If we did it all at once we would crash and burn. You know how you used to clean your bathroom. We have all done this. We wait till we just could not stand it another day and then spend four hours trying to get rid of the crusted-on gunk. After we have pushed ourselves past our limit; we don't ever want to clean another bathroom and guess what? We don't! Crash and burn is the worst; all because we didn't take babysteps.

One morning I did an interview with a magazine. The reporter had done a story about us for her little magazine a few years ago. She told me that she had to clean her bathroom before she called me. She asked me how long it took me to scrub my tub. I told her 30 seconds, and she could not believe me.

I went on to explain our Bathroom Zone philosophy and "Swish and Swipe."

Every day when I was letting the water drain from the tub I would take my little bathtub scrubby ball and put some of my bath gel on it and wipe down one side. The next day I would do the other side. Then the third day I did the bottom of the tub at the front. On the fourth day I did the bottom at the back. On the fifth day I did the edge of the tub where I set my bath stuff.

Thirty seconds once a month when we are in this zone and while I am already in the tub is not too much to ask of yourself. You don't have to put on rubber gloves and wear a mask to clean your tub. It doesn't take harsh chemicals, either. It is the same soap you put on your body that makes the ring anyway. Soap is Soap! Soap cleans soap! All you have to do is focus on doing just a little every day, and your bathroom will never look and feel yucky! (If you are not going into your bathroom several times a day; it could mean that you are not drinking enough water.)

Each time you are in your bathroom put one thing away or throw something in the trash!

Survey the landscape to see what you could put away.

If you running out of toilet paper then let your "Do It Now" principle kick in!

Cleaning your bathroom doesn't have to be a recipe for "crash and burn." Take the babysteps each day and your bathroom will never seem that dirty again. Practice a "Swish and Swipe" each morning and you are going to smile every time you walk in there!

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For more help getting rid of your CHAOS; check out: www.flylady.net. Also see Cilley's book, "Sink Reflections" and her new book, "Body Clutter." Copyright 2006 Marla Cilley Used by permission in this publication.