Are you ready for a new dance? Most are this time of year. The dance I will be talking about today is ‘Crisis Cleaning’.

The extended family is coming to your home for the holidays. Most of us hold our breath in and afraid to let it out. We seem to panic when company is coming. Why? Peer pressure is probably the main issue.

We have all been here before. Some several times. The point is yes I need to do a ‘Crisis Clean’ and this time I will do it confidently. Why? Because I am giving you a step by step way to crisis clean hitting the high points of your home first that will help you get through this dance.

1. Get Dressed To Shoes – Before you do anything when it comes to the house, this is the most important step that helps you to begin. I could tell you all the reasons but that is for another time. Take faith and ‘Just Do It’.
2. Three Zones To Focus On – Bathroom, Kitchen and Living Room. This is where your guests will be spending their time. Do these three areas first and in this order.
3. Entry and Bedrooms – After the three zones are done.
4. Start with the Bathroom – We start with the bathroom. Why? Part of getting dressed to shoes will be spent in the bathroom. You are already here so let’s do the ‘Swish & Swipe’. It helps to give a bottle of Windex and some paper towels a home. Set them by the toilet bowl cleaner in the cabinet. Swish the toilet and swipe the mirrors and sink.
5. Kitchen – Lots of action will be taking place here!  Have you turned your dancing music on yet? ‘Do It Now’. If you have dishes in the sink and on the counter, move them aside. Empty the sink and fill it with hot water and some bleach. Let it soak. Grab a trash bag and begin to move from left to right and clockwise around the kitchen and get rid of trash. There is always plenty in the kitchen. This will free up some space.
6. Living Room – While the sink is soaking, move on to the living room with your trash bag and start tossing. Magazines and newspapers first, the rest next. Slip into the bathroom to look for trash there. This is the first ‘Cha’ of the Cha Cha Cha. We will take this bag and put it outside in the trash. This includes all trash cans in these areas as well. We have to ‘throw away’ before we can ‘give away’ and ‘put away’.  We are not going to be getting into detailed decluttering but if we see something that can be given away it is going into a box. Scan the three rooms quickly and without much thought. Whatever you collect take it to the car to be donated on your next errand day. Here comes the hardest. It is the ‘Put Away’ part of the crisis cleaning. It will be a challenge but can be done. Go to each of the top 3 rooms and gather like items to be picked up and put away in the general area it belongs. Do some light dusting in the living room.
7. Break Time! – Remember this is a crisis clean. We just want our homes presentable for a short period of time while having guests. If we have to ‘Stash n Dash’ so be it.  The only way one can keep it clean is by creating 9 habits to practice each day that take care of ourselves, our families and our home’. We crisis clean for 30 minutes, take a break for 15 minutes, repeat until done.
8. Back To The Kitchen – Scrub around the faucets and the faucet itself. You can also scrub around the edge of your sink. Drain you bleach water and next fill up one side of the sink with hot soapy water. It is time to do the dishes and get them done whether it is hand washing or putting them into the empty dishwasher. We cannot scrub our counters and appliances until we get rid of the dishes and anything else sitting out. If you are hand washing your dishes, as soon as you are done, move on to drying them and putting them away. This is crucial. It helps you get to the next step of wiping counters, cupboards and appliances down. Move from left to right, top to bottom and move clockwise around the room using your left hand to lift objects so you can wipe with your right hand. Continue to work around the room until you get back to the sink. Depending on how dirty the counters are you may have to back track to clean you dish cloth out and then go back to where you left off.
9. Floors, floors, floors – Vacuum all your floors if you can to pick up dirt and dust. Then mop the floors and you are done! If you have some free time touch up the entry and if you don’t have time for the bedrooms, you can always shut the door!

If you want to gain control so crisis cleaning isn’t an issue I invite you into my facebook group Marilyn’s Way where we practice Marilyn’s Way Dance Till You FLY! that involves 9 daily habits plus a weekly one for a specific day. Once we get comfortable with the first level we move on to the 2nd. It is monthly zone events for specific weeks. Finally the 3rd level is where we have our special events that last all month long in specific area certain times of the year to assist in maintaining your home. You can join by sending me a personal friend request at www.facebook.com/marilynkayfoster and I will add you to the group.