So far in this series, we've conquered the bathroom, the bedroom and the kitchen. These are three major areas of your home that make or break your feeling of "clean" and calm in your home--contributing to your overall sense of peace and order. As you work through these tips you are undoubtedly discovering that much like healthy eating, maintaining clean is a mindset and a lifestyle.

In this article, we'll look at tasks that can be done with "found opportunities". Hopefully these articles and the following tips are training you to find opportunities for cleaning in your life.

Let's talk about "found opportunities"... This refers to any time that you are doing something that doesn't require your direct and undivided attention, or times that you are in the process of going from one place to another and can transport items that need to be moved or put away.

Talking on the phone is a time stealer when it comes to cleaning and there are plenty of things you can be doing while chatting on the phone:

* Dusting (even a tiny area)
* Loading or unloading a dishwasher; or hand-washing, hand-drying and putting away dishes
* Sweeping or swiffing the floors and entryways
* Clearing and cleaning countertops
* Cleaning the bathroom (even one piece of the bathroom--especially the sink)
* Change hand towels
* Change tablecloth
* Wipe down appliances
* Washing windows
* Watering plants

While waiting for things to cook inside or outside, look at the immediate area and find one small task to improve the appearance. Your best bet is to focus on something related to the cooking--like rinsing dishes or containers that were used in preparing your meal. Often I'm able to have nearly all of my food preparation dishes cleaned when I sit down to a meal. And cleaning them sooner means that the foods haven't dried onto the dishes--so it's usually as easy as rinsing, swiping with a soapy sponge for a minute, and then rinsing.

If you're waiting for laundry that is JUST about done, wipe down your washer and dryer. Clean the area where your detergents are stored (ick!). Wipe around the base of these appliances or use a broom to try to sweep any space between them (or between the appliance and the wall). Sort any remaining laundry and turn it right-side out (or whichever way you prefer to clean it).

When you're working on the computer or studying, take a break and refresh yourself by getting up and doing a small cleaning task. It will get you moving and the small amount of effort gets your body going again--so you return more alert than you were before.

In our home, we never leave a room without checking to see if there is anything we can remove from that room. In fact, my husband has now assigned a specific "pickup" location for items that come into our bedroom. Anything that needs to be removed from the bedroom (usually a glass) goes on the bathroom vanity and we both know to look there when we leave the room. Some families have a basket on their staircase that serves the same purpose.

These things take time to become habits. They will require active thought for about 6 weeks and then you will be so accustomed to doing it that it won't even feel like work anymore. When creating similar habits in children, remember that you will need to micro-manage them for approximately one month before you can relax and simply start reminding them. It sounds very overwhelming, but it's really not. And it may not take a full month if it's a task that happens multiple times each day. For instance: taking their bookbag up to their room each day upon returning home from school may take 4-6 weeks. Taking things from the room they are in en route to wherever they are going happens several times each day and may only require 2 weeks of constant supervision and reminding. But afterward, you have many years of "living a clean life"--both while they are at home, and for themselves as adults.

Don't try to take on too many new habits at a time. Try one for a week or two and if you find yourself doing the new task regularly without having to think about it, you're ready to move on. Taking on too much at a time will do nothing productive--you'll be asking more of yourself than you are capable of and of course, it won't work and you'll think that you're just not capable of being clean. It's tempting to take your initial motivation and try to effect a major overhaul of your lifestyle, but you are essentially breaking habits that are decades old. You lived your life the "other" way until now and that is a lot of years. If it were that easy to change it quickly, everyone would. Give yourself the time you need to build strong routines and habits. Remember: you have motivation now, but you have to sustain these things for at least a month for them to become part of your life.