The secret to a clean house

In the process of trying to sell our house I have learned the secret to keeping my house clean. I am not normally a clean person. I like things to be clean and organized, but not enough to keep everything clean all the time. It has been 3 weeks since we put our house on the market and our house has pretty much been clean ever since. I am so proud of myself. So you are wondering what the secret is? Well there are a few steps.
1. Get rid of half the stuff you own.
I sold a ton of stuff on craigslist. There were things we had that we didn't use anymore and they were just taking up space. Not only did I make more room, but I made almost $500. I didn't sell half our stuff, but I sold a lot got rid of other stuff and packed up stuff that we will not need in the next few months.

2. Get you whole house clean at the same time.
This is the hard part. It seemed like if I was cleaning one part of the house the other parts were getting messed up, but there is nothing like your first shoing to motivate you to get your house all clean. We are not talking just clean at first glance. I cleaned everything. I vacuumed out the couches, I organizes the closets, and I made sure everything had a place even in the garage.

3. Keep it clean
After all that effort of getting the house clean and organized there was no way I wanted to stay up all night the night before another showing cleaning the house and I never now how much time they will give me. So I made a vow to keep it clean. I pick up as I go through out the day. When addi takes a nap the first thing I do is take 5 min and clean up any mess we made before I start on a project and speaking of projects I put one away before I start anther one (funny how we teach this to our children and then don't do it as adults). And I don't got to bed unless the house is all clean (most nights). It usally doesn't take very long since I clean up after myself as I go throughout the day. And since the house is all orginized and everything has a place it is quick and easy.

So I know it has only been 3 weeks, but that is about 2 weeks and 5 days longer than I have ever kept our house clean before. It is so nice to wake up to a clean house it just makes your day go better and then I have more time to do the things I enjoy when my baby is asleep. I think my husband enjoys it and I know he enjoys that I cook dinner more since our kitchen is clean. Three weeks ago if someone had dropped over unexpectedly I would have been very embarresed, but now drop by all you want. My house is not spotless all the time but it is usally nothing that can't be picked up in less than 10 min like Addi's toys. Here is some pictures of our clean house just to prove I can have a clean house and hopefully this will become a habit and I can countinue it even after we sell our house and move.