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Cleaning & Gardening

Saucha is the first tenant of niyama, or what I classify as the first principle within the Bhakti Yoga. In the morning I spend about an hour cleaning after breakfast. The reason for this is to make the house a temple. Cleaning the house, ensuring that everything is tip top.

After the morning routine of purifying the mind the next step is purifying the home and making it a place for the divine to dwell. Before starting work it is important to get the house in order.

Continuous deep cleaning makes it such that you don't have to spend a whole day cleaning. It simplifies individual cleaning day not as bad. If I clean everyday then I am not overwhelmed.

The order I follow is:

  1. Prayer
  2. List of Cleaning Tasks
  3. Clean Kitchen
  4. Room Cleaning
  5. Household Chores
  6. Cars
  7. Gardening

Things to do:

  • Make a note of places that are dirty or disorganized and need cleaning or fixing up. Make a list of these daily.
    • Dust
    • Dirty floors
    • Things not put away
    • Things to sell
    • Things to get rid of
    • Toys
    • Weeds
  • Find the dirtiest thing and clean that first.
  • Have a routine to clean the same things on certain days every week. For example, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, mopping, laundry.

Lastly, gardening. Gardening is a form of cleaning a way of tending to a bigger goal of making your home a temple. Gardening should involve weeding and figuring out how to clean your yard as well.

Lastly, not everything can be done within the cleaning time so it may be important to schedule some things as bigger tasks.

Cleaning​

Rooms​

I divide the cleaning of the house into different rooms so that I can focus on one set of rooms at a time. This way I can clean the specific areas and not get overwhelmed by the whole house. Once I am done with one room the next day I do the next room and so on. This way every room is cleaned once a week.

  • Living Room & Dining Room.
    • Organize bookshelf
    • Organize mail
    • Put away toys
    • Cobwebs
    • Dust surfaces
    • Dust above windows
    • Vacuum under mats
    • Vacuum furniture
  • Front Bedroom, Hall & Bathroom, Kid Room.
    • Dust surfaces
    • Vacuum under mats
    • Vacuum furniture
    • Cobwebs
  • Back Bedroom, Back Hall, Bathroom.
  • Front Porch, Mudroom, Side of House.
    • Cobwebs
    • Organize Shoes
  • Kitchen & Office.
  • Toilets, Sinks, Showers.
  • Garage.

Household Chores​

  • Bedsheets
  • Laundry
  • Fridge