1: A Clean Home is a Blessing (and impossible to keep)

Just because you know how to vacuum and run the dishwasher, doesn't mean you know how to keep a clean house. It's hard work. This section will help you learn how to better do it in a Mom Approved! way

Once upon a time, a lot of us were cute, helpless babies. And cute, helpless babies are messy. And of course, babies can't clean up after themselves, so our mommies or daddies or whoever had to clean up after us. They wiped our faces, picked up our toys, and changed things that needed to be changed.

However; a lot of people; teenagers mostly, forget they are no longer cute and helpless. They have the ability to work fingers and feet now. Amazing. And sometimes, our mommies and daddies forget that we have that ability. I'm not talking about the right for you to borrow the car or the right for you to choose what you want to eat. I'm talking about cleaning. A lot of us don't know how to do; and it's often because our guardians don't force us to do it.

Now, I'm part of the "do your chores or you get nothing" group where mean ol' mom and dad made me learn how to scrub a toilet or I wouldn't get that sweet new video game I'd wanted. A lot of kids are, and a lot of kids aren't. It's fine. It's nothing to argue about; because you see: chores very rarely prepare you for having to do actual housework.

I'll say it again: CHORES ARE DIFFERENT THAN HOUSEWORK. 

You know how to sweep? Good. You can take care of the trash? Great! But those are very different things from, say, cleaning the mold out of the grout line in your bathtub. Or properly cleaning the dishwasher so everything you eat off of doesn't smell like the ghost of meals past. I've been there. It's pretty gross.

Now, there's no shame in not know how to really clean. It's rare if some kid does by the time they stumble out of the house. But, it's very important that you learn at least SOME of the tricks to housework and cleaning, or you're going to get mold and buggies before you can say "Swiffer Mop"

Cleaning is boring, but important! If you follow this section, you'll have a house clean enough to make even the strictest of mothers proud!