OK, so we all have crazy busy lives and lets face it, we would much rather be doing something else other than cleaning the house. Each individual situation will differ but we all work and take care of our family and home. But no one would rather stay home cleaning the house when you could be enjoying quality family time or having fun going to the beach or doing what you love.
Now, I am not talking about spring-cleaning or deep cleaning your house. You can leave the nitty-gritty, deep cleaning to HouseMaids. This is about day-to-day maintenance in between the deep cleaning. Here are some easy, time saving tips for you to have a clean and well-organized house that is ready for company at a moments notice.
You can clean a bathroom in minutes. You do not have to have a toothbrush in hand and scrub all the floor grout perfectly clean. Simply wipe down the counter, mirror, and sanitize the toilet.
Depending on the size of your house, you can spot vacuum in 15-20 minutes. If you feel the need to vacuum daily – you may have to let it go. If you have a larger house and have different types of flooring throughout, you could separate the vacuuming task into carpet one day and tile/wood floors another day. If you have a dog it may help to keep Fido off of your furniture. You could even assign him a designated spot to sleep in so the fur stays in one place.
Even the kitchen could be spot-cleaned within minutes. First clean any dishes. Then simply wipe down the counter-tops, stove-top, sink, and make sure no clutter is left out on the counter-tops.
It’s best to sit down and make up your weekly spot-cleaning schedule and put it on your fridge. It will help you stay organized and be more accountable. You will have something visual to keep you on track and you will feel more accomplished by checking things off of your checklist.
Download our Daily Spot-Cleaning Checklist here
Another obvious way to keep your house clean and organized is to clean as you go. When you pull out all your ingredients to cook, put them away once the dish is in the oven. Use up any time you have – wash dishes while you wait for the meal to be done. You can teach your kids this skill too. For example, teach them to put a toy away before taking another one out. Don’t leave things lying around and develop into unsightly clutter. Put things away as soon as you’re finished – if you’re done reading a book or magazine put it in its proper spot. Your children will see this and learn by example too.
Another tip to help you stick to your cleaning schedule is to NOT clean up after your family. Do not unable your spouse or children by constantly cleaning up after them. If your child spills a cup of juice this could be an opportunity for him or her to start learning responsibility by cleaning it up him or herself. Or if your husband tracks mud on the floor have him wipe up his mud tracks. Now, there will of course be exceptions, like cleaning up broken glass instead of having your young child do it. And this doesn’t mean you can’t show them how or help them in certain situations. But for the most part this will work and make your life so much easier!
There will be days you won’t have time to get to your assigned “chore” – you may have a sick child to take care of, a work emergency, etc. Things come up, that’s life, and it’s perfectly OK! Just skip that chore and do it the next week. Or you can shuffle the order you do your chores that week, and make sure the most important ones get done. It won’t hurt your house for one week to skip something. No one, most likely, will even notice.
Keep in mind you may not be able to do just fifteen minutes of cleaning a day. If your house is bigger it may take about 20-25 minutes a day but you can still do one chore per day. As your kids grow or however your life may change, your schedule will need to change and become more flexible too.
I hope that you picked out at least one or two helpful ways to maintain your clean house. Hopefully you’ve even gotten others (your kids or spouse) on board with helping keep your house clean. Remember, it’s not about having a perfectly immaculate house. Instead, it’s about you always being able to have an open door when it comes to having company over and making them feel comfortable in your home.
I do NOT spend a lot of time slaving away when it comes to cleaning my house, despite what others may think. I simply keep up with my 15 minutes of cleaning a day; in between the deep cleaning that HouseMaids takes care of for me.
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