Let’s face it. It’s been a long day. Okay, it’s been a long week. The house is starting to look a bit like a natural disaster hit, and you have about zero energy left to tackle it after running the kids to practices, school, tryouts, friends’ houses, basically everywhere constantly. The living room is covered in toddler toys and a weird sticky substance is waiting for you on the serving tray. The kitchen has a few dishes in the sink, a few on the counter, and an overflowing garbage can that probably has a few dishes in it, too.
It’s time to get the upper hand here. Let’s take a look at 5 cleaning tips to help get, and remain, on top of a dirty house.
1. Cleaning tips to get your kids to help
Just about 99% of the time, it is so much easier not to get the kids to help clean. If they are out of the house, you have time to actually focus on the house and vacuum, dust, etc. When they are in the house, you have enough time to try and get them to stop fighting before it’s time to make dinner and admit defeat for one more day.
There is a way around this. Assign one chore to each child, each day. Make their allowance contingent on completion of said chore and make a checklist for them all to keep track themselves. Of course, you also have to ensure they really are doing what they say, but with a tracker and daily chore list, you will soon have an extra 2-3 minutes where you have nothing to do. That will raise the total from zero minutes to 2-3. That’s a great start!
2. Clean as you cook
Kitchen messes can start to get the better of you pretty quickly. Before you start to cook, unload the dishwasher so there is room to place anything from dinner straight in, and you will find that you have a few more minutes each night where you aren’t doing dishes. It is a real win.
Photo by Matt Benson on Unsplash
3. Vacuuming the house
Instead of vacuuming the entire house every day, do 1-2 rooms, or a floor if you live in a townhome. That will give you time to focus on other chores, and you aren’t trying to clean the entire house at once.
4. Laundry cleaning tips
Don’t wait for the weekend to do several loads. Spread it out a little during the week if you know you can get it done while cleaning the bathrooms or vacuuming. Make sure you fold right away out of the dryer and enlist the kids to put away their own clothes. Again, threaten with allowance.
5. Use an old sock to wash your blinds
Remember making sock puppets when you were a kid? It is essentially the same idea, but without the googly eyes. Just pull the sock over your hand and use it to clean both sides of the blinds at the same time. It will save you time and do a great job along the way.
Hopefully, these steps help make your day a little less stressful and get you moving toward a clean home.