It’s 6 A.M. Your alarm clock just went off, and it’s time to get ready for work. You get out of bed to turn the light switch on when – bam – you step on your son’s Lego. While you’re still in seething pain, you keep walking only to hit your shin on your daughter’s softball bat. Each step to get to the light switch is a disaster. You swore that you were going to take the time to clean up with your kids yesterday, but it keeps getting pushed. House cleaning is becoming a burden and now you’re stuck with seven new bruises and a few broken toys.
People live in this pattern every day. Life gets busy and things get pushed.
But, one thing that should never get pushed is housekeeping. Having a clean home is important to the upkeep of your home, the health of your family, and your own sanity.
So, if you’re looking for some guidance on your home cleaning techniques, keep reading. We’ve lined up our top tips for keeping your house clean even when it seems like there’s no time.
1. Make Your Bed First
It may not be the first thing on your to-do list, but making the bed changes the vibe in your room. The bed is the central piece of the bedroom, and it’s the first thing people look at upon entering the room.
So, by making the bed, you’re improving the look of your room as a whole.
If you have children, it’s important to include this as one of their responsibilities. It takes one minute, and they can do it when they first wake up in the morning.
It’s a quick and easy way to make the bedrooms look better. And, it may give younger children a sense of pride. Even if it’s not perfect, their rooms will look so much better.
2. Divide the Laundry Throughout the Week
Unless you’re a powerhouse when it comes to laundry, you likely end up pushing it until you just can’t push it anymore. Some people designate one day to do laundry, but we find that dividing the load throughout the week works better for busy families.
For example, if you do seven loads of laundry a week, you should do one load per day.
If you can, you should load your wash in the morning. If you can’t move the clothes over to the dryer before you leave for work, you should start the washer when you get home. Clicking a few buttons will feel like a relief after a long day at work, and you’ll thank yourself for already having put the clothes in the washer that morning.
3. Start a Nightly Cleaning Routine
Cleaning can be very soothing, especially right before bed. Before your kids sneak up to their bedrooms, you should call a 15-minute cleaning burst for the entire family.
Play some music and make cleaning fun.
Get the whole family cleaning for 15 minutes at the end of the day. They can take the trash out, clean up dishes, pick up toys, and more. Even if they’re upstairs cleaning their rooms, they’re contributing to the overall wellness of the home.
When everyone is working together, the task doesn’t seem so hard. And, you may notice that some days will only take five or ten minutes.
4. Focus on High-Traffic Areas
Places like the living room and kitchen could set the entire tone for your home. So, keeping these places clean may radiate to the rest of your home. This is not to mention that keeping the floors clean in these areas will reduce the amount of dirt tracked into other areas of the home.
You may want to keep shoes by the door or vacuum at the end of each day.
5. Declutter and Minimize
Decluttering may take a long time, but it will completely change the feeling inside your home. Even if a space is clean, it can still be cluttered. So, it’s important to know the difference.
Cluttered spaces tend to be the opposite of minimalistic. Cluttered rooms have a bunch of things on surfaces, while minimalistic spaces have clean surfaces with few things on top.
A clean countertop or coffee table will completely transform a room. And, it can make a clean space look spotless.
6. Maintain Each Space
Over time, you’ll begin to catch up on the cleaning process. Your home may not be perfect, but you’ll eventually get to the point of maintenance.
Maintaining clean spaces is the most important piece of housekeeping. You can clean once a month every month, but daily maintenance is what really keeps the home together.
A recurring cleaning routine looks like wiping down the counters after dinner, picking up toys before bedtime, making the bed in the morning, and putting away laundry after the kids go to bed.
Maintenance is the collection of daily acts of cleaning and organizing that keep your home together. And, if you don’t perform this kind of home maintenance, you’ll notice the clutter and dirt accumulating again.
It’s important to note that you should still have a monthly cleaning day where you deep clean spaces in your home. Deep cleaning is important for removing the built-in dirt and grime.
But, maintenance will make cleaning day much easier. And, it’ll ease your everyday anxiety while you’re in the home.
Bonus Tip: Hire Professional Cleaning Services
If you follow these tips and you’re still underwater, you need to hire professional cleaning services. It’s okay to ask for help, especially if you’re overworking yourself trying to keep your home clean.
Whether you’re looking for a deep clean or maintenance clean, our team here at Kathleen’s Cleaning Service can handle it. Then, you’ll have more time to do the things that you enjoy.
So, what are you waiting for? If house cleaning isn’t fitting into your busy schedule, it’s okay.
That just means that it’s time to hire house cleaners that do this for a living. Your home and your family will thank you.