Easy Cleaning Hacks for Those Juggling Work, Family, and Caregiving
Collaborative Post
When we have busy schedules, it can be easy to put cleaning on the back burner. However, as many of us probably know, doing this often makes the situation worse, and seeing a messy home can create a lot of stress and anxiety.
Luckily, there are plenty of easy cleaning hacks to keep housework under control and balanced against everything else you have going on. Here are some of our top tips if you don’t have cleaners Birmingham.
Easy Cleaning Hacks for Busy People
Do Daily Cleaning Blasts
If possible, aim to do 10-15 minutes of cleaning every day. This might sound like an awful idea, but breaking it up like this at least helps you stay on top of surface mess. For example, it could be something as simple as giving the kitchen a tidy and a wipe down, or cleaning some of the bathroom.
Break Up Larger Cleaning Jobs
Rather than treating a room as a whole cleaning job, break it up into smaller, more manageable parts. In the bathroom, this might be cleaning the sink, toilet, bath, shower, etc.
Look at each room and figure out what jobs it involves to be classed as clean. Write them all down in a list and then prioritise them. Once you’ve done that, figure out which jobs make sense to be done in one hit, such as dusting downstairs or hoovering. These are jobs where it might be more hassle to get the stuff out every time you need to do a single room.
Write Up a Rota
It helps to have a defined rota for when things can be done. For example, you might do all the hoovering at the weekend when you have more time, or give the bathroom a quick once over after the kids have gone to bed.
Of course, you should get other people involved as much as possible. If your partner can cook one evening, you could use this time to do a more involved cleaning job. Use the priority list you’ve written to help figure out what needs cleaning and when.
Clean as You Go
Cleaning as you go along is an easy way to manage jobs and make them feel far smaller than they are. For starters, aim to never leave a room empty handed because this helps you deal with clutter before it gets too bad.
Other tips include spraying down a surface in the kitchen while you do another job, or spraying and wiping down the toilet while you get ready for bed. Look at what jobs you can squeeze in while you’re doing something else and you’ll barely notice you’re doing them!
Prevent Your Kids from Being Tornados
Often, kids are one of the biggest sources of mess in our homes. The solution? Cut the problem off at the source. If toys are usually a problem, limit them to one box at a time. Ensure that box is put away before the next one comes out, and so on.
It might take a little while to instil this behaviour in them, but persistence pays off. You might need to also implement a rewards system to motivate them depending on how easily they pick up on the rules.
Make Sure Things Have Homes
In order to properly put things away, they need to have homes. Decluttering might be necessary to achieve this, so factor that into your tidying process where possible. You don’t need to have clearly defined storage for every single thing you own, though.
For example, just make sure everyone knows where shoes live, that you have enough storage boxes for kids’ stuff, and that everyday items like TV remotes have places to live. This’ll ensure that when you need to do a quick tidy, it will actually be a quick process.
Have Plenty of Mats
If there are obvious areas in your home that get messy, put a mat on the floor! You can then pick these up, shake them outside, and throw them in the washing machine. The places where this makes the most sense include the front door, the living room, and under the dining table. It should minimise hoovering and keep your floor much cleaner.
Final Thoughts
Reducing the stress of cleaning involves making things as easy as possible for yourself. The tips above should help with this by allowing you to fit cleaning in around everything else you do.
Photo by Josue Michel on Unsplash