Cleaning your home is a never-ending chore. Whether you enjoy making everything look brand new and shiny on a near-constant basis or you detest it with a passion, the truth is, it’s something you need to do frequently. But with a busy lifestyle, it can sometimes feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to keep on top of everything.
This is where uncovering tips that can help you manage everything is a good idea. And this post has some ideas that might be of use to you.
Stop Trying to Clean the Whole House in One Go
If you’re always designating one full day a week to cleaning, the task at hand is always going to feel huge. You’ll go into it with good intentions, but likely end up regretting or resenting it before you get too far along. And this isn’t going to work for everyone in the long run.
Instead, try breaking the house down into sections you can tackle on a daily basis. Spread the cleaning out over a few days of the week. Of course, you have your daily tasks like laundry or washing the dishes that need doing, but other tasks that don’t need daily attention can be spread out into more manageable cleaning tasks that don’t feel like one never-ending chore list that eats into a whole day.
Dedicate a Cleaning Time
Consistency matters more here than intensity, and you need a more realistic cleaning schedule that works with your life, not makes you fight against it.
For some people, designating days and sections of the day to clean works best. For example, the bathroom gets cleaned every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings. Or they get done at a certain time of the day, three times a week.
If you need routine and structure to your life, adding cleaning to the set times you carry out other functions within your life can reduce the overwhelm, take away decision fatigue, and give you a clear starting point and help you get in, get it done, and tick it off faster.
Clean Each Room in the Same Order Each Time
Again, this is another habit that helps reduce decision fatigue and overwhelm. Find yourself a starting point, and for every single clean you do. It doesn’t matter what room you’re in, have a set, clean start point, an activity you do first to help everything else fall into place afterward, and kick off your chain.
You can start by the door and work your way into a room or work towards the door. You can start cleaning the kitchen by tidying the dishes by the sink, then moving to cleaning the countertops, for example. Or it might be that you wipe surfaces and dust before you vacuum. There is no set start point you need to follow, only what makes sense for you and what you need to clean.
Deal With Messes Instantly
This is a really simple but effective tip. If you’re guilty of putting things off, make a commitment to dealing with things like spills or wiping down counters after cooking immediately.
Don’t be tempted to let things build. Even small tasks completed in the moment they need to be done have a drastic impact on your overall volume of cleaning. And if you’re doing small things as they need doing, you’re not only removing the hard work, cleaning up a wet spill in the moment is much easier than cleaning a dried one a few hours later, you’re also breaking it down so you feel like you’re spending less time overall cleaning, as there are fewer things to take care of at once.
Keep Your Cleaning Kit Stocked
If you’re constantly turning on empty or you forget to restock your cleaning kit, then chances are when you do get around to cleaning, you won’t be able to start as you’re hunting for what you need, or you need to go and buy bits to get started. Which really is just adding to your to-do list.
Make it a priority to have everything you need to get started cleaning any room in one place. This could be a cupboard or a specific cleaning caddy that holds wipes, cloths, sprays, or anything else you need to clean up. You can have one set for the entire house or one per room; that’s entirely up to you.
At a minimum, have a good multipurpose spray to hand in your kit, a good cloth or sponge, a microfibre cloth or duster, and a mop cover. From here, you can add any other tools or cleaning products you find to help you get things back to a good, clean condition around your home.
Clean in Short Timed Bursts
If the thought of cleaning for hours fills you with dread, why not gamify it? Set yourself challenges that are time-based and see if you can beat the clock. What can you do while you’re waiting for something to cook? Can you fit in a quick cleaning spree before the washing machine finishes its cycle, or can you put away the kids’ toys while you wait for the dishwasher to finish before putting everything away?
The more fun you make it for yourself, the easier it will be.
But remember, you don’t want these time bursts to be too long; you want to keep a quick session to keep interest tight and fight off boredom and fatigue.
Use Professional Services
Knowing the value of bringing in professional cleaning services like Dust B Gone can be really beneficial. You need to look at either the tasks that take up all of your time or the ones you are doing the most and use a professional service to carry them out for you.
You can book a clean on a regular basis, once a week or month, or you can use them periodically throughout the year for bigger cleans, i.e., a deep clean of a certain room or the entire house. But knowing you can call in people to do this for you even once or twice a year can be a big help in keeping things under control and your home looking and feeling good all year round.
