30 Minutes a Day to Keep a Spotless House
Who among us hasn’t wished for more time? You know, 25 hours in a day instead of 24; eight days in a week instead of seven? There is never enough time in a day, right?
It is without exception that life just seems to get busier and busier. From the time our feet hit the floor first thing in the morning, we never stop until our head hits the pillow at the end of a too short day! Between work, school, sports, cooking and carving out some family time, the house often gets ignored.
It may seem an impossible task to keep the house clean and organized; however, by applying the following steps, you can find more time on the weekends to spend it with the ones you love the most without sacrificing the needs of your house. Keep in mind as you go through the rest of this article: it is meant to be a basic outline; you are free to rearrange it as it fits your unique situation. We won’t start at the beginning of the day here; it will begin with right after dinner.
At the end of the meal, have everyone bring their dishes to the kitchen sink for rinsing before placing them in the dishwasher. If you don’t have a dishwasher (or that ‘dishwasher’ is you!) consider having a family member share dishwashing duties with you. It can be a great time to talk over the day’s events and, before you know it, the kitchen is clean and the dishes are put away, ready to be used for breakfast.
It is much more pleasant to start the day facing a clean kitchen than a sink full of dirty dishes, right? As most families are aware, the kitchen is often ‘Grand Central Station’ and, as the kitchen goes, so goes the rest of the house. When walking into a kitchen that is clean and organized, you can experience a much brighter start to your soon to be busy day.
Instead of a sink full of unwashed dishes with the food stains dried to a rock hard status and the counters all messy and covered with last night’s ‘menu’, you feel clean and refreshed, knowing that you won’t have that mess waiting for you later in the too short day. By cleaning up at the end of each day and not putting it off until the pile is to the ceiling or the weekend, you will have more weekend time to spend with the family.
Having this as an example, consider the following recommendation for a daily schedule and assigning tasks to family members that are age appropriate:
- Monday: Vacuum the entire house by splitting up sections of the house to all family members.
- Tuesday: Sweep and mop (you may have to do this yourself at first)
- Wednesday: Clean the bathrooms; disinfectant wipes help make this task much easier. (You can do the "heavy duty" cleaning once a month)
- Thursday: Dust - A feather duster or dust trapping cloth works great for weekly cleaning.
- Friday: Anything else that hasn't been done; or, if you are up to date, take the night off!
Once a month you can do the "heavy cleaning" such as the blinds, window sills, polishing, etc. This should only take an hour or two depending on the size of your home and the amount of ‘help’ you can get.
Some other suggestions might include:
Break down your laundry as well. The size of your family and amount of laundry you have will determine the best way to do this.
Monday through Thursday, as soon as you get home, put a load of laundry in the washing machine (as needed). Then, go about your usual routine of cleaning and cooking. It's easy to get these other things out of the way while your dinner is baking. As soon as the washer stops, put the clothes into the dryer.
Later, while watching TV or whatever your routine is, fold the laundry and put it away. This will add maybe 10 minutes of time to your daily chores.
As a result of applying the above ‘weekly chore list’ and adjusting it to fit your particular situation and needs, your home should stay nice and tidy all week long - as long as everyone picks up after themselves that is! Then you will have the weekend to enjoy life with the family!
However you choose to approach your needs to keep your house neat and clean, and realize the payback by having more time to spend with the ones you love, you will be glad you finally started to create your own ‘extra’ hour or day to your busy lifestyle.
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Tags:clean house,getting organized,keeping house clean,keeping house neatRelated posts
Tags: clean house, getting organized, keeping house clean, keeping house neat
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[...] to stress out in an embarrassingly cluttered environment because you’re too overwhelmed to even know where to start. Now, go ahead – set that timer!SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Household Organization: It Spells [...]