I love a clean house, but I hate giving away the ridiculous amount of time it takes to get there. I like things to be neat and organized, and I don’t want to have crusty food on the table or crumbs all over the floor. With three kids, it can seem like nothing is ever clean, and I often want to throw in the towel and give up trying.
However, with a few simple strategies, it is possible to have a clean home in less time.
Are you one of those people that cleans on a certain day or time of the week? When I was single and also when I was first married, I would spend several hours on Saturday morning cleaning. Everything got done then: the bathroom, the kitchen, the floors, dusting, etc.
After T-Rex was born, I struggled to keep up with the routine and standards I had maintained for years. Three or four hours on a Saturday morning was not something I had to give anymore.
Teach your children to clean up their own toys (age appropriately) and, in turn, to be a good steward of the things they have.
Shortly before Screech was born, I discovered Stephanie O’Dea’s Daily 7. You may know Stephanie from Crockpot 365, a challenge to use her slow cooker every day for an entire year. Awesome – but I’ll have to save my Crockpot love for another day.
Stephanie’s Daily 7 (based on the The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey) rocked my world. I loved the idea of having little tasks to do every day so that the house stayed pretty clean the whole week through. Why not clean the bathroom while you are already there supervising little boys in the shower? Why not take the extra five seconds to put your dish straight in the dishwasher instead of leaving it on the counter or in the sink?
We don’t have a dishwasher – at least not the kind you plug in! We have to keep things clean because that 19″ of counter space you see is all we’ve got.
The concept seems so simple – and, it is – but putting it into practice made a huge impact on my household productivity, not to mention my stress level.
The boys love to help by pushing the buttons on the washing machine.
In trying to make this Daily 7 idea work for me, I realized that not all of her 7 fit my situation, my home, or my personality, so I came up with my own version. I encourage you to make your own list as well based on the particular needs of your family and living space. Here are mine:
- Clean up after yourself and help children do the same. Duh, but a great reminder. Be an example – your kids are watching! Help them to accomplish what you eventually want them to do on their own.
- Make beds right away. If you don’t already do this, make it a habit. And, along the lines of #1, this is a chore that even very young children can learn to do. It makes a huge difference in the appearance of your home.
- Wipe down bathrooms. When you’re in the shower, scrub it. When you’re waiting for the kids to finish their bath or shower, give the rest of the bathroom a quick clean.
- Do a quick clean up before naps and bedtime. Less toys scattered about the house means more focus for me during downtime and at night.
- Keep the kitchen sink empty. Put your dishes straight in the dishwasher. It’s an extra 5 seconds, but the aesthetic payoff is huge. If you don’t have a dishwasher (I don’t in Germany), try to wash the dishes right away and stack them in the drying rack instead of leaving them on the counter.
- Vacuum the entryway and around the dining table. These are the areas most prone to debris, and you can eliminate that dirty house vibe with a quick swipe of the Hoover.
- Wipe down dining table and kitchen counter. Simple, but highly effective.
By now, you may be thinking, this sounds GREAT! But, what about the rest of the house? I can’t just vacuum the entry way and under the table. Eventually the rest of the floors are going to get pretty grody.
Before we bought a dryer, I had to wash one load of laundry per day in order to give it time to dry on the rack.
What works for me is to do one or two “big” chores every day. Here’s what that looks like in my house:
- Monday – Grocery shop, put away food, quickly organize fridge and pantry.
- Tuesday – Wash sheets and towels. Dry and either fold or put back in their places. We only have one set of bath towels, so I just hang them back up after they’re dry.
- Wednesday – Vacuum and mop. Beat or wash rugs.
- Thursday – Sort and pre-treat laundry. Dust house.
- Friday – Wash and dry laundry. Meal plan for the upcoming week.
- Saturday – Fold and put away laundry (can also be done on Friday night while watching a movie).
I don’t have to clean the bathroom or wipe down the kitchen because that’s done daily. The kids pick up their own toys, and the bedrooms look neat because the comforters and pillows are in place. This leaves more time for hanging out together, taking care of other priorities, and – of course – traveling on the weekends.
We do the German thing and use a brush to clean up under the table, but if you have a Dust Buster, I’d recommend using that instead!
You may have noticed I don’t do a Martha Stewart job on my house. You’ll never see me cleaning my light fixtures with a Q-tip. My home is meant to be lived in, not shown off. But, I’ll concede – every now and again the house needs a bit more than the above routine. So, twice a year we do a “deep clean” in our home.
This little helper is cleaning his own kitchen!
Most people do spring cleaning. I prefer to do a late winter cleaning because it takes me several Saturdays to accomplish such a formidable task. I’d rather be stuck inside scrubbing on a dreary, cold day than a beautiful, warm, sunny one. We also do a fall cleaning once the chilly rains begin in late October, again because there’s no advantage to traveling then.
We use our Saturdays for deep cleaning because, truthfully, there just isn’t time during the week. And, now that the boys are a little older, we can give them easy tasks to keep them occupied and help us out.
I compiled a list of items to be completed as part of the deep clean, and I filed it in my Household Notebook. I am not publishing it here because it’s specific to my apartment, and you probably wouldn’t get much use out of it. But here are several links to exhaustive deep clean lists that are extremely helpful when making your own deep clean checklist:
- Imperfect Homemaking: A Thorough Spring Cleaning Checklist
- Chronicles of a Babywise Mom: Deep Cleaning List
- Buttoned Up: Printable Spring Cleaning Checklist with suggestions for how kids can help (grouped by age) and little customizable tear-off lists for them.
- Buttoned Up: Printable Fall Cleaning Checklist same as above but a slightly different version for fall.
We’re midway through this year’s late winter cleaning, and we should be finished by the time the sun decides to show its face. Then, we’ll have plenty of time for exploring all that Germany and the surrounding countries have to offer, and a clean home where we can return and relax after our adventures.
Have you implemented any of these cleaning strategies? Any tips that I may have left out?
Thrifty Travel Mama 