How To Keep Your Home Super Clean With Just 1 Hour A Day
For many of us, life just keeps getting busier and busier.
Between working full time, running a family, keeping up with family and friends and trying to have a little 'down time', it can seem impossible to find time to also keep a clean home.
It's easy to become overwhelmed when our homes seem to be getting more and more untidy, and yet we can't find the time to get back on top of the mess.
Getting a cleaner is one way to deal with it, but not everyone has the budget to afford such a luxury.
You could just let it go, decide you will never have a nice clean home and give into the 'lived in' look, though I know a lot of people would find that really tough.
Or, you could try working with a house work schedule.
Why You Should Create A Housework Schedule
It might seem rigid and over the top to create a housework schedule, but doing so can really make a difference to not only how clean your house stays, but also how much work it feels like it takes to get it that way.
By creating a housework schedule you make a commitment to doing just a few things each, and every day, rather than saving all of your housework up for 1 day that seems to never be available.
By spreading all the main house cleaning tasks over the span of the week you'll feel a lot less overwhelmed, knowing that if you just do those few things (at the least) then your house will be kept at a cleanliness level that would probably impress most people.
Because the schedule rotates over a week you'll always be up to date.
And every time you have to do a task it will be easier and less time consuming. Think about cleaning your bathroom; if you do it every week, it is a lot quicker than if you let weeks of scum and dirt build up.
Another fantastic bonus of the schedule is that because it is printed in black and white, and (ideally) hung in a place everyone can see, there are no excuses for other members of the family not helping out.
Older children and partners can be told to pick just one task off the daily schedule and do it.
Or, if need be, allocate a few single tasks across the week to those who can help you out. Put their initials next to that job and then let them know you expect it to be done.
Making it easy for everyone to see what needs doing in the family home will make it easier for you to get the help you need.
How To Create A Housework Schedule
Create a document listing out the 7 days of the week.
Think about the way your home runs, the kind of housework that needs doing, and then put down just 3 jobs for each day.
Also, if there are jobs that make more sense to do on a certain day then put that job on the day that works best. For example, if you have animals you may want to vacuum every day (or every other day). Or, if you work during the week, it would likely be easier to get all the bedding washed during a weekend day rather than a week day.
Spread all of the jobs out across the week so that over the course of 7 days you get everything done, but not all in one day.
The following example shows 7 days of housework tasks for a family home.
Example Schedule
Following Your Schedule
An easy way to follow your schedule is to laminate the printed copy and then use whiteboard markers to tick each job off once it is complete.
If a job doesn't get done for some reason i.e. doggy do is not picked up because it is raining, then the task remains unticked and will need to be caught up over the next few days. It's fine if you want or need to carry a task over but don't let it become a habit that has all your tasks being done on a single day again and ends up completely negating the point of the schedule.
When all the tasks are done for the week, rub them off and start again.
It's All Gotta Get Done
Don't let housework overwhelm you.
Follow these tips for a simple, time effective schedule and discover how easy it is to keep a consistently clean home without having to spend a whole day catching up.
A clean home helps to have a clear mind.