The Top 5 Household Cleaning Tips to Make Your Life Easier
By Jacqueline Harris
Housework is called a chore for a reason. It’s typically not fun and eats into your free time. It’s the last thing you want to do on your time off. However, if you follow particular suggestions on how to make cleaning easier, you might find housework to become less of a chore, and, in the end, you may actually look forward to it!
- Make a schedule. Post a schedule on a dry erase board in a high-traffic area of the home so it is visible daily to the entire family (the kitchen area is often best). Decide what cleaning is priority for the house; that is, what needs to get done first before you can make a maintenance schedule. Determine who has responsibility for what rooms. Make schedules based on daily (like doing the dishes and cleaning the litter box), weekly (like vacuuming, taking out the garbage, scrubbing tubs and sinks, doing the laundry or mopping the floors), monthly (like dusting or washing the windows) and seasonal (the spring cleaning mattress turn or cleaning out the garage) cleaning.
- Use the right tool for the job. Certain vacuums are made for particular floors and carpets. Some have settings that need to be changed depending on the pile, and if you don’t change them you can actually make more work for yourself.
- Check out the state-of-the-art items that can help keep your home clean without you’re having to do much more than purchase them—like Roomba and Scooba, which vacuum and clean the floors, respectively, while you’re not even around. Self-automated and programmable, they can be cleaning while you’re still at work…or better yet…at the gym.
- Keep a routine that makes your weekly cleaning schedule easier to maintain. Have a doormat where you can wipe your shoes so you aren’t unnecessarily tracking dirt throughout the house. When you come home from work, put your shoes in the right area, hang up your coat and put your dirty clothes in the laundry bin. Sort mail and throw out unnecessary junk mail. Think of other creative ways to make your life easier on a daily basis.
- Get rid of clutter. Cluttered homes are most difficult to clean and attract more clutter. Find creative storage options to make better use of space for remaining clothes and items, such as closet storage units and hanging shoe organizers. Under-bed storage units can keep clothes and bedding that are seasonal clean until you’re ready to take them out again. If you get rid of clothes and items that you haven’t used in the last year or two, you can simplify your house and your life, making initial cleaning and follow up maintenance far simpler.
If you follow these simple tasks, you’ll be better organized and better able to manage your household…and your household chores!
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