5 Cleaning Tips For Busy Moms
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There is no getting away from it. I used to be a pretty clean person, then WHAM! The literal mess of motherhood hit me like a ton of bricks. With kids, comes chaos. There is almost always something to do or a mess to clean. Between the seemingly endless loads of laundry and toys scattered on the floor, it’s hard not to feel a bit overwhelmed at times. However, after gaining my bearings in my new role as a mom of 2 under 2, I was able to have a clean home again with these 5 easy and realistic tips.
1. Put Things Back!
Have you heard of the saying, “Everything has a home?” My husband mentioned this to me and it changed me forever. If you treat each item in your house like they have a home and just return it there when you’re done using it, you would be surprised by how easy it is to maintain organization.
Let’s be realistic, the toy situation is going to be ever evolving and will probably not be organized all 24 hours of the day. But, I do think that there is a lot to be said about modeling this behavior of returning items to their homes in front of your children. Even when you don’t think they are, they are always watching you. I keep a couple baskets of toys in the living room and upstairs. Taking the time to teach them, by showing them that we can put the toys in the basket just a couple times a day will set them up with some good cleaning habits in the future. Or messier play, like play doh, always gets played with at the kids’ table and always gets put back inside the container when you’re done playing with it. This is not a quick fix, but it is a tangible step in the right direction.
2. If It Takes Less Than 5 minutes…Just Do It!
Small messes left to be cleaned at the end of the day can really add up. After running around all day with 2 toddlers, the last thing I want to do is spend a couple hours cleaning after bedtime. It may seem tempting at the moment to leave small messes for later, but do yourself a favor and just put that dish in the dishwasher and wipe up that spilled milk! This is key practice to prevent your home from having an overwhelming amount of mess to clean. You’ll thank yourself later when you have a few extra minutes of relaxing free time at the end of your day to do whatever you want!
3. Invest in Cleaning Products that Make Sense for Your Space and Lifestyle
Right now, we have 2 toddlers that leave crumbs EVERYWHERE. And I mean everywhere, like little bits of oatmeal on the shag rug everywhere and they still only eat in their high chairs. (Do not ask me how crumbs still migrate to our furniture, because I do not know!). We also have mostly hardwood in our dining room and living room space, so my husband and I decided we needed tools that would help me keep up with the crumbs and that would deep clean our hardwood floors on a weekly basis. Sometimes, investing in cleaning tools can really make a huge difference in your day by cutting your cleaning time in half. I’m not saying you need to go out and buy random cleaning tools and it will fix all your problems. I’m just suggesting that you take time to think about your living space and lifestyle and decide what are a couple things that could make it easier for you to maintain a clean space?
Though we’ve invested in a few cleaning tools over the past couple years, my 2 favorites by far are the Mini Shark WANDVAC and the Tineco Floor One S5 Extreme 3-in-1 Mop, Vacuum, and Self Cleaning Smart Floor Washer. That last one is a mouthful, right?! Anyway, these 2 cleaning supplies made a world of a difference in our overall cleanliness. They’re part of the reason I’m able to keep up with my little crumb spreading, milk spilling, tornados and I think they are worth the price tag. With my little Shark vacuum, I said “bye bye,” to all the tiny dried play doh pieces that always made their way to the floor and it made cleaning up dry crumbs on or under my kids’ high chairs a breeze. After each use, I just tap the vacuum over the trash to empty it, dock it for charging and I’m ready to play with my kids once again! It’s lightweight, cordless, and perfect for spot cleaning. The second cleaning tool that significantly shortened my cleaning time, is the Tineco. It pretty much does it all. I can vacuum and mop at the same time, while my kids are napping and our grimy feeling hardwood floor gets cleaned in minutes!
4. Maintain a Cleaning Schedule
I found that maintaining a clean home was easier if I had a loose schedule. I say a loose schedule because when you have kids, you have to have some flexibility. Sometimes having a schedule at all feels like you are constantly in a state of cleaning because your to-do list seems endless, but it becomes routine and eventually second nature. I’ve found that the key to a maintenance cleaning schedule is to not overwhelm yourself. I had to decide on a doable amount of everyday chores, such as making sure dishes are clean and doing a load of laundry. For the bigger jobs, I will split up into multiple days. For example, I make it a goal to clean a bathroom every Tuesday or try to mop every Thursday. Before I hear you ask me, “but Nicole, that doesn’t sound like you clean the whole house every week,” I don’t. But, I do my best. It may mean that the whole house isn’t deep cleaned all at once, but in my experience, cleaning a little bit at a time, consistently, makes your house look clean. Every home is different and every family has different lives, priorities, and time constraints. Take some time to write out a cleaning schedule that is doable for you, be consistent and you will notice a difference.
5. Declutter Every Season
I’m always surprised by the amount of clutter our family of 4 acquires over time. For this reason, I recommend reevaluating whether you need certain items in your home. I’m a fan of Marie Kondo’s method! If you haven’t heard of her, you should definitely look her up! You only have so much space to work with, so if something isn’t bringing you joy anymore, then appreciate it for the time it did bring value to your life and let it go. It’s liberating! You’ll have a decluttered space and more room for new items that make their way into your life.
When I keep these 5 cleaning tips in mind, I find it easier to maintain a clean space for my family, without exerting a large amount of effort. Having a clean and organized home leaves me feeling calm and helps me have clarity in my thoughts. Not to mention, my kids have more space to run and play! I hope these tips can do the same for all of you!
