Cleaning and Christmas seem to go hand in hand, at least if you ask the moms I chat with in the lobby of my daughter’s school in the minutes before the dismissal bell rings. You’ve never heard so much commiserating about collective cleaning routines, or lack thereof, or lack of time to implement thereof.
A few of us joke about ways to multi-task while we dust, mop and fold laundry. One mom shared a great tip: she places all her long-distance calls to friends or family members while she does the laundry or dishes. By talking on a hands-free device she can move about feely and is able to kill two birds with one stone. Not only does her method allow her the freedom to use both hands to clean, but also, she doesn’t feel the need to cut off the other party because she feels as though she is wasting time chatting on the phone.
Other moms say they use their cleaning time to crank up their favorite tunes or listen to TV shows or movies they’ve TiVo-ed. I often fold laundry or do dishes while the news is on. Local or national news reports are actually good things to have on while you are cleaning, as you don’t need to focus 100 percent of your attention on the screen; rather, as long as the volume is up loud enough you can get the gist of the news stories’ content while you complete your chores. I also vacuum during the commercials. I find that racing against TV ads helps me to be as efficient as possible and provides incentive to speed up, so I don’t miss a part of my program.
Cleaning isn’t exactly fun, but if you can find ways to successfully multi-task while you are dusting, scrubbing showers or scraping errant toothpaste marks from the bathroom mirror, then you’ll feel a lot better about how much you have accomplished. You might even consider rewarding yourself for a job well done. For example, every time you deep clean the kitchen, basement or garage treat yourself to a professional massage afterwards.