We all want a nice, clean house. We all want to walk into our house and have it smell good and look good. But we’re busy! We don’t have all day to clean, fold laundry and make dinner. What is a stay at home mom to do?
I like to call it speed cleaning. When you use this in conjunction with the laundry system and meal planner I explained in prior articles, you’ll never be tied down to your house again. It’s simple, easy and very effective.
1. Get a cleaner bucket. I have one with handles that I carry around with me to each room. It has all the cleaning supplies in it, whether or not I am using each one in each room. There’s nothing worse than lugging everything upstairs and then realizing I am missing a cleaner.
2. Start in the farthest room away from the kitchen and work backwards. This is usually a bedroom, which if you’re lucky is just about making the bed.
3. Wipe down counter with glass cleaner. Once a week, you need to go through and deep clean your house. Every day, however, while you’re buzzing through the house, wipe down counters in the bathroom and kitchens with glass cleaner. It seriously makes your house sparkle.
4. Take out the trash. In my handy dandy cleaner bucket, I also carry a roll of trash bags. I use one to collect trash out of buckets and if need be, I have a whole roll to replace one.
5. Invest in wipees. Even if your family is out of diapers, wipees are great cleaners. They clean up spots on the floor and spots on stairways and places like that. For tougher jobs, Mr. Eraser is awesome, but doesn’t last long. A little citrol and a towel will clean up almost anything.
6. Dust – and do it quickly. Even if it’s just a wipe down. The point is to get it looking clean.
7. Sweep the floors. It only takes a minute!
8. Mop where need be. You do not need to mop all day everyday. Just grab the mop and clean up where you need to. Wipees work really well for this.
Take one day a week to clean your house and use the above suggestions to maintain it. Once you’re in the groove, this speed cleaning can take as little as a ½ hour. That’s not too bad for a great looking house! And, if you follow the meal planner, you’re cleaning/cooking day can be done by 10:00 am. Imagine!