Best Cleaning Hacks for Busy Moms

No mom wants her family to come home to a messy or dirty home.

But when we work full-time and are busy with kids activities keeping our home clean sometimes becomes an overwhelming task for busy, tired moms.

If you also have cleaning avoidance tendencies, then keeping a clean home is a struggle.

Having a clean home doesn’t require hours of daily work.  If you add just a few daily cleaning hacks to your routine, you’ll be surprised by the difference it will make in your home.

Just because you have children in your home, you don’t have to toss your hands up in frustration and accept a messy home. A clean home is possible with a little bit of daily effort.

First, you need to be motivated to complete a few daily cleaning chores; and second, you also have to constantly remind your children to pick up and clean up after themselves.

Keeping your home clean doesn’t require hours of daily work.  These 6 simple cleaning hacks will help you maintain a clean home every day.

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6 Daily Cleaning Hacks for Busy Moms

Make Your Bed Every Day

Making up your bed every day is a quick win.  It only takes about a minute or two to make up a bed, but it makes your whole room look picked-up and cleaner.

Have you noticed how walking into a room with an unmade bed feels messy and sloppy?  When you come home from work or a busy day, you will feel a little better when you see your bedroom (or your kids bedrooms) are not a complete wreck and your beds are neatly made.

If you don’t make up your beds every day, you will come home and see a mess.  Unmade beds stand out as a big mess.

Teaching your kids to make their beds is also a great daily discipline for children. We all have daily habits. Let’s make one of our kid’s daily habits making up their bed.

If you are not in the habit of making your bed every day, it’s a great time to start. Don’t underestimate how much difference a neat bed makes when you come home from work.

Don’t Leave a Sink Full of Dirty Dishes

I don’t like seeing dirty dishes in the sink or on the kitchen counter.  It’s almost a compulsion for me to start washing them or loading them into the dishwasher.

Dirty dishes will pile up fast if you don’t wash them or put them in a dishwasher as soon as you eat. Start training your kids as soon as they are old enough to wash their plate and load the dishwasher.

After every meal, do a 10-minute kitchen clean-up.

Before you go to bed each night, take a quick walk through your kitchen and be sure you don’t have any dirty dishes.  You will thank me the next morning when you have a clean counter and sink.

After you add the last dirty dish for the night, run the dishwasher so you have clean dishes for the next day. Believe me, you don’t need to save those dirty dishes, and you will need the clean dishes for tomorrow.

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Do a 15 Minute Pick Up Every Evening

At the end of each day, set a timer and take 15 minutes and quickly pick up everything that’s out of place (toys, books, blankets, pillows, etc…).  Put everything back where it goes.

When you look around a room and see things laying out everywhere it just feels cluttered.  Make it a daily habit to do a quick pick up (especially in the living room, dining room, and play areas).  With practice (and help from your kids), you may find you can complete this clean up as a 5 minute pick up.

Keep Your Entry Areas Clean

I started a bad habit of letting my kids drop their shoes, backpacks, and anything else right in the entry area when they walk in the door.

My intention was good.  I wanted to keep all the school backpacks by the door for the next day.  But this habit is out of control now and if we are not careful will trip over bags by the door.

Try to create an organized entry.  If you keep school bags and other personal items in or near your entry, use an organizational tool like hooks to hang bags and keys and a shoe organizer to keep shoes neat.

Wipe Down the Bathrooms Daily

Bathrooms are probably the busiest and most used rooms in your home. If you have kids, it’s a good idea to grab a Greenworks wipe and wipe down all the countertops and door handles daily.

Remind your children to hang up used towels, wipe up water spilled from the shower and put dirty clothes in the hamper. Usually, I have to stand close by to be sure this chore gets done (but one day they will learn to do it by themselves.

Put Away the Laundry as Soon as It’s Washed

Laundry piles up soooooo fast!

You might even do a load every day.  If you don’t put the laundry away the same day you do the laundry, it just starts piling up all over your house.

Make it a habit to take 10 minutes and put the laundry away each time you do a load (you’ll feel better and your kids will have their clothes ready to wear tomorrow).

Putting the laundry away reduces stress too!  Most of the time when you cannot find an article of clothing you need it’s because it’s in the clean laundry pile.  Give yourself a break and put it away each time you do a load.

Six easy cleaning hacks you can do every day in about an hour {or less} that will keep your home clean and organized.

• Take 5 minutes to make your bed every day
• 10 minutes to load and run the dishwasher
• Do a 15-minute nightly pick-up
• Spend 5 minutes cleaning up the entry areas
• Spend 5-10 minutes wiping down the bathroom
• Take 10 minutes to fold and put away the laundry (enlist the kids to help)

You are probably doing many of these tasks like loading the dishwasher and putting away the laundry, but when you make it all a nightly routine, it makes keeping your home clean much easier every day.

To keep your home clean and less cluttered, do the 30-Day Declutter Challenge and have less clutter.

Your turn…

What home cleaning hacks do you have?  How do you save time cleaning each week?  If you can only do one cleaning task a day, what would it be?

 

 

 

 

 

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