Tips and tools to help you clean faster when you are short on time
Have you ever had that hard mom moment where you are standing in the middle of a room and looking around and have a mild internal anxiety attack? Maybe rage bubbles up, and you want to scream or throw everything out.
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All at the same time, you say in your head, there is so much; what should I do first, seriously I just cleaned that; I freakin give up.
Yeah, this blog post was created by my brain, which in a mild panic, said hey, ya know what? I am sure I am not the only mom who has felt this. We should write all this down because our brain feels overwhelmed and wants to just lay on the couch.
So if you have ever felt overwhelmed at all that needs to be done, read on to see these doable ideas.
Most days, I have my home under control, and then there are those days when I don’t. It’s just a fact of life. And I need a certain level of tidiness to feel calm and be able to let the house be. But it’s when we have been so busy, and I am trying to get the kids to activities and run my business at the same that things can get off. And, of course, when the whole house gets sick, that takes a whole other cleaning process.
It’s always a juggling act which is a fact for most moms. So here are my tips.
1. Understand your season of motherhood and set your goals for your home with grace
Ok, when my kids were toddlers and babies personally, keeping the house clean was so much easier cause I could contain them.
Now that the younger two are 5 and 8, I find it more challenging. I went through this same stage with my adult child when she was younger.
I find young ones follow routines and schedules like a charm (put the toy in the box, johnny, so that we can play) (ok, mommy)
Right now, I tell my five-year-old to put her piggy paints away, and the first thing she says is I was going to play with them. I say, “ok, it’s always best to put things away until we are ready to play. Then we can find them.”
She proceeds to “put them away,” and being five; it’s a 50/50 shot. She will claim she put them away, and I will find the piggy’s paints in the middle of the stairs. Not quite where I can see it, but it’s the “it’s no longer on the counter, mom” kinda thing.
I know some moms find the infant and toddlers stage was/are harder for them. With their constant needs, that wasn’t the case for me. Maybe you are in this stage.
It’s a valid fact, though, that babies are hard, and if you have a clinger, it makes life difficult. And if you have a premie or sickly child, that is very tough.
No matter your stage, I want you to stop, drop, and breathe. Each season will present us with new challenges. So look at what season you are in. What do you need from your home during this season? Give yourself grace lack of sleep with a baby and toddlers messing with everything is just a phase.
So focus on what’s most important. Maybe it’s clean laundry all the time and baby bottles vs. a neat dining table and a kitchen not full of dishes and school papers.
Understand your season and focus on that first.
Keep your cleaning tools nearby at all times
If there is one thing that can save you time is creating multiple mini-cleaning kits. For example, if you have more than one bathroom. I like to have a multiple-purpose cleaner and microfiber cloth nearby so I can clean whenever.
Like wiping the counters off right after brushing your teeth or doing your facewash routine. Just a quick spray and wipe to keep it neat.
3. Keep a catch-all basket
Things can get messy during busy days, and you may run out of time to tidy up quickly. This means things out of place don’t return to their proper homes.
Grab a foldable laundry basket like this one and keep it handy. Then make it a point to put it all away once a week or at least once a day.
My favorite because we have stairs is to get a few stair baskets. That way, it fills throughout the day, and everyone has their own to put things away that need to go back upstairs or downstairs.
4. Create a DIY shower cleaner wand
An area that takes the most time in my home is cleaning the shower. Cut the shower cleaning time down, and use a dish wand filled with vinegar and non-toxic dish soap to wash down the entire shower afterward quickly.
5. Find pockets of time
I found the art of finding pockets of time is something most mothers are good at. We are multitasking warriors, after all. At least, that is what I call all my mothers inside my tribe.
Finding pockets of time inside your usual routine can give you minutes of cleaning that can help keep the house chores at bay.
For example, I wipe down the bathroom counter in the kid’s bathroom while my little ones play in the bathtub. Or switch up the towels for fresh ones. Sometimes I will empty the garbage or wipe out the inside of drawers.
Another idea is when I am making phone calls with the dreaded ON holds we can encounter, I will use that time to declutter or put items away.
You get the gist of finding those pockets of time and maximizing them to your advantage.
6. Use your vacuum to be a multipurpose tool
Vacuuming your floors and carpets is an easy way to make your house look clean and refreshed. But turn your vacuum into a duster, sweeper, and all-around helper.
First off, get additional attachment pieces so that you can turn your vacuum into a super cleaner. I have all mine stored in my hall closet.
Use it to vacuum down your blinds, clean your air vents, dust your baseboards, dust your lamp shades, vacuum crumbs out of the fridge, and vacuum out drawers and toy bins quickly.
7. Use a multipurpose cleaner that cleans, disinfects, and sanitizes
There is no need to have a billion cleaning products; simplify your life by getting one that does most of the jobs.
I recently switched to Force of Nature; there was a 40% off sale at the time of this post, so I suggest waiting until you can get a discount.
That way, keep multiple bottles around and just clean as you go.
8. Invest in Norew cleaning cloths
Don’t get me wrong, I like e-cloths and have my own set, but after time keep going back to my Norwex; they work better, last longer, and hands down clean everything with just water.
If you are short on time, you can just wet a cloth and wipe whatever you want, and it will be clean. I mean, you can’t get simpler than that.
9. Create two bins for clothes trick
So there are nights when I am too lazy to hang a sweater back up if I only wear it for a bit. And then I can add to the pile the next day. But it looks messy.
Or maybe a sweater gets left on the couch. You get the idea.
Make a basket for those clean clothes that don’t return to the hanger. That way, they stay neat in a bin or basket. Waiting for you to put it away.
10. Keep a magazine file on your counter to keep daily papers
I have a black magazine file on my counter that helps me keep all the daily paperwork. It’s easy because if you turn the file cabinet around, you won’t see the papers, which look so much neater.
That way, you can file them at a later time.
11. Create a cleaning schedule based on your life
If you know you are only home on certain days and times, maximize those cleaning tasks to fit in those exact times.
I got an hour to tackle those dishes, get a load going and vacuum the whole house.
Got only have ten minutes to switch the dishes. Thinking about the time you do have versus the time you don’t have can help you squeeze in the task and get them done fast.
12. Outsource other tasks
If you are truly short on time, find other tasks to outsource to get time back into your schedule.
So I use Instacart as one of my time savers because grocery shopping with kids, well, most moms know it’s a production and takes a lot of time.
So on occasion, when I am behind and need to catch up, I will do an Instacart to have time to clean or do other things that need my attention.
Maybe it’s putting everyday items on auto-ship, so you don’t have to shop for them, or perhaps it’s getting a subscription to help offset the time and gas.
13. Declutter for 5 mins regularly
A messy house can become a hot mess express when things pile up. Receipts, paperwork, clothes, etc. Make it a habit to eliminate something at least once a week for five minutes. This means it leaves your home. Donation or garbage, but it has to go.
When it comes to finding time to clean the house, with a bit of creativity and determination, you can clean your home in small chunks.
Instead of focusing on the disorder, I shifted my focus to the solutions and resolved to find ways to have the clean house I wanted with the time I had.
I started by cleaning one room daily, so I had time to do a thorough job. Soon, you will find it will get faster to clean even when you have no time if you keep up with it more often.
14. Invest in self-cleaning tools
There are some recent technologies in our world of homemaking. Robot vacuums and self-cleaning tools are all the rage. If there is one thing that can help you clean your home faster, it’s anything that can do the cleaning for you.
I love my Shark Robot Vaccum and hope to upgrade my floor vacuum to vacuum and wash my floors one day.
I also love my Bosch dishwasher. It’s a dream come true. And it works like magic.
Here are some of the ones I highly recommend.
15. Clean the kitchen as you cook
When I was younger, I could never understand why my grandmother would have dinner done by three pm and how she kept the kitchen clean.
I would watch her, and in my early teens, she would teach me things during my visit to the islands where she lived.
One of those things was that she cleaned as she cooked and wiped things down as she went.
Forty years later, I am doing the very same thing. And memories come flooding back.
Put the lid on the rice pot, and everything is cooking time to wipe the counters down.
Now that we are lowering the fire and things are simmering wash the more significant items you used to prep.
After turning the food over now, dry some of the dishes that are done and put them away.
She had a system, and it worked.
And getting dinner done beforehand does help a lot on busy nights if you can. I am still working on this.
When it comes to finding time to clean the house, with a bit of creativity and determination, you can clean your home in small chunks.
Instead of focusing on the disorder, I shifted my focus to the solutions and resolved to find ways to have the clean house I wanted with the time I had.
I started by cleaning one room daily, so I had time to do a thorough job. Soon, you will find it will get faster to clean even when you have no time if you keep up with it more often.