10 Housekeeping Tips and Tricks from a real Housekeeper!
I don’t know about you but I just love a clean and organized house… probably because I’m a professional Housekeeper lol. In my years of experience, I have developed some great Housekeeping routines and tricks that work in my home. It also helps me clean other people’s homes more efficiently. I wanted to share some of these tips and tricks for all the busy moms and dads out there who are trying to juggle housework, kids, school, after school activities, work, and everything else along the way! I hope some of these tips help save you precious time that you could be spending with your family.
1. Clean room-to-room. This is the most important tip. Do not start in one room and stop and move into another room before finishing the first. This WILL drive you crazy!! And it isn’t always easy to remember what you’ve already done in each room either. Focusing on one room at a time from start to finish is always best. The one exception to this is vacuuming, and/or mopping. I usually save this for the very last thing I do and I vacuum all the rooms together then mop the hard surfaces.
2. How to clean a room. Always start with the dusting and go from top to bottom dusting the ceilings, then the wall décor, then furniture, then baseboards. Once you finish dusting, wipe and disinfect every surface in that room. (Don’t forget wiping/disinfecting your walls, door knobs, and light switches) Again, I like to save my vacuuming until the very end. Once you have all of the rooms done on one floor, vacuum and mop that floor. Move on to the next floor.
3. Sort your mail when you get it. This may not seem very important but it really is! Look around your house right now… Do you have piles of unopened mail sitting around?? Sorting your mail when you get it out of the mailbox and tossing the junk mail really helps eliminate those piles! If you don’t have the 2 minutes it takes to sort it daily, then at least sort through the piles and toss the junk weekly. Keep a file folder for all of your important mail and keep it close to your trash basket (I have mine on the wall in my utility room) this makes sorting your mail daily easier.
4. Keep a laundry basket in every room. I have 2 laundry baskets in my laundry room, and one in all 3 bedrooms, and a small one in my bathroom. This helps keep the pile of clothes off of your floors and it makes your rooms look tidy. Before bed each night I usually round up all the laundry in each basket and put it by the washing machine for the morning.
5. Do your dishes after you finish eating each meal. If you have a dishwasher, this will be a lot easier! I hate hate hate dirty dishes piled up in my sink! After every meal, I rinse all of the dishes and load my dishwasher. Even when we didn’t have a dishwasher, I would at least start soaking my dishes right after dinner and wash them before I went to bed for the night. Once the dishes are taken care of, wipe your counters down. Take the 5-10 minutes to do this after every meal and your kitchen wont turn into a daunting disaster!
6. Label your kids toy bins. I have a few 3 drawer dressers and a bookshelf filled with different baskets and closable bins that my kids use to store their toys. I label each basket/bin with things like “baby doll clothes” or “coloring books” or “markers and crayons” so my kids know where their toys belong. I can’t say they ALWAYS put them in the right spots but it does really help! Once or twice a month I go in their drawers and bins and reorganize things that they put in the wrong spots. This also helps lessen the “MOM, Where’s my…..” questions!
7. Make a deep cleaning schedule. Setting up a deep cleaning routine for your household to fit your needs is great! I like to do mine based on the days of the week. Mondays I deep clean the bathroom. Tuesdays I deep clean the kitchen. Wednesdays I deep clean the laundry/utility room. You get the idea. Even if that is the only cleaning task you complete that day… at least you have a really clean part of your house for the day!
8. Pick a block of uninterrupted time to clean your house. I like to clean my house when I have a good hour or two block of time that I know I can clean uninterrupted. Such as nap time, when the kids are in school, ect. It is much easier to clean your home and stay focused when you don’t have constant interruptions.
9. Save cleaning your bathroom and/or kitchen for last. It is much easier to focus on the daunting task of cleaning a bathroom or kitchen when the rest of your house is already clean. If you have the entire house cleaned already… will the half hour on the kitchen or bathroom really seem so bad?? If the answer is yes… it still seems really bad… then just push through it and know in the end that the rest of the house is already clean so you can relax! 😉
10. Spend 20 minutes every night before you go to bed picking up. Whether it’s cleaning up the kitchen, the play room, or the living room… Spending 20 minutes before going to bed each night cleaning, will jump start your mornings! I know I personally love waking up to a semi-clean house! You can then spend the next morning on tasks you didn’t finish the night before.
If you use all of these tips and tricks combined you will have a well running clean household! I hope you like these tips and tricks! If you have any questions just ask me! 🙂
The Ultimate WAH Mom 