Keeping a clean home isn’t easy. And it becomes even tougher when you don’t schedule enough time to do it or set aside the finances to make cleaning easy. Here is a short guide to what you can do to improve those aspects of your cleaning plan! Hopefully, some of these tips will be new to you or will make you reconsider how you are cleaning so that your home stays tidier.
Budget Time with a Cleaning Plan
How much time do you budget each day for sleep or work? You probably constantly think about how many hours of sleep you are getting. Or how long you work each day, even if you work from home. But what about scheduling time for cleaning? If you are like the majority of people, you just fit in some cleaning whenever you have time. You may have intentions of cleaning after work but then fail to do that sometimes.
It helps to consciously deliberately plan time for house cleaning. Give yourself a reasonable number of chores to get down and a considerate amount of time for cleaning each day. In other words, don’t plan to clean your entire house on a workday. Set aside 30 minutes or so each day to do specific tasks. Like washing dishes, sweeping floors, taking out the trash, and making the bed. You can schedule extra time on the weekends or whenever you don’t have work. Then you can spend that time to mop, do laundry, and perform tasks that are not done often. This way, you schedule time to get most of the housework you need to do.
Know Your Limits
You may not be able to keep up with all of the cleaning that has to be finished each week. Do you feel yourself falling behind on the work and feeling stressed and depressed about it? Why not hire a cleaning service for some weeks to help you catch up. They can take care of the chores you didn’t get to.
Of course, you will need to budget money for that. You can shop around to compare prices and try out a few different cleaning services until you find one that you like and that is affordable. Then, you will know how much it costs to have your home professionally cleaned. Thus, you can fit that into your monthly budget.
Budgeting for Cleaning Supplies
When was the last time you bought a new broom or scrub pads? Some cleaning supplies we tend to use for far longer than we should, stubbornly refusing to buy new supplies even though what we are using is well past its expiry date. After a while, brooms become frayed and hard to use, scrub pads are grimy and worn, and mops are in need of replacing. Take assessment of your cleaning supplies. Then determine if you might need to set aside some funds in your budget to buy some new ones.
It is worth splurging on some cleaning supplies because quality cleaning tools make all the difference. New cleaning solutions can be more powerful. A new broom or an upgraded mop can make cleaning go much faster and easier. You will spend less time cleaning and be less frustrated in the process! And isn’t that worth a little extra cash being spent? Once you assess your current cleaning supplies, you can start planning for which ones need to be replaced and what new supplies you need to purchase.
Spreading the Work around
How do you make sure that a house full of people stays clean? Use everybody to make it happen. Does your spouse do any of the cleaning? How about your kids?
If you can get them involved, even with some small tasks, that can make a big difference. Imagine if everyone in the house were responsible for their own rooms and cleaning up after themselves. They could wash their own dishes they dirtied, fold their clothes, pick up the rooms, make their beds, and take out the trash in their rooms. These simple tasks will leave you with a lot less work to do. And even though it may be difficult to implement a cleaning schedule for everyone, it is definitely worthwhile.
With spouse or kids
Just as you would design a schedule for yourself to ensure that all of the chores get done every week, you can do the same for your kids or spouse. Get them onboard with a motivating discussion that doesn’t place blame anywhere but simply asks that they do their part. Give your kids clear, assigned duties. This way, they know what they are responsible for, and then hold them accountable for doing their part.
You can enforce cleaning schedules by taking away screen time until chores are done. You might be surprised at how motivated our kids are to clean up after themselves if that happens.
With roommates
If you are dealing with a roommate situation, then a lot of the same guidelines apply. Walk them through what you think their responsibilities are. And get them to agree to handle chores that they ought to be doing. If you are going to use a professional cleaning service like Imagine Services, then get your roommate to pitch in.
Remember that you should not schedule too much work each day for roommates, kids, or anyone else who will be helping out. Give them a reasonable amount that leaves them time for work, sleep and leisure. But keep in mind how much work they should be doing in order to keep everything neat.
Clean up after Yourself
The final piece of advice we want to give you about budgeting time and money for cleaning is to just clean as you go or clean up after you make a mess. Anytime you dirty a dish, clean it, and anytime you spill something, clean it right away. Whenever you are done using something, just tidy it up, and that includes the sink and your bed. If you make this a habit in your daily life, you will have less cleaning to do during your scheduled cleaning times.