A clean house gives me a clear mind. When my home is clean I am more focused, relaxed, and I have more time to spend with my daughter and doing the things I love. Moms are busy whether you are a stay at home mom or a working mom. I am a single mom, so the household responsibilities fall squarely on my shoulders. Since becoming a single mom, I am always on the search for quick ways to accomplish household chores. I do a thorough cleaning probably once a month.
However, cleaning is part of my every day routine. I have discovered that breaking your chores into quick 15-20 minute segments, makes cleaning less stressful and overwhelming. Another way to break up the segments is to have designated days for each room. Washing dishes and taking out the trash are usually an everyday chore, so they would not be included, but there are many cleaning chores that are.
Fifteen minute Clean Up: Rook by Room
Kitchen
Beside washing dishes and wiping down counters, take 15 minutes to sweep the floor, rid the refrigerator of any expired food, and wipe the inside, outside and top of the refrigerator. On another day take that time and arrange the inside of your cabinets.
Living Room/Family Room
The living room and family room gets a lot of use and it shows. In 15 minutes you can dust and polish your coffee tables and furniture, pick up magazines or books, and vacuum under the pillows of your couch.
Bathroom
I love using the organic all natural purpose cleaner from Seventh Generation. It smells great and it isn’t filled with toxic chemicals. I squirt this on my sink, toilet, and handles in the bathroom and in 15 minutes my bathroom not only smells good but looks great.
Bedrooms
This may seem like a no brainer but fixing your bed automatically makes your bedroom seem cleaner. Sweep the floor and don’t neglect dusting headboards, you would be surprised how much dust they gather. With the cold weather ushering in take 15 minutes to clear your drawers from any summer clothes you won’t be using until next year. If you need to switch out the clothes for your children, assign a day for each bedroom and give yourself a time limit to clean them out.
General Chores
There are certain general chores that you can fit in your 15 minute schedule.
15 minute General Cleaning Tips:
- Sweeping
- Emptying all the trash in the house
- Choose two rooms a day and clean the baseboards in your house
- Throw a load of laundry in the washer and fold another
- Wipe down the windowsills in each room
- Arrange and clean the cabinets in the bottom of the sink
- Dust above the archways in your home, which are commonly overlooked
- Plan meals for the week
- Create a grocery list
- Clean the books shelves
- Sort through magazine and either donate old issues to doctor offices or recycle them
- Separate your bills and mail and file them appropriately
Fifteen minutes may not seem like much time, but there numerous chores we can get done that really help us throughout the week. Even spending 15 minutes in each room can make your house look great. Stick to the time limit, you may even want to set an alarm so that you don’t get carried away. Breaking down these tasks gives you more time to spend with God, your family, and yourself.
Copyright © Chere Williams, Moms of Faith, All Rights Reserved
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About Chere Williams
These are great tips, especially for single moms and work at home moms. I have what I call a “mad-dash house cleaning” because I’m married and have older teens and young adults at home. When everyone is home, I shout out “mad-dash house cleaning time” and everyone chooses a room or chore to tackle. The entire house is clean in 1/2 an hour or less this way.
Of course we keep up on the dishes and vacuuming and wiping countertops throughout the week, but the mad-dash house cleanings make it easy for everyone.