How DO you find the time to clean? That is the ultimate question, right? Besides how can you get the house to clean up after itself! In this post, I’m going to share with you a couple of tips and tricks to help you get started to find time in your schedule to get some cleaning on!
1| Using a Scheduling software or paper planner
There are a lot of different tools that you can use to manage your time. It does boil down to if you are a digital person or a pencil and paper person.
I am both when it comes to different areas. The ease and convenience of having everything sync with each other is just priceless. Having reminders is amazing too because I tend to forget a lot more things nowadays! But I feel like when you write something down, it actually clicks in your brain in a different way.
Read: How To Use Trello to Organize Your Cleaning Schedule
Using Trello as a checklist will help you know what’s on the task list for today. You can easily check the tasks off and move things around. You can even access all of it from your phone!
My cleaning schedule has changed this fall. My daughter isn’t napping like she used to so I’ve had to adjust the way I clean. I use my weekly planner to schedule in an hour block of time that my cleaning needs to get done. Keeping it to one hour has helped me feel like it’s not taking over my entire day.
If you aren’t a paper planner person you can totally use Google calendar to schedule in your cleaning time.
Read: Create a Customized Cleaning Schedule in Google
Finding the Time as a Working Mom vs. Stay at Home Mom
This is a hard one. When you stay at home, yes, technically you have more time to clean, but you also have more time to make messes to clean up. When you work outside the home, you can leave the house one way (hopefully picked up) and when you return, it will look the same as you left it!
Watch:
Depending on your work schedule, you might be gone for 9 hours depending on how long you need to get ready and drive and take the kids to school, then pick them up and come home.
By the time you get home, the last thing you want to do is clean right? Because you have to make dinner, tend the kids’ homework, and maybe set a little time aside to relax?
If I were working outside the home, this is what I would do:
I would choose 3 days a week to clean for 30 minutes
One day a week for an hour
4 days a week for laundry
On the 3 days that you have scheduled yourself to clean, I would have dinner cooking on its own. (crockpot, oven, maybe a takeout day, husband cook day, etc) That way you free up time and energy.
Read: Cleaning Method that Changed My Life
Where Do You Start to Find the Time to Clean?
Where do you even start? I see this question so much but it’s so different for everyone.
The first thing you need to do is write down on a piece of paper (like a mind map) what your goals are for each space of your house. How do you want your room to look when you are done? What your standards will be, what level of cleanliness you are hoping to achieve. What is the feeling you’re really after in each room?
How much time you need to set aside depends on the level of clean you want to achieve. A quick surface-level clean can be as quick as 15 minutes. A medium clean and deep cleans take more time because you’re cleaning at a deeper level.
The ideal schedule is to clean at the medium level every 2 weeks. This means the dusting of the blinds, vacuuming, mopping, bathrooms, etc.
Setting Time limits
The best way to make yourself feel like cleaning isn’t taking all day is to set a timer for yourself. If you move quickly, you can get most of the rooms done in your house one at a time finished within 30 minutes. There are some areas that do take longer, those can be scheduled for the hour on the weekend. You can let those areas take turns every Saturday.
Once you set a timer, you work a little faster, you feel a little better because you know once it goes off, you are done!
Everyone has the same 24 hours, there’s the time in your schedule somewhere. It just depends on what you’re going to fill it with.
Download the cleaning guide below for more help and tips with cleaning your home and as a bonus, I’ll send you a few videos to help you tackle a task at a time!
