Keeping your house clean when you’ve got kids isn’t easy. Whether it’s spills, clutter, laundry, or any other aspect of household management, balancing quick and efficient cleaning against having a life can take some effort.
Hopefully, the cleaning hacks below will help you deal with everyday messes a bit quicker and with less stress.
1. Clean as You Go
If you don’t already, try cleaning as you do other things. For example, take some rubbish with you when you leave a room, or wipe down a kitchen surface while you’re cooking.
Similarly, try to instil this logic in your kids. Ideally, they should learn to clean up their toys as they go, bring washing up down from their rooms, and so on. Dealing with messes as you go along can drastically reduce the amount of time you need to spend cleaning up. That said, some weeks are just too hectic — and that’s when booking house cleaning services can give your home a proper reset so you can stay on top of things going forward.
2. Have an Evening Cleaning Checklist
Before you go to bed, make sure some basic cleaning jobs have been done. This might be tidying the living room, ensuring toys have been put away, washing the dishes, etc. Your standards for cleanliness will dictate how much you decide to do.
While this isn’t a hack per-se, it’ll help your mood when you get up in the morning. Being presented with a relatively tidy home will make things feel more manageable and will mean you can often ignore larger cleaning tasks for a while because your home at least looks tidy.
3. Make Use of Washable Covers
Some spills are inevitable, especially if you have small kids. Dealing with spills and potential stains can take a long time and can even ruin some fabrics and surfaces. The easiest way to deal with this is to use washable covers.
On your sofa, for example, you could simply throw a blanket over the seat and arms. Ensure your cushions have washable covers for the same reason. You can even use this method on floors by laying down rugs. While they might not fit in your washing machine, they can at least be spot cleaned by hand more easily than a carpet.
4. Prioritise Tasks
No one wants to spend ages cleaning every day, and there are some jobs that you can definitely avoid doing too regularly. To figure this out, write up a priority list of cleaning jobs and only focus on the most important ones.
Towards the top of the list should be kitchen and bathroom cleaning, as it’s important for these rooms to be hygienic. Next up will likely be laundry, as we all need clean clothes to wear! Once you’ve got these tasks under control, pretty much everything else can be ignored for most of the week.
5. Make Sure You Declutter
Regular decluttering sessions can be massively helpful when it comes to cleaning, as it helps to create space so things can be put away. If everything has a home, daily tidying jobs will be much easier.
Set aside one day a month to declutter things, especially kids’ toys, letters, and the inevitable “dump everything here” worktop. To help with decluttering, make sure you have proper storage for things that don’t have obvious homes. Once these are full, you’ll know it’s time to declutter.
6. Have a No-Shoes Policy
Removing shoes from your home can make a big difference to everyday messes. Not only does it mean you won’t have to pick up random shoes strewn across the house, it also means you won’t have to deal with mud, grass, and any other dirt that shoes bring into the house.
Of course, you’ll need a shoe rack near the front door – make sure this is where shoes are left. Similarly, you’ll need to get everyone slippers or house shoes. Make sure these are only worn indoors and you should find your floors stay cleaner.
7. Get Kids Involved
This tip goes beyond everyday mess but can be a major help for this problem. Teach your kids good cleaning practices from a young age to (hopefully) cut down on the amount of mess they create.
Their contributions don’t need to be massive. Make sure they know how to help with things like washing up, laundry, tidying up after themselves, and so on. This should reduce the amount of daily tidying you need to do.
Final Thoughts
Keeping your house clean on a daily basis doesn’t have to be stressful. Making minor adjustments to your processes can help things at least look tidier, which is the next best thing to them actually being tidy! If not, you can hire some cleaners in Walthamstow to help you around the house.