*Collaborative Post
It’s one of those things that can feel like a major task. Something like cleaning the house can always feel like a mountain to climb, and once it’s clean, it seems that it doesn’t stay that way for long! And when you couple this with a busy life, which we’ve all got, we’ve got to figure out ways to ensure that the house stays, at least on the surface, clean. But is this even possible? It is, but it’s all about a handful of essential components. Let’s give you some useful hacks.
Don’t Waste Your Time On The Big Stains
When there’s a major spillage, we can panic, and try to get rid of the stain quickly by pouring all manner of chemicals on it. The fact of the matter is, when it comes to these massive stains, if you don’t clean it up within a couple of minutes with the right stuff, it’s going to cause problems regardless of what you think is the best method. And what about the stains that have been in place for a long time? Sometimes you have to know when to cut your losses. Because we can obsess over that one major stain, and try to tackle it, we end up neglecting the rest of the house. With this sort of thing, it’s worth starting over again and getting a company like Chem-Dry to do their thing. When we have big stains, we can waste a lot of time, and as the rest of the house can suffer, it’s better to invest that money up front; that way, you have a blank canvas to start all over again.
Double Up Your Tasks
Because in our head, cleaning a house is about doing one task at a time, we are already struggling with the sheer amount of duties. Doubling up your tasks is the best way to work smart rather than hard. Case in point: figuring out ways to clean your carpet while walking around the house! This may seem like a strange thing, but if you’ve got carpet, fashioning sticky tape onto a pair of your slippers means that as you walk around the house, you will naturally lift up hair and dust. This makes vacuuming the carpet far easier! If you’ve got laminate flooring, you can purchase microfiber slippers, so as you walk around the house, doing other essential duties, and dust as you go! Yes, it can take a while to get used to it at first, but if you feel that it takes so long to clean a home from top to bottom you’ve got to figure out ways to consolidate tasks.
Work With Time On Your Side
Again it’s about working smart rather than working hard. When you start to look at the tasks as a whole, can you compartmentalise them into effective chunks? Also, if there are things that can help you to make the most of something like cleaning, will it be a lot quicker overall? A very good example is applying cleaning spray. Because it takes time to get to work, rather than spraying it onto the surface and then wiping it down right away, spray it, and then go to another room. Doing something while the spray settles in else means you are maximising your time. As well as this, if you are someone who cleans the house from top to bottom in one go, can you break it down into more manageable tasks? Instead of doing the house in one day can you do a little bit on one day, and a little bit on another? It may seem like an obvious thing but if you do what they call chunking (breaking larger problems down into manageable tasks) it won’t feel like so much of a chore.
Always Have The Right Tools
The right tools are indispensable. You may have a very old vacuum, and because you don’t have much of an opportunity to clean the house, you might think that it’s futile spending money on a hoover. But if this hoover doesn’t pick up anything, you are working twice as hard for little reward. The right tools are indispensable, not just in terms of the vacuum, but if you start to think about cleaning the house from top to bottom, and breaking it down into more manageable chunks, what about something like a handheld hoover? A handheld hoover is a perfect way to maintain the illusion of cleanliness. If you have pets, you can use a handheld hoover to pick up dander, but also, if there are crumbs dotted around the kitchen, a quick go around with the handheld hoover picks it all up. If you want to go one step further you may want to invest in a Robovac. They are quite an expense, but if you don’t have time, it’s going to do it for you!
Other Household Items You Can Use
The dishwasher isn’t just for dishes! It is a fantastic hack for cleaning most things. If you have kids running around, most things end up sticky on a regular basis, and things like toys and hairbrushes need washing, the vast majority of items can go in the dishwasher. In fact, a lot of things can go in there! Some tools, some filters, and, as long as you keep the heating setting low, they won’t cause any damage.
It’s always worth having a pack of biodegradable cleaning wipes floating around. Have a pack in the bathroom, because if you moan about the fact that mildew or dust builds up so quickly, a quick wipe down once a day means you’ll never have to deal with it! While they won’t disinfect, this is when you could invest in a steam cleaner to make sure that all services are germ-free! That way you don’t need to invest in incredibly hazardous chemical sprays.
And never forget to look in your pantry! Do you have bicarbonate of soda and vinegar? While we can tend to go for numerous cleaning sprays, a lot of them usually have vinegar or bicarb as one of its main ingredients. There are so many surfaces that we can clean, and get rid of mildew with the right combination of vinegar, soda crystals, and soapy water.
Tidiness Is A Frame Of Mind
Stay with me on this! When we think that we have an “unclean” house, where does this actually stem from? They say that if you want to complete a task, and get that feeling of fulfilment, the first thing you need to do every day is to make your bed! When you think about it like this, if you make your bed, it improves the state of your bedroom right away! Even if the rest of the room isn’t that clean because the bed takes up the vast majority of the space, this gives the illusion of tidiness. When you start to think about it like this, are there any aspects of your home that can be altered or made up so they cover up the imperfections? We don’t have to do a deep clean every single week, and if we start to find little ways to paper over the cracks, and give the illusion of cleanliness, this means that we don’t end up applying elbow grease to everything every single week!
As cleaning your home is, from top to bottom, a massive task, you’ve got to work smart instead of hard. A lot of people hire cleaners, but if you haven’t got the finances to do this, you’ve got to think about what cleanliness means to you. One of the simplest ways is to look at your home, and see if anything needs decluttering. This automatically gives the illusion of cleanliness.
