How to Keep a Clean House with a Busy Schedule and Kids

Fitting in cleaning tasks around a busy schedule can be challenging. If you only have a bit of free time at weekends, you hardly want to spend it all cleaning your house from top to bottom.

So, how do you avoid this while still keeping a clean home? Other than find a good house cleaning service, here are some tips below should help you to strike the right balance between your busy schedule and cleaning.

How to Keep a Clean House with a Busy Schedule and Kids

1. Use the 10-Minute Rule 

Dedicate 10 minutes of every day to cleaning. Typically, this shouldn’t involve jobs like cleaning up after dinner, as that’s something you need to do anyway. Instead, focus on things like cleaning the bathroom, dusting, emptying bins, and so on. If you find it’s hard to get it all done in 10 minutes, consider making some low-maintenance upgrades to your home! 

It’s really not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things, and you’d be amazed at what you can fit into 10 minutes. Better yet, gets the kids involved, and you’ll instantly improve your productivity!

2. Clean Up as You Go

This is something we should all be doing anyway, but clean up as you go along. For example, if you’re going upstairs for something, take that basket of washing. If you’re passing through the living room, tidy up the sofa. 

Instil this rule in your kids too, so they clean up their toys when they’re done with them. Keeping on top of clutter can make a major difference to actual cleaning tasks, many of which require a tidy space to start.

3. Have Boxes for Stuff

Make sure everything has a home to make tidying up easier. This is particularly important for kids’ toys, but also works for shoes, school bags, and so on. The more stuff has a home, the easier tidying up will be.

4. Have a Cleaning Checklist 

Having a checklist for cleaning is necessary when you live a busy life. Many of us will have a dedicated slot for the larger cleaning jobs, usually at the weekend. But fitting in other daily jobs can be a bit difficult and can lead to you forgetting.

So, write a list of things that need doing daily and weekly and print it out. Tick them off when they’re done, so when Sunday rolls around, you’ll know what’s left to do. Having a list means other people can get involved, too, as it’s clear what cleaning tasks need doing. 

5. Break Rooms Down into Tasks

This tip works well with the one above. Rather than having a weekly job of “clean the bathroom”, break it down into the actual cleaning jobs. These might include:

• Clean the sink
• Clean the shower or bath
• Clean the toilet
• Wipe down surfaces
• Empty the bin

You can then simply tackle each job individually rather than the whole room. Equally, you can group similar tasks together, such as emptying all the bins upstairs. Then when your cleaning day comes around, all you might need to do in the bathroom is hoover the floor.

6. Get Everyone Involved

There’s no reason why kids can’t help with cleaning. You should only give them jobs they can do safely at their age, but this could involve tidying up toys, putting their washing in the hamper, and other small jobs.

Older kids can help with emptying the dishwasher, putting things away, emptying bins, and so on. Not only will this take some small jobs off your hands, but it’ll keep your kids distracted while you get on with other jobs. 

7. Set Realistic Expectations 

One of the most important tips is to adjust your mindset. Specifically, don’t expect to have a spotless home all the time, and appreciate that spending time relaxing or with your family is more important than a dust-free home.

Of course, ensure spaces are hygienic and safe. But other than that, don’t stress about pushing cleaning tasks to the side if you’re tired after a long day.

8. Consider a Cordless Vacuum

Cordless vacuums generally aren’t as effective as corded versions. However, they’re far more convenient for a quick run around. If you can afford to have both, do, as the cordless is good for everyday use. On the other hand, corded vacuums have far greater suction and work well for weekly deep cleans.

Final Thoughts

Balancing cleaning with a busy schedule means being efficient and multitasking. Doing so allows you to squeeze in the odd cleaning job when you’ve got a spare 5 minutes. Hopefully, this’ll take a lot of the stress out of maintaining a clean home! If you feel like you do not have the time, then you should consider hiring cleaning services for your home.