Thanks to Christine from I Dream of Clean for sharing a guest post this week while I’m on vacation!
Are you someone who doesn’t like to clean? Who likes to take shortcuts when it comes to maintaining your home?
If you are like 90% of women out there, your answer is a resounding, “yes!” (By the way, I’ve heard it said that 85% of statistics out there are made up on the spot 🙂
My personal philosophy is that any shortcut that makes it easier to keep my home clean is a great one.
That’s why I implement daily habits like making up the bed each morning and taking 5 minutes to clean the kitchen every night. It’s also why I organize my house in a way that makes cleaning more efficient. If you’re looking to spend less time cleaning, here are a few organizational suggestions to consider:
Keep all cleaning products in one location.
Instead of keeping a few cleaning products in one bathroom, some in the storage room and others under the kitchen sink, pick one location to keep ALL of cleaning products. Granted, you should probably keep dish detergent in the kitchen and laundry detergent by the washer and dryer. But I’m talking about products used throughout the house. When you’re ready to dust, you don’t want to have to get the furniture polish out from under the kitchen sink and then grab a dusting cloth off the laundry room shelf.
That’s too many steps.
Those will likely deter you from cleaning. At least it does me!
Keep kitchen items together when it makes sense.
My son eats oatmeal every. single. morning. I used to grab a bowl from one cabinet, the oats from another, cinnamon from the spice basket and honey from the pantry. Now I keep all the ingredients together in one cabinet and it saves me about a minute each day.
The same is true for coffee. By keeping the coffee filter and beans beside the coffee pot, it can save valuable time.
The time savings may only a minute but those minutes add up!
Keep office supplies corralled.
How many times have you gone scouring around the house looking for a pen or a piece of paper? If you make it a habit to keep office supplies together (i.e. on the same shelf or in the same box/basket) you’ll always be able to find what you’re looking for.
Keep toys in the kids room.
I’m not saying kids shouldn’t be able to bring their toys into the living areas of the house. They should!
But when toys begin to take over the house, it becomes impossible to keep clean.
We do our best to limit the amount of toys our children have and get rid of those they outgrow. This allows them to enjoy and actually play with the toys they have. And it helps our home stay more organized and doesn’t cause me to spend hours upon hours cleaning up their mess.
Keep purging. And then purge some more.
It’s possible to have a messy home living a minimalist lifestyle. But, more often than not, when your house is a disaster, it’s because there’s too. much. stuff. packed in there!
By making it a habit to purge often, you’ll find that you don’t have to spend as much time cleaning.
THAT makes a busy mom happy!
So, tell me, how do you organize your home to make cleaning more efficient?
Christine blogs at I Dream of Clean. She has a house full of boys so cleaning up their mess is inevitable. Over the years she’s learned a few tips to make the chore a little more enjoyable and she’d love to share them with you. Give her a month and she’ll help you take 31 days to make cleaning a habit!
Heather says
I’ve found that having logical cleaning supplies in sections of the house works well for me. When we had two floors, I kept a bottle of vinegar spray in each floor, and a basket of cleaning cloths too. We had a basket of cloth napkins on each floor, as we didn’t have a dining room or even an eat-in kitchen, and would sit in one of two living rooms to eat.
Now that the house is ranch-style, having a bottle of cleaning spray in the kitchen and one in the laundry room at the opposite end of the house does wonders. Having things too far away from where I use them is what deters me! Also it keeps the kitchen cleaning cloths separate from the bathroom cleaning cloths. I can’t stand the idea of using on my counter a cloth that may have been used on the toilet. BLECH!
Christine (iDreamofClean) says
Ah, yes, good point! Using separate cleaning cloths is a great idea.
Katina says
I love using vinegar spray! But was horrified when I found out that vinegar doesn’t actually kill all the germs as well as bleach does. “Vinegar does kill some things but it is only 90% effective against bacteria and 80%-83% effective against viruses and mold/mildew. Bleach kills 99.9% of bacteria, viruses and mold/mildew. This information came from the health department.” I’ve switched to a rubbing alcohol mixture, which once again isn’t as effective as bleach but it is better than vinegar.
Amanda says
I FINALLY, FINALLY gave up sorting clothes and am much happier for it! I now wash clothes by designating laundry bins for everyone and it gets put in the load that way and exits that way. YAY!!
Christine (iDreamofClean) says
YES! I’m the same way. However, every once in a while I notice our whites get a little dingy when I combine clothes. When that happens it kicks me into gear to separate most of the whites and towels.
It’s extremely helpful for keeping kids clothing separated though. Plus it’s nice to not spend time going room to room. Just go to the appropriate location, fold, and put away. Or, if your kids are old enough, delegate! Love it!
Christie says
Amanda, that’s exactly the system that works for me! A hamper in each bedroom, dump it all in the washer, then into a laundry basket that goes back into the room it came from for putting away!
Katie B. of HousewifeHowTos.com says
We established a rule about eating only in the kitchen. Before that, I’d find dishes, wrappers and crumbs everywhere, all of which needed to be cleaned up before I could actually clean anything. And don’t get me started on the carpet stains from times my husband or son got engrossed in a video game and knocked their plates over.
Shonda says
Well, I’m still working on making clean a habit although I love to be clean. I have 2 little ones and the hardest part is I like to do BIG projects, but I have to do in little increments and with lots of interruptions. But I’m trying to daily do something. I always make sure the kitchen is clean before I go to bed. And also I make lots of freezer meals for breakfast (muffins, waffles, pancakes) so I don’t make a mess in the kitchen first thing in the morning.