Speed Cleaning for a Clean Home During School Days

• Tweet
• 
• Buffer

• Tweet

Get..Set..Clean!

You know how life gets during busy times, such as school days. You’re trying hard to keep track of schedules, mealtimes, after-school projects and play dates along with juggling work commitments that cleaning up the house just doesn’t get to figure on the list. Yeah, I’ve been there. More than once.

So, I have a few speed cleaning tricks up my sleeve that allow me to keep the house looking reasonably neat and organized without me spending hours over it.

Here is a peek into my speed cleaning routine for school days and other busy seasons of life:

Declutter When You Can

Although I enjoy organizing and decluttering, when life gets busy it doesn’t make sense for me to devote a dedicated day or hour to decluttering my closet. So I just declutter when I can. For instance, if I am in the kitchen, I’ll declutter the top of the refrigerator. You’d be amazed at the stuff that finds it way to that area!

Also, decluttering helps clean up an area faster. So, before you begin cleaning, remove all clutter.

Clean as You Go

Yes, yet again. Clean up as you work. Don’t leave your desk or workspace all stacked with papers and books when you wrap up for the day. Put them away. The same is true for time in the kitchen or in the family room. Put away the toys, games and kiddie clutter once you’re through with them.

Have a Time Limit

It is SO easy to get sucked into cleaning that you can lose all track of time. You know, you start with cleaning the toilet, then notice that the grout needs to be scrubbed too. You start on that only to notice the area under the sink looks grimy. Yeah, before you know it, you’ve spent over an hour in that bathroom.

So, set a timer for 15 or 20 minutes and then, get started. Set yourself a time limit for each room or area to be cleaned and what works for me is to focus on not more than two areas in one day. 

Clean What Needs to be Cleaned

When you have a time limit, you’re forced to clean only what’s dirty and forget about the rest. This is something that’s taken some getting used to for me, at least. Earlier, I would want to dust everything, including things that weren’t dusty. Now, I just focus on surface areas that need to be dusted and forget about the rest until they need my attention.

Have a List of Daily Cleaning Chores

I use Jessica’s cleaning checklist in Organizing Life as Mom to tick off my daily cleaning chores which includes making the beds, putting away laundry and dishes along with my “clean” area of the day.

My cleaning list looks like this:

Tidy up entrance. Our main door opens straight into our living room, so I make it a point to have that all tidied up right at the start of the day or do it the evening before as part of our winding down routine. -10-12 minutes

Make beds. Change linen, if needed. – 15 minutes

Put away laundry. – 10 minutes.

Wipe down kitchen counters and bathroom sink – 5 minutes each.

Clean {………..} – 15 minutes

Clean {………..} – 15 minutes

Hire Help

Since life has gotten busier for us with our new web content and social media management business, I’ve decided to hire help to sweep and mop our house. We live in a dusty enviroment and need to sweep and mop daily, and it was eating up way too much time.

I would much rather be spending that time hanging out with my daughter and husband or working on building our business rather than sweeping and mopping every day. So, I swallowed my pride and hired help. It is a real time-saver and speeds up the other cleaning activities.

What speed cleaning tips do you have for busy school days and seasons of life?

Photo Credit: William Warby