April 12, 2021
Feel like starting a cleaning routine would be nice, but these cleaning routines are for ….. people who are at home all day, people without young children and / or people who have a traditional schedule, or for people who who are super organized. Not for you. I totally understand and remember that feeling. I was teaching and working a second job when I decided cleaning wasn’t going to work all day on Saturday. Our small apartment, exhaustion, and piles of laundry showed that it wasn’t working. What has changed? I started rethinking how I approached housekeeping. Instead of looking at it as something I was scared of and a thief of my precious weekends, I decided to find a better way to keep our home clean all week.
pictured: Glass spray bottle | Color-coded cleaning spray bottle tapes | Aqua bar mop towels
The Clean Mama routine took shape over twenty years ago. After tweaking it through different homes, jobs, and with kids of different ages and stages, I started sharing it online in 2009. Now? Hundreds of thousands of families have had success with the Clean Mama routine. My goal? To reach more homes and share how to do the routine when you are tired, exhausted, overworked and busy. Not sure how to start or where you might find the time to make a bed let alone clean a bathroom? You have come to the right place!
If you think you don’t have time for a cleaning routine but want a clean house and are frustrated with how to get there, then you have to start small. Little daily habits that slowly turn into a routine are surprisingly what gets you there. Here are three simple ways to get you started. Read them through and choose something that resonates with you. Try it out and see how it feels. Do it the next day and the next, tweak and make changes. Go ahead and with a little effort and persistence, you will be the one with the clean house. 🙂 Read the entire way for links to other helpful posts and my new guide to a flexible routine for the week!
DO DAILY TASK
Too tired, overwhelmed, unmotivated? Pick one thing that you can do. Instead of getting stuck in what you didn’t do, think about what you did. If you’re too exhausted to choose anything at all, pre-select your MVP. Just do that ONE THING. For me it is the daily job of WIPE COUNTERS.
pictured: Weekdays towels | Glass spray bottle | Premium bar mop towels
Set a timer for 10-15 minutes
When I feel unmotivated or just have a small window of time to clean something, I set a timer for 10-15 minutes and get what I can get done. I am not worried about the list, I do what I can. Have 10 minutes and a lot of clutter strewn all over the house? Take a laundry basket and fill it with whatever stuff is out. Or see if you can do a few daily tasks in those 10-15 minutes. Surprisingly, most cleaning tasks don’t take as long as we think it’s putting off that only makes them worse. This post has a full list (and a free printable version) of things you can do in about 5 minutes. Keep them in a place where you have a few minutes and a mess that you don’t want to deal with. When you run out of daily chores and are ready to add the weekly chores, you can set a timer for 10-15 minutes and set what you can do for your weekly chore.
Start a load of laundry
This is a daily chore, but just getting one load in the washer and getting started can go a long way. Start a load of laundry and do the day’s weekly task while waiting for your laundry to be done. If you have a speed wash option, use that and ride it to do the weekly task and possibly a daily task as well.
Set up a cleaning routine that works with your schedule, not against it!
Would like more? Check out these posts!
A manageable, realistic cleaning routine for every schedule
Clean up routine hacks when you don’t have time to clean