How to do Your Household Chores Fast Without Complete Overwhelm – Cleaning Tips
How many of you LOVE housework? I’m picturing all of you with your hands down!
I’m right there with you? After having my second baby, I felt like my house was chronically messy and although I truly believe everyone that says we should leave the house messy and play with our children, I was having a hard time coping with the overwhelm of messiness! I realized I needed a plan to keep a clean house and it needed to be something I would be able to keep up with. However, with a toddler and a baby household chores seemed so overwhelming.
The Science Behind House Cleaning
Woman’s brains perceive clutter differently than men’s. A study from the January Issue of The Journal of Neuroscience from The Princeton Neuroscience Institute states, “Multiple stimuli present in the visual field at the same time compete for neural representation by mutually suppressing their evoked activity throughout visual cortex, providing a neural correlate for the limited processing capacity of the visual system.”
In everyday terms, the more stuff and clutter you have in your home, the more stressed out and less productive you will be. As a result, it is more difficult to focus because clutter is competing for the brain’s attention. This means as a mom, you can never truly relax. Before I read the research, I knew I felt this way often. Now I know why.
So even though I spend a lot of time with my kids, I’ll opt for a clean house too which will help all parties involved because we will save my sanity! You can follow suit with this fool-proof method! Also, the best part is that will only take 25 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening. That is just 45 minutes a day, broken up into small accomplishments.
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Make Chores Easier by Making Cleaning a Habit
Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball method suggests paying off small debts first to feel a sense of accomplishment. We can use the same reasoning with our cleaning.
I’m reading a book called The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. This book is amazing and teaches the research behind forming a habit in the brain. Why do some tasks become automatic and while others are hard to complete (like cleaning)? The book shows how the brain is craving a reward cued by a trigger. If you clean the same way daily, it will eventually become a habit and easier to carry out. If we break down our cleaning into small tasks our brain will perceive this as a small reward (checking it off our “to do” list) and eventually it will become a habit.
I have always loved the phrase, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” This was brought up over and over in teaching seminars (I used to be a teacher). This is why we are going to create a cleaning schedule to help move you along throughout the week. After you tidy up, you will have plenty of time for your own hobbies and your family.
Related Posts:
- Useful Tips to Declutter your Home and Gain Perspective
- 5 Borderline Genius Cleaning Hacks to Save you Time and Money
- How to Let Go of Items You Once Loved (Decluttering)
- 3 Spring Cleaning Tips That Will Earn You Money
- 41 Ways to Cut Your Food Bill
- Budget-Friendly Meal Plan – Two Weeks of Dinner Meals – Under $75
- 50 Cheap Meals That Will Feed You Entire Family
Check out the Home Cleaning Planner in the Printable Shop!!!
How to Organize Your Household Chores in 25 Minutes Sessions:
One great cleaning tip I have learned is it helps to have all of your cleaning supplies in one place. You don’t want your dusting spray in one place and your dusting clothes stored somewhere else. Take it from the cleaning experts that carry a cleaning caddy.
Check out my favorite caddy here
Make a small investment and make your life easier.
Next, make a list. I can not stress enough how creating a plan and sticking to it will help ease the burden of cleaning your house. Also, if you continue to do the same chores at the same time daily, you will begin to do these tasks automatically and form a habit.
Now that you are organized, use the next ideas to work through the mess and deep clean your house weekly. You will do 25 minutes of morning chores and around 20 minutes of evening chores. Let’s face it, we are all more productive after that cup of morning coffee (or in my case the third cup). You will also do one deep cleaning chore every Saturday and use any extra time on the clock to organize clutter. Are you ready to clean?
Time-Chunk Household Cleaning & Time Yourself Doing Chores
Another awesome cleaning tip is time chunking is writing out what you will carry out and how much time it will take to achieve your tasks. You can time chunk your cleaning by writing out your cleaning schedule with allotted times next to each task.
- Time Chunk Jobs: Create a daily list of chores you need done & plan out how long it will take. If it cuts into your 25 minutes, put it on tomorrow’s list.
- Weekly Household Chore of the Day: Create a rotating chore of the day to complete your household chores. This chore should be something that doesn’t have to be done daily, like wiping floorboards, cleaning windows, wiping cupboards, or organizing house areas (toys, books, cupboards, clothing, etc.).
- Set a Timer – Set your microwave timer for 25 minutes and do as much as you can. If you end up with any extra time choose one area to organize like kid’s artwork and work until your timer goes off. Create your daily list. It will look something like this:
Morning Chore Time-Chunk Examples:
- Unload dishwasher (5 minutes)
- Put in one load of laundry (3 minutes if you presort)
- Make bed (2 minutes)
- The job of the day:(10 minutes) See below to find your job of the day or write out your own jobs according to what you need clean in your house.
Total Time: 20 minutes (Use that extra five minutes to organize)
Tip: To sort your laundry use a laundry sorter and get your family in on the fun.
Even your kids will love this adorable laundry sorter
It will make your life so much easier to just throw a load of darks in the washer and not have to waste time sorting.
Evening chores: load dishwasher (5 minutes), fold laundry and put away (10 minutes), sweep (5 minutes)
Daily Cleaning Chores:
Monday – Clean bathroom
Tuesday – Dust
Wednesday – Run vacuum
Thursday – Declutter counters
Friday – Wipe floors
Saturday – Extra chore of the week
Extra Deep Cleaning Household Chore
To keep your house extra clean, you will complete one chore every weekend! Furthermore, a cleaning tip I recommend is cleaning microwave spills as soon as they happen so they do not dry on and need scrubbing, but wipe your microwave down once a month and take out the tray and clean it. Your other chores will include cleaning the fridge, wiping walls and blinds, cleaning your floors, and wiping your cupboards. These jobs may need a bit of extra time, but it will be worth your peace of mind and your house will be company ready all the time!
Do your extra chore once a week and complete the following:
1. Wipe fridge and microwave
2. Wipe walls and blinds
3. Clean floors and floorboards
4. Wipe cupboards
Organizing:
An easy way to stay organized is to use any extra time you have on your cleaning timer to organize. Organizing can include putting away papers, organizing bills into a file, putting away or organizing your kid’s toys, cleaning out your closet, organizing under your bathroom sink, and organizing a closet or a cupboard. I find that if I start with a timer, I usually work until my task is complete. It works for me, but if you need the break, save your task for the following day.
The beauty of the system is that when the timer goes off you are done! If you feel you are up to it, you can obviously organize more but if not, save it for tomorrow. You are time chunking and spending a little time in the morning and in the evening and your house will stay clean and you will stay sane!
How Can I Clean with my Kids Running Around?
Now you may be asking, “What do I do with my kids while I am cleaning?” Depending on their age, they can help you. My three and five-year-old love to help clean the floor and dust with water and vinegar spray. You could also use that cleaning time as their screen time and then all play a board game or go to the park when you are done. (That is what my kids love to do!)
If you have a newborn baby, go easy on yourself. Every baby is different. You may or may not be getting sleep. At this stage, sleep is most important, so go take a nap and let your husband do the cleaning for the day. If you feel up to it, start small with the dishes and laundry. The rest can really wait!
Tip: Spray Febreze at the end of your cleaning routine for an extra fresh house.
Save even more time with weekly meal planning! If you are looking to save more time and money, I suggest reading my most popular post, Budget Friendly Two-Week Dinner Meal Plan-Under $75.
Suggested reading: How to let Go of Items you once Loved
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If you are ready to keep a clean house, check out my Home Cleaning Planner and stay organized with your cleaning. This planner will help you go through, room by room and make sure you are completing tasks to keep a clean house and stay organized! Check it out here!
In Conclusion…
Keeping a clean house will help you leave your overwhelm in the past. Nonetheless, using my cleaning tips will help you complete your housework in 25 minutes and will give you peace of mind.
Use the same cleaning pattern daily to help your brain form a habit and feel automatic. Time chunk and set a timer. Use that time for cleaning so you will have the rest of your day to spend with your family or pursue your dreams. (My dream is to blog full-time and if you are interested in starting a blog, check out my blogging tutorial.) With a clean house, you will be able to relax and enjoy time with your family instead of worrying about what you need to sanitize. Here’s to you and your clean house! Keep up the great work!
Take care – Sarah
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Do you think you can stick with this cleaning schedule? I hope my cleaning tips have helped you out! Please leave me a comment. I would love to hear from you!
7 Comments on How to do Your Housework in 25-Minute Sessions Without Going Crazy
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So do you mean 25 minutes a day? I thought you meant that you got your entire house done in 25 minutes which would be very impressive indeed!
Yes, Simona! 25 minutes a day. If I could figure a way to clean my entire house totally in 25 minutes I would be famous! Thanks for the visit!
This article was super helpful and on point, thank you so much. I’m reading all the other articles as well.
From the blogger at Kinnakas blog
Thank you so much, Kinnaka! I’m glad you found it helpful!
Thank you so much!! I will be sharing your post as you have some amazing tips too!
I have a household with about three people including a five-year-old, and occasionally one more. We have not a problem filling the dishwasher. I believe people worry necessarily about that dried up on food. Dishwasher engineers know about that. Dried out on food gets undried on during the process.