Catching Up on Cleaning: Balancing a Clean Home with a Busy Schedule

Taking care of your home can be a difficult task, especially with the high speed of society today. Many homes are headed by single parents with one or multiple children, one person households, and one or more individuals with multiple jobs. And these are only a couple of the possible scenarios - throw in school, errands, and normal tasks, and the appearance of the house will be the first thing neglected on the list of things to do. And after awhile, clutter and cleaning is desperately needed, but how do you fit that in with all the demands of a normal day.

If you are already behind in keeping your home clean and clutter free, there are ways to catch up - without taking the whole day for just cleaning. By following a few basic steps and ideas a messy home will become clean again without sacrificing a ton of time in your day. Also, by using these tools your home will stay clean by only taking 20 minute out of the day.

First, let's make the assumption the cleaning and basic chores are already behind. Clutter, cleaning, and laundry all need to be done - but you are already working, and are home for limited hours because of other commitments. So where do you start?

Start small, don't try and clean everything all in one day or it will take the whole day. If that is what you want to do, that is fine but the goal is to catch up on cleaning without a designated day. Pick one room in your home to start, and then pick up an area. For example, let's assume you want to start your cleaning in the bathroom. When you begin, start in the bathroom but only work on cleaning the counter. When you are starting to clean a home that is already dirty and cluttered this is an important step. By doing this you are breaking down a task into mini-steps that can be accomplished without being overwhelmed.

Accomplish these mini tasks twice a day. So in this situation, you clean two areas of the bathroom - the counter and the toilet. By doing this your bathroom is on its way to quickly being cleaned. Once this is done, move onto another area of the house. The next day, clean the areas you have already started on. In other words pick up anything that is dropped in the bathroom on the counter and put it away. Next move onto a different area and clean. By doing this you are accomplishing two important tasks. The first is you are continuing the cleaning of your home, and the second is you are keeping the already cleaned areas cleaned with little effort.

When you start this process it may take a bit longer than anticipated. But once the overall cleaning is completed it takes only a little time to maintain. This is what your daily cleaning schedule should look like:

1. Take 20 minutes in the morning - clean one area in one room

2. Take 20 minutes in the evening - clean another area in the same room

3. The next morning clean a new area (and possibly start in a new room) and pick up the cleaned area(s)

4. Once the initial cleaning is accomplished designate 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening to maintain the cleanliness in your home

By maintaining a clean home you will eventually take less time out of your day. Every time you skip a day of cleaning and leave items dropped, it will take at least an hour at the end of the week to catch up. Remember take mini steps, keep clean areas clean, and don't become overwhelmed with the process and you are well on your way to a clean home!