How to Make Time to Clean as a Busy Mom

For busy moms, especially those that work at home, making time to clean is often difficult. There are a few strategies that can be put into place to ensure that the house stays clean. It just has to be a family effort.

The tips below will help you maintain a clean and tidy home at all times, even during play dates and sleep overs.

Create a Chore List

Create a chore list for the children. The tasks should be assigned in ease of completion by age.

Examples of chore assigning:

Vacuuming – children ages 7 and up

Loading the dishwasher – children ages 8 and up

Sweeping floors – children ages 5 and up

Picking up toys – ages 2 and up

Making the bed – children over 5 years old

Mopping floors – over the age of 9

Dusting – children over age 4

These are just some of the tasks that can be assigned. The idea is to show the children how to do to the task and how to make it fun. They can make a cleaning song or you can make it a family game to complete chores before another.

Get the Family into a Routine

When a busy lifestyle prevents normal tasks from being completed, a routine needs to be put into effect. This means that once someone finishes a meal, their plate is rinsed and put into the dishwasher.

Children should wipe their own place at the dinner table and should know to clean up toys right after dinner. Once a routine is in place, the home will maintain itself a little better.

Ask for Some Help

There are times when life is too busy for family chores to get done. This is when you will want to hire a cleaning service.  It does not mean that you are lazy in any way; it just means that the family is extraordinarily busy.

Families tend to get ill together, which can cause the home to get a little extra dirty. Following an illness, a professional company can come in to make the home clean, tidy and germ free once again.

Schedule a cleaning service for weekly or monthly service based upon your needs.

Create a Rewards System

Children are more likely to comply with a chore list when a rewards system is involved. Now, this is not a bribe, it is a way to teach them responsibility. The rewards can be something as simple as an extra 30 minutes of television or computer time.

The rewards do not have to be tangible goods or monetary in any way.

Keeping a home clean and tidy is a big job, and busy moms cannot do it alone. Get the family involved and keep the house clean at all times. Routines become habit and this is a good habit to have.

When everyone is involved, cleaning up daily will only take about 30 minutes. This is the best way to make time to clean. Get a schedule in place, break it down and tackle the chores together.