Let’s be real about something: if you keep a clean house, then you never have to spend a day off or a day from your coveted weekend doing nothing but cleaning. Life is short and frankly, we would rather be doing fun stuff like getting coffee with friends or well, literally anything else. So let’s take a look at what we would consider a more realistic cleaning schedule for busy (or lazy, we aren’t here to judge) humans.
Make Your Bed Every Day
Seriously just the simple act of making your bed, a task that takes less than just a couple of minutes, gives you that instant gratification of having control over something, and that something just so happens to make your room (or the guestroom or the kid’s room) automatically look more put together.
Wash Your Dishes Stat
We know, we know, it feels good to let that bowl or those glasses sit in the sink, or “soak” because there’s only two or three now anyway, so we’ll just wait for the next meal, or the next day, etc. But the thing is, when we do this, the dishes inevitably pile up and that gets nasty fast. So instead of allowing this to happen, just wash your dishes right after you use them.
Commit to Wiping Down Surfaces
Every morning or evening or afternoon, whatever time of day works best for you, take a Clorox wipe or warm soapy rag and wipe down your sinks and counters. Not only will this give your rooms a polished look, but this will keep certain sink and/or counter gunk from building up. And as a major bonus, if you’re committed to wiping down surfaces every night, you’re less likely to keep a bunch of stuff on them.
Keep an Eye on Your Floors
Have you ever caught your floors in the early morning sunshine? It’s terrifying. You’ll see every dog hair, dust mite, and footprint. To combat this we recommend purchasing a Roomba and letting it do its thing every night. But these can be a little pricey so if you’re not quite ready to invest in a Roomba, commit to one room’s floor each night. This is another task that will only take a few minutes of your morning or your evening.
In a Word: Maintain
The key to being busy or lazy or whatever you want to call it while also keeping a nice, clean, tidy house is maintaining. You maintain a tidy home by picking up towels after you shower, washing dishes, putting those dishes away, spraying your shower with a no-scrub cleaner. In fact, think of it like this: if a cleaning task will only take a few minutes, then go ahead a knock it out now. Because if you wait, then odds are, the next time it will take you longer than just a few minutes!)