Busy parents sometimes struggle to keep the family home looking spruce and free from clutter; however, there are some really simple things you can do that will help you stay on top of the chores and keep your family home clean and organized. Here are a couple of tips for dealing with basic housework that will make life a whole lot easier.
The problems
There are certain rooms in your home that get a lot of family traffic and, unsurprisingly, this takes a heavy toll. Circulation areas are a good example – the hallway, stairs and landing are often used as informal storage for stray toys and shoes, and these are zones where you are also likely to find evidence of budding artistic geniuses experimenting with crayons on the walls.
Then there are the principal living areas in your home, kitchen included, which tend to suffer from the fact that a lot of people use them at the same time, causing the resulting chaos. If you permit TV dinners, expect to find crumbs and spills on the furniture, and if you have a family pet, undoubtedly you will find animal hairs embedded everywhere, including on cushions, curtains and carpets.
The solutions
Some simple routines can help you deal with day-to-day mess; for example, encouraging everyone in the family to develop tidy habits. Assuming that your household has sufficient storage, try keeping an old pillowslip handy, perhaps concealed in a hall closet. It seems that if children think that carelessly abandoned toys are being bagged up and heading for a new home at the thrift store, they are very quick to change their habits. In many ways, this is a very useful life lesson.
When it comes to cleaning, start with the simple things that have an immediate impact, such as cleaning counter tops and vacuuming the lounge – even making sure all beds are made at the start of every day has an immediate positive effect on how tidy your bedrooms look. Make sure everyone in your household does a chore a day – even if it’s a little thing, it will make a difference.
Doing a little cleaning every day really does help – and it’s much better than leaving everything for a week and then having to spend an entire day cleaning. Our ancestors most likely knew a thing or two when they chose to wash laundry on a Monday, polish glasses on a Tuesday, clean windows on a Wednesday, etc.
The deep clean
Over time, even with regular cleaning, some jobs require extra help. For example, if the budding artist can’t be stopped, you should choose washable wallpaper or paint when you decorate. Also, even if you are diligent about vacuuming and deal instantly with stains and pet hair where they are obvious, the heavy traffic on carpets builds up over time, and eventually the only solution is to have them cleaned professionally. Choose a system that is proven to help your carpets stay cleaner longer, such as Chem-Dry carpet cleaning in Ottawa; you won’t break the bank and the great results will make future cleaning so much easier.
photo credit: The Carpet Guys Saskatoon via Flicker
