Those of us who like an organized and tidy home can create stress by trying to make house cleaning too difficult and too complex. We can give ourselves way too much work to do at once and start to feel overwhelmed by all the work we have yet to do. We may constantly be unsatisfied with how dirty the house is and how little we get done. Instead of repeatedly criticizing yourself and not feeling great about your own home, you can try these methods for simplifying housework.
1. Clean Only Where Necessary
Have you ever cleaned a room of the house just because it was time to clean it according to a schedule and not because it was in need of cleaning? Have you ever found yourself sweeping or vacuuming the entire floor even when you didn’t see dust where you were working? That’s what happens when we clean as a ritual and not as is needed.
You can make things simpler for yourself by spot cleaning or focusing on only those parts of the house that are dirty. You will save yourself a lot of time, especially if you clean often. If you do a pretty good job of keeping your home tidy, why waste time cleaning where the house is already looking good? By keeping your focus on the areas that need work, you can get more done and make your house look even cleaner. You will likely also feel more satisfied and less frustrated with your cleaning routine.
2. Get Help When You Need It
Are you the kind of person who believes that they have to personally do the cleaning for it to be done right? If you are a perfectionist, then you can cause yourself no end of stress by trying to clean every bit on your own. There will be times when you don’t have room in your schedule to do all of the cleaning yourself. What do you do in those times? Simply get frustrated and overwork your body?
Why not hire professional cleaning services to do the work for you? This can be an option you use occasionally. It doesn’t have to be something you do every week, but having professionals help every so often can take a lot of the burden off of you. When there is too much work to do and you can afford to pay someone to help, why not take advantage of professional cleaning services? You may find that they do an excellent job and meet your standards of cleanliness and quality.
3. Divide the Work
Trying to take on too much cleaning at once can be stressful. Simplifying your cleaning is all about taking the stress out and still getting the work done. We recommend creating a cleaning schedule for your home. Set aside certain days and certain times to do the various cleaning tasks. This way, you will be more organized, and you won’t feel like you need to do everything at once.
As you plan your schedule, make sure you are being realistic. Think about how much time it takes to do each of the tasks and whether you will have adequate time for them in the time you have set apart for the tasks.
Dividing up the work into an organized schedule helps you to clarify all of the tasks, so you know exactly what has to be done. Plus, if you have trouble remembering what still needs to be done, you can leave that to the schedule. Just mark off each task as you do it, and you won’t have to keep a running tally in your mind. That’s going to help with any stress you might be feeling about house cleaning.
4. Use Modern Technology to Your Advantage
Thanks to modern cleaning tech, you don’t have to do all of the cleaning on your own. Have you thought of buying a robot vacuum? A floor cleaning robot can vacuum and pick up dirt and dust so you don’t have to. A robot vacuum can be set to clean while you are not at home, so the cleaning gets done without the robot being underfoot. These cool tech tools can work on all kinds of floors as well and aren’t limited to only working on either carpet or tile flooring.
On that note, you may want to upgrade your cleaning tools. If you have been using the same mop and broom for years, it may be time to purchase new ones that are easier to use and in better condition. With effective cleaning tools, you will spend less time cleaning, and cleaning should not be as frustrating.
5. Break Down Your Big Jobs
We talked earlier about feeling overwhelmed by the work you have to do. That is a pretty common feeling for people when it comes to their house cleaning. Our advice is to take those big jobs that can be intimidating and break them down into smaller steps. So, if you have the big job of cleaning out your attic, for example, you can break that down like this: 1. Get rid of trash and unwanted items in the attic. 2. Remove everything else from the attic. 3. Clean the attic. 4. Put items back.
These steps can be spread across multiple days so that you are not trying to do everything at once. It is good practice to break down big tasks like this so that you aren’t trying to do too much at once or get too much done in a single day. A big part of simplifying the housework is that you don’t put too much on your schedule at one time. You give yourself permission to give work to someone else or to take long breaks when necessary and come back to the work when you are able to.
We hope this has been helpful in giving you some ideas for how you can make house cleaning simpler and perhaps make your life a little bit simpler as well.