Whether you work from home, work out of the house, or are a stay at home mom, keeping up with household tasks can get overwhelming at times. Trust me, I know. And that’s why I’m taking the time today to share a few simple strategies we use to stay consistent with household tasks. Sound like something you need? Well then, let’s get started.
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Podcast Episode Recommendations
- #14: Should I Pay My Kids to Do Chores? Here’s My Thoughts…
- #3: How to Create the Ideal Family Budget for Your Family
- #2: So You’ve Hit Rock Bottom, Now What?
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5 Ways to Stay Consistent with Household Tasks
Well hey there and welcome back to this episode of the Financial Fix Up Podcast. I’m your host, Sarah Brumley, and I don’t know about you, but keeping up with household tasks can be challenging. It just is. No matter what your situation is at some point your home, the laundry, whatever it might be – it’s going to feel out of control and like you’ll never get it back to the way it should be. And you might wonder what in the world this has to do with finances and a Financial Fix Up Podcast, and you probably won’t be the only one, but I do believe that being able to keep up with your household tasks can be a great benefit to your financial situation as well.
I mean, think about it. If you don’t clean the toilet regularly then the hard water stains become more difficult to remove, right? So, before you know it you’re either spending a bunch of time better allocated to something else OR you’re out at the store buying a cleaning product that you hope will work to get those toilet stains off. And probably you didn’t just buy that one cleaning product, but you came home with a cart full of other things as well, right?
The same rings true for the kitchen stove that doesn’t get a regular cleaning and suddenly needs a major de-greasing product or the laundry that’s piled up so high that it’s easier to buy new underwear than try to get out from under it.
That’s not really conducive to sticking to a budget. And quite honestly, it’s not a good feeling. So, today I want to share a few of the strategies that we use in our own home to keep us on track with our household tasks.
And please recognize that we are not perfect. I’m not perfect, my husband isn’t perfect, my kids aren’t perfect, and our system isn’t perfect, but it does work. So, like everything you hear on this podcast, take what you need and leave what you don’t! And…if you have additional ideas to add to the mix, send me a DM on Instagram at lemonblessings and let me know!
Without further ado, let’s jump into these tips.
Tip #1: Spray Labeled for Each Space
My first tip is to have a cleaning spray bottle labeled for each space. It doesn’t really matter what type of cleaning spray you use, but make sure that you have one available in every room or area that you will want to clean. For us, we have one in the kitchen that’s used for our main living area, one in each of our bathrooms, one in our basement office area, and another in the laundry room. I’ve also labeled them so that we don’t have to guess where the spray belongs.
I know that this might seem a little like overkill, but when the spray is easily accessible I’m much more likely to quickly grab it, wipe a few things down, and be on my way. If I have to go in search of the cleaning spray, get irritated with whoever didn’t put it back in the right place, and possible deal with a toddler tantrum along the way, then it’s unlikely I’ll remember to come back to whatever mess I was going to clean in the first place.
Honestly, this alone has saved us so much time and frustration as a family. So, that’s tip #1 – cleaning spray in every space.
Tip #2: One Room Per Day
My second tip is to schedule and deep clean one room per day. I’m not talking about tidying – in this case, let’s say that Monday you choose to clean the living room. On that day then, you’ll go through your checklist, wipe down all of the surfaces, remove the dust from collectibles, get the cat hair off the couch cushions and whatever else needs to be done in order to have a clean room. Then, Tuesday, you’ll focus on a different room.
Now, this won’t prevent the need for what I refer to as a “Quick Tidy” – which I’ll talk about in a moment – but, it will mean that even if your place is cluttered, it will be clean. You won’t have to be embarrassed about how much dust has accumulated if guests show up unexpectedly.
In my case, when I do my weekly planning on Sunday, I plan out which rooms will get cleaned and on which days. It doesn’t always happen perfectly, but more often than not, we have a totally cleaned home each and every week.
Tip #3: One Load of Laundry
And that leads us to tip number three which is to do one load of laundry each day. In our case, we have assigned days for laundry. So, Monday is my laundry day and my toddler’s too. Tuesday is towels. Wednesday is sheets. Thursday is another toddler laundry day normally. Friday is Justin’s laundry day. Saturday is for the teenager. And Sunday is a catch all of anything that was missed. And sometimes we are able to or have to do a second load in a day, but more often than not, it just one.
So, for me, I put a load of laundry in the washing machine each morning first thing. And that backs up with my one room that I’m going to clean, so I’ll start the washer, do my cleaning, and then when the washing is done, I’ll move it to the dryer. In the evening, then, we’ll spend time folding and hanging clothing, putting towels back on the rack, or getting the sheets on the bed. The best thing is that there’s no laundry still sitting in the washing machine or dryer at the end of the day.
And sure, you could say that because I work from home and am home all day it’s easier to make this happen, but we did the same thing when I worked outside of the home. I put one load of laundry in before I left in the morning, put it to the dryer when I got home, and folded or hung clothes for 15 to 20 minutes each evening. So, it’s doable, I promise!
This really started for us because we don’t have a private laundry room where clothing can pile up. Guests actually have to walk through our laundry room to get to the guest bathroom, which means that keeping up with the laundry is important if we want our home to feel clean and guests to feel welcomed.
So, my suggestion is to just start with one load per day. My guess is if you take a few minutes to list out your categories or types of laundry, it’ll probably be easy to assign each one a day.
So, tip 3 is to do one load of laundry per day.
Tip #4: Vacuum Main Living Areas Daily
My fourth tip is to vacuum your main living areas daily. And trust me, vacuuming is NOT my favorite thing to do, but I’ll tell you why this matters. TOYS. That’s why. Because if you are vacuuming each day, you have the ability to tell your family that if they don’t pick up their stuff, it might not be there for them when they return.
Yep…sometimes I’m that mean mom. Haha. But seriously…even my three year old understands that if mommy says she’s going to vacuum, that he better get serious about putting his things away. He’s still worried I’m going to actually vacuum them up, but in the case of my older girls, they knew very early on that if they didn’t care enough to put things away when they were done with them, then those things obviously would be better suited to someone else’s home that did care about them.
So this is what I referred to earlier as a “quick tidy” and nearly every day of the week I tell my family I’m going to vacuum, smile a bit as they frantically put all of their things away, and I make sure that anything that’s mine also finds it’s way back to where it belongs. It’s not a deep clean. I’m not deep cleaning my home each day. I do that one room at a time over the course of the week. Right?
And when I do run the vacuum, I make it a priority to get the highly trafficked areas so that those crumbs, or little pieces of play-doh don’t become a bigger issue.
So, that’s my fourth tip for you, vacuum your main living areas daily.
Tip #5: Assign Weekend Chores
My last tip for you is to assign weekend chores. Or…chores for whenever your entire family is home. I think this is really important, especially when you have older kids that can help out, but I also love it when my toddler can see that we all work together to have a clean home. Even my husband joins in and yes – he is the primary breadwinner and I do manage most of our home cleaning and such, but on Saturday mornings for 30 to 40 minutes he chips in to help with miscellaneous things around the home, like taking out the trash and cleaning the litter boxes. And, honestly, I think that’s important.
Now, your weekend chores could be anything you deem necessary – indoors OR outdoors. It could be as simple as someone takes care of dishes or you all “quick tidy” the areas of the home, or you could actually assign rooms that need deep cleaning. Maybe Saturday morning comes with the need for mowing the lawn or taking care of weeds. Those could also be appropriate additions.
Whatever you do, just make sure your expectations are clear and that everyone knows what they are responsible for ahead of time so that there’s not a bunch of arguing in the middle of what should be a positive family time.
How to Stay Consistent with Household Tasks
So those are my five tips to help you get and stay consistent with household tasks.
Of course, I want to reiterate that while this system works for our family, you might need to tweak it to make it the right thing for yours. So, take what you need and leave what you don’t. But know that if you are struggling to keep up at home it’s probably time to put a system in place to get it done. Like everything – the more you plan, the better off the results will be!
Whatever you decide, just know that I’m cheering you on! You’ve got this! Have an amazing day and I’ll chat with you again next time!
