Like many working parents, I work hard all week and the last thing I often want to do on my precious time off is housework - think of the job of an Iron Maid and you'll understand why!
I try to make the whole process of keeping my home clean and tidy as
simple as possible and thought I’d share some tips with you, especially around
cleaning and storage.
Hallway
The
vast majority of dust and dirt is brought into your home by your footwear, so it
makes sense to ask everyone to remove their shoes when coming home or visiting. Think how much time you will save on
vacuuming and cleaning floors. Having
everyone’s slippers ready on a shoe rack in the hall encourages this.
Another tip is to have a really
good doormat and ask everyone to use is.
In houses with narrow hallways and a small lobby/entrance area, coir
matting is ideal for this. My tiny
entrance lobby of just 3 ft x 2ft is one big coir mat – it looks good and is
extremely practical. It’s also very easy
to vacuum.
My mother used to go to extreme
lengths here and would pounce on the dog whenever she let him in from a wet
garden and wipe his paws with an old towel.
Poor mutt soon got used to it and would wait patiently! Just spending two minutes doing this saved
ages of time removing muddy footprints.
Another tip for tidying as you go
along is to invest in a stair basket – anything that needs to go up stairs goes
into the basket to be taken up once or twice a day. An easy habit to develop and it saves lots of
running up and down. Not to mention
looking much nicer than an article on every step being ignored by you and the
rest of the family because it’s all too much to carry.
If you have pets, invest in a
vacuum cleaner that had been designed especially to tackle animal hair and has
lots of tools for getting into all those nooks and crannies where the hair
seems to gather.
Kitchen
If you have put some time into think about
the best way to lay out your kitchen and where to keep things it will reduce
the time you spend preparing meals. Set
up three main workspaces: preparation area, cooking area and clean-up area. This
is the so called “kitchen triangle” and connects refrigerator, sink and cooker.
Organising
your most used kitchen utensils and ingredients around these key zones will
help ensure you have everything to hand when it comes to food preparation and
cooking.
Keep a
bottle of anti-bacterial spray to hand and you can readily clean up as you go
along and micro-fibre cloths are super efficient, easy to wash and dry and much
kinder to the environment than paper towels.
There are even multi purpose cleaners on the market now that can be used
on both kitchen surfaces and floors – saving time and money. A fresh scent will leave your entire kitchen
smelling clean and fresh
Bathroom
The only way to keep on top of your bathroom is with
a quick daily wipe round of clutter free surfaces. Wherever possible, keep things in cupboards,
drawers or baskets in the bathroom and only have out the daily essentials. A friend of mine, colour codes everything for
her children i.e. a tooth brush, flannel
and towel etc. for her children and each child is responsible for keeping their
own “colour” tidy. It has certainly
worked and everyone puts their own things away and there’s often a competition
to see who finished first! Great idea!
Just like in the kitchen, a single all-purpose
cleaner and micro fibre cloths make short work of any mess and spills and you
don’t need a whole array of cleaning products taking up space and costing more
money
One
thing I do buy separately is bleach for the loo and a swish of bleach and a
quick scrub keeps the toilet clean too – keeping on top of it every day saves
so much time in the long run.
For
the tougher cleaning jobs in the house, I have one main ally and it’s a throw
back from my grandfather’s days as a painter and decorator –sugar soap. It really is the best at getting off greasy
residue and really tough ground in dirt and even better, it’s now available in
a ready made up spray form. No more
messing around measuring and diluting.
Finally,
research shows that if your home smells nice, it will “feel” cleaner to
everyone who enters it. Keep your home
fresh smelling with scented candles and discreet air fresheners – only you know
if you’ve cleaned behind the fridge and chances are if you have a fragrant home
everyone will think you’re a regular Queen of Clean!
I’m
sure we all have lots of tips and tricks at making things easier at home – why
not let me know about them below.
Happy Housework!
No comments:
Post a Comment