Housecleaning for the Less-than-Perfect Mom

Truthfully, I prefer to do as little housework as possible. I would rather that my kids have memories of me playing with them and having fun, than memories of me cooking and cleaning.

As a result, my homekeeping strategy is to have standards that are really not very high. If I can look around my house and say, “Not bad for five kids” then I am usually satisfied.

At the same time, with five kids, getting to that “not bad” point can take a lot of work. If I put off household tasks for too long the chaos in “snowballs” and our day to day life becomes a struggle.

That is why effective homekeeping, for me, means cutting corners and taking shortcuts in every area of my homes upkeep. Here is a partial list of ways that I have found to get away with doing less housecleaning.

LAUNDRY

• Just keep it moving. Get the clean laundry out of the living room, hallway etc. and get it into drawers, closets or bedrooms as quickly as possible.
• Seriously evaluate what really needs to be folded. Do towels really need to be folded? I put our clean towels unfolded in a bin in the closet. What about dishtowels? They wipe up scum from our counters. Do they really need to be treated all that carefully?
• Let your kids fold their own clothes or don‘t fold them at all. When I see how my little boys’ clothes look at the end of the day, a few extra wrinkles truly do not matter. If I am in a hurry, I often put their clothes in the drawers unfolded.
• Most people over the age of 12 can learn to use the washing machine and dryer. You can give older kids a basket and make them responsible for their own laundry.
• Bath towels can be used a few times before they need washing. Install hooks to hang them us between uses.
• Use a mesh laundry bag for washing socks. This eliminates the need for sorting.

IRONING:

• I avoid buying things that look like they would need ironing. I usually choose knits, tee shirts and denims for my kids. Cotton button shirts usually take too much care, but a nice knit polo shirt is wrinkle-free and can be just as dressy for special occasions.
• Of course, if you are more organized than I am, taking your clothes out of the dryer as soon as it stops will eliminate most wrinkles.
• If something is too wrinkled to wear, I usually just choose something else. Then I give the item a few good shakes and hang it up for awhile. Generally, it is presentable by the next day.
• We know that putting a wrinkled item in the dryer alone is wasteful, but if I already have a load of damp clothes in there, I toss it in and in about 15 minutes it is ready to wear.

CLUTTER:

• You cannot organize clutter, but you can contain it. Clutter in a cabinet, drawer or box is better than clutter out in the open. You can hide clutter away to give you more space in living and work areas, then work on the clutter little by little.
• If you choose to declutter an area, you can do a little each day. Get a trash bag, and give yourself five or ten minutes to throw away as much junk as you can from that area. Then the next day, do the same with things you wish to give away.
• For desk, dresser and junk drawers: give yourself one minute to select items that really belong there or things you know you really need, then just dump everything else in a box and put it in an out of the way place (the garage, a closet, under a bed). Over the next month, if you really need something from the box, get it out. What is ever left in the box you really don’t need so you can throw or give it away.
• Schoolwork: You don’t have to save everything! Really! Look at it and then recycle it. Have a small box in a closet or on a shelf to save things that are particularly precious. When the box is full, go through it and recycle more.

KITCHEN:

• Clear the counters. This makes them much easier to clean. Take any appliance that is not used everyday off the counter. Unless you LOVE your canisters , put them in a cabinet.
• Before you start to do the dishes spray your stove top and counters with cleaner. It will do some of the work while you are busy. When you are done with the dishes wipe it off
.
• Keep the dishes moving. Put clean dishes away as soon as possible. This clears the dishwasher or dish drain for use, and dishes don't pile up in the sink. This job can easily be assigned to kids or another adult in the house.
• Another interesting thing to keep in mind is that vegetarian meals create less clean up. I am not a vegetarian, but my teenagers are, so several nights a week I cook meatless meals. I have found a real difference in clean up time. The grease left behind on stovetops, pans, counters and floors by the fat in meat takes more work to clean than vegetarian sources of protein. Plus, there is more sanitizing needed when I handle meat.
• Kitchen floors can be vacuumed. I use a broom only occasionally. Sweeping is a job well suited for children.
• Also keep in mind that children benefit from the responsibility of daily chores. If you keep your expectations realistic, kitchen clean up is ideal for this.
• You can give your children a wet towel and they can do a pretty good job of “mopping” the floor.
• Use vinegar and water instead of window cleaner and give the job of cleaning windows and the front of appliances to the kids.

BATHROOM

• My best homekeeping strategy is to keep cleaning supplies in each bathroom and encourage family members to use them daily
• I keep a toilet brush next to each toilet and a can of cleanser under each sink. A thirty second scrub each day does wonders.

• If we miss too many of those thirty second scrubbings in a row and get a toilet ring, a pumice stone (available cheap in hardware stores) scrapes it off in less than a minute.
• I installed removable toilet seats because I have little boys and just cleaning the toilet bowl in not enough to keep my bathrooms from smelling like a truck stop. These toilet seats are just as easy to put in as regular ones and cost less than $20 each. When needed, I just twist the brackets and the seat lifts easily off of the screws so I can clean under it.
• Call me a slacker, but I believe the real purpose of a shower curtain is to hide a dirty tub.
• Once a week, when I am taking shower, I spend 5 minutes cleaning the shower walls with a scrubber sponge. This keeps it “clean enough” for me.
• For the bathtub, I use one of those “eraser pad” made for walls (Mr. Clean or store brand). It takes only a few minutes to get decent results.
• Although rather expensive, those cleaning wipes marketed by Clorox make it easy for kids to clean up the bathroom sink and fixtures on their own. An alternative is to have a roll of paper towels and a spray bottle of cleaner (or vinegar and water) under the sink.
• A very cheap cleaner can be made by putting a dryer sheet in a spray bottle and filling it up with water. This works very well for softening dirt and grime, and even does a fair job on mirrors (if you are not a perfectionist). When the spray bottle gets low, just add more water. One dryer sheet lasts for weeks. This is highly fragrant, so if you are sensitive to smells, it may not be for you. I do find the scent preferable to the toxic smell of most cleaners on the market.

LIVING ROOM AND COMMOM AREAS

• Any room where eating is allowed will get dirty and messy fast. Banning food from the living room can be the most effective housecleaning tip.
• I keep a bin for shoes under a small end table. This makes it easy to put shoes away and find them later.
• Toys and loose items can be corralled in a bin and put off to the side or in a corner. This can be permanent or you can require that the items be put away every day.
• When the living room gets too messy I call for a group clean up. It takes only a few minutes to get it into decent shape again.
• Children usually love using feather dusters, so this job can be given to them.
• Vacuuming can make a dramatic difference. This is also one of those jobs that can be put off because it takes the same amount of work whether it has been one day or one month between vacuumings.

Effective homekeeping does not mean that mom is a housekeeper. I think of myself as more of a manager. Ideally housecleaning is shared by all members of the household. I expect that the kids and other adults will help. Lower your standards and you will probably get much more cooperation on this. It does not have to be done perfectly--just done.