5 Ways to Reduce Time Spent Cleaning Your Home
Create a daily cleaning routine AND implement a quick nighttime routine.
Implement a cleaning routine that is easy to accomplish and touches on every area of your home. Keep in mind that not every section of your home needs a deep clean every day. No one would be able to keep their home tidy if they are doing a deep clean daily. Try to implement a routine that touches on each area, but deep cleans a specific section. For example, Mondays may be your kitchen day in which all appliances, floors, cabinets and counters get a really good deep clean. The rest of the rooms in the house may be just cleared of clutter on the floor and furniture quickly dusted.
Also, do not skip a quick nighttime cleaning routine to get ahead for the following day. Here you will find my quick nighttime routine that helps me get my day started!
Make spaces easily accessible.
As you declutter and organize, make sure that you are creating spaces that are easily reached for cleaning. If your organization strategy includes several items stacked on top of each other, for example, then getting behind the stacked items just to dust, will take a lot more effort. You will have to unstack all of those items, clean, and then re-stack the items. Your home will take a lot longer to clean if you have to move so many things before you even get to cleaning.
Keep items off of the floor or counters.
Use open shelves or hooks on your walls or cabinets to achieve this. For example, you can add a holder to your kitchen cabinets for your dish soap and sponges. This helps especially if you are limited on countertop space and helps keep your countertop clutter-free. Use walls or doors to keep things off of the floor whenever possible. For example, you may install an over-the-door shoe organizer to keep shoes off of the floor. Whatever you choose, this will reduce the time you spend clearing shoes before you sweep or mop the floor.
Put furniture on wheels or legs.
This is a trick I use on baskets or other pieces of furniture so that I can quickly move the furniture away to vacuum quickly and easily. When there are bigger items on the floor, you may find yourself vacuuming or sweeping just up to the item and never get behind or under the item. These are places were dust and crumbs can pile up. Putting things on wheels allows you to quickly roll the item away, vacuum/sweep/mop under and behind the item and quickly roll it back. In addition, having furniture that at least 4-5 inches off of the ground will allow you to sweep or vacuum underneath without having to move a big bulky item.
Declutter, declutter, declutter!
Reduce the number of items you keep within your spaces. This is the best way to reduce the amount of time you spend on your cleaning routine. Each item you add to your décor or that is kept in your home, you can add a minute or two of cleaning time. If I only have 5 items, dusting and cleaning should take me about 5 minutes or so. 100 little figurines and shelves will take me a whole lot longer! Try to reduce as much as possible.
