You wake up bright and early, make breakfast, get the kids ready for school, make sure everything’s in order for your partner to run off to work before you drop the kids to school (or wave goodbye to them from the kitchen window as they board the school bus). Then, you take a breather and prepare to conquer the rest of your day!
For a stay-at-home parent, cleaning is a major part of the day. There are several cleaning tasks to complete which can be quite time-consuming when done alone. Nevertheless, you get on with it and do it anyway. But there are ways to make cleaning alone a little more pleasant and less stressful as you go through each task. So, we’re sharing a few tips to help you get your cleaning groove on and alter your mindset as you carry out household chores. Read on!
1. Make Your Environment Livelier
When you’re cleaning alone, it’s important that you create a happy environment to keep your spirits up. Cleaning is not the most fun activity, but it need not be such a drag either. Keep your work atmosphere lively by playing music; open your blinds and windows to brighten up the house and take glimpses of the outside world. Yes, even seeing some activity going on in the neighbor’s yard or passersby on the street can make you feel like you’re not really alone.
2. Keep Supplies Organized and Easily Accessible
When it’s time to begin cleaning, it helps to have everything organized and easy to access. This means keeping supplies back where they belong after every use so that you don’t waste time searching for anything for the next time. As you go about your daily cleaning, we advise you to refrain from putting items away until they are no longer needed for the day. For example, after you’ve cleaned one room, keep the floor cleaner in the room you intend to clean next for more convenience.
3. Tackle Big Cleaning Jobs First
Cleaning alone generally means having to do ALL the household chores. Therefore, start with the bigger, tougher tasks while you’re still fresh and energized. By the end of your cleaning duties, you may feel exhausted so it makes sense to leave easy, quicker jobs to do last. You’ll feel more motivated to finish off the household cleaning when there are only small jobs left.
4. Clean One Room at a Time
You might think that vacuuming the entire house at one time is better than cleaning one room completely before vacuuming the next. We, however, find the former to be much more tiring and stressful as opposed to the latter; i.e. cleaning one room at a time. Working systematically can be the difference between getting through a task feeling overwhelmed, and cleaning calmly with a positive mindset. When you clean one room at a time, you don’t feel mentally stressed because you divide the work into different, shorter tasks. For example, dusting, vacuuming and mopping one room at a time seems so much easier than doing one of these jobs around the whole house in one go.
5. Take Breaks!
Don’t wear yourself out trying to finish up one cleaning task after the other. This is another reason why stay-at-home parents grow frustrated and stressed. Take a break after you clean one room (about 10-15 minutes) to recharge your batteries before moving to the next cleaning task. It makes a world of difference as cleaning continuously tires you out to the extent where you stop cleaning efficiently. So, to yield satisfactory results, give yourself those much needed breaks!
There are plenty of ways to make the long cleaning day ahead bearable. Use these simple cleaning tips contributed by professional home cleaners from our friends at https://www.moplovers.com.au/.