One of the things I hear the most from my subscribers and followers is that they wish they had a magic wand (or a maid) to keep their homes clean and tidy. Well, it is totally possible. Let me explain how to keep your house tidy in less than 30 minutes per day.
It’s not a secret but something I’ve been doing since my children were babies. You see, if you’re on the side of OCD like I am, and unless you can afford a maid to either live in or come into your home everyday, you’re not going to keep your home spotless.
If you try to keep your home spotless while you have young children, something will eventually give.
That’s what happened to me. I didn’t have time to eat. Most days I was physically and mentally exhausted and I was just going through the motions with my babies. While the children ate and slept, I worked on the house.
As I’ve realised since my children are now teenagers, you don’t get that time back. They grow ever so quickly. It’s time to forget about a spic and span home and rather create this simple habit or routine I like to call it, that can be done in 30 minutes or less every morning.
Roadmap to Routine
I call it my Roadmap to Routine. These are 3 chores I do every morning and take no longer than 15 minutes, for me. Once I’ve done them I don’t care if the sky falls in. I don’t care about the unwashed floors. I don’t care about the dust on furniture.
These are the 3 things that irritate me most if they’re not done. The other chores can wait until the weekend when I do my regular housework, which also takes less than 2 hours to clean the whole home. Even less time if the children are here helping.
What are your most irritating chores that you’d like done?
You’ve got to limit yourself to 3 or 5 chores that take no more than 30 minutes. We can all afford 30 minutes of time every morning.
What are those chores that when you look around your home, you feel overwhelmed, irritated or stop you from doing something important in your day.
For example, if the dining table is full of school newsletters, mail, junk mail, newspapers and magazines, that’s your job you do every morning. Clear the dining table. Have spots or files to keep all the newsletters, a spot for the mail, a magazine rack and a spot to recycle the newspapers.
If making your bed is a priority, do that. There’s nothing better than getting into a made bed at the end of a hard day.
An overflowing laundry basket? Put on a load of washing.
Whatever those chores are, and you’ll know what they are, make sure there are only 3 to 5 and they take no more than 30 minutes.
If you work outside the home, just get up that 30 minutes earlier.
What about the other chores?
You might be thinking “well, that doesn’t get the rest of my house clean and tidy”. Well, it won’t but one of either 2 things will happen after you’ve accomplished your morning routine.
One, you’re going to be inspired to do another chore, then another chore and really make a huge effort to either declutter and organise your home or keep it that way.
Or, two, you’re going to have the rest of the day to do what you want.
This is the secret to getting that oh so precious time back into your day.
Life is too short
Life really is too short to be faffing about your home. When you find those couple of chores to do every morning, you begin to feel accomplished and get a feeling of that will do.
That will do because those chores are what irritate me the most and I feel satisifed that enough has been done for me to go about my day.
Whether that’s if you’re a work from home parent, go out to work, enjoy crafting, going to the gym, going for a walk etc. Whatever it is you love to do, DO THAT MOST. I swear, you’ll never get that time back.
Enjoy life now doing what you love.
Allow yourself a couple hours on a weekend or on a Friday evening (whenever you have the time) to give the whole house a thorough clean. It goes even quicker when the whole family pitches in.
We have a clean up every Saturday morning and between us all it takes less than 2 hours. That then means the rest of the weekend is ours to do what we like.
What are your 3 to 5 chores you’re going to get into a habit of doing every morning?
