Your much-anticipated weekend finally arrives and instead of spending it with friends or partaking in your favorite hobbies, you’re saddled with hours of chores to return your home to a state of cleanliness and order after a hectic week. Does this sound like you?
If you’re spending an inordinate amount of time on your weekend cleaning, there are ways to reclaim that time. Focusing on specific, small tasks throughout the week can help keep your home in a consistent state of order so that there’s no need to devote hours to cleaning on the weekend. Do the following every day to maintain cleanliness:
Make the bed. For most of us, rushing to get out the door in the morning is typical, and stopping to make the bed just doesn’t make sense when every second counts. This simple act, however, doesn’t just help keep your bedroom orderly, it puts you in a serene state of mind when you return home at the end of the day. The visual cues of an unmade bed create a sense of disorder and lack of control over your life, a feeling no one wants to have. Also, making the bed doesn’t have to involve hospital corners and perfectly folded blankets. Fluff and arrange the pillows, smooth the sheets, shake out your comforter and you’re set!
Clean up the kitchen. Arguably the room that sees the most action in your home, the kitchen often shows the most visible signs of mess. That’s why it’s well worth your while to spend some time keeping it clean each day. Maintaining your kitchen doesn’t have to involve a deep clean, just the basics. Load the dishes in the dishwasher, clean the stovetop after cooking, wipe down the counters and the fridge handles and sweep or Swiffer the floor. Exchange 15 minutes of T.V. time for kitchen cleaning time and you’ll thank yourself. Enlist your significant other and/or kids and this task becomes even faster.
Put your clothes away. The more people living under your roof, the more likely it is to have various articles of clothing draped in different spots around the house, and nothing makes a house look messier. Even if it’s just your bedroom where your clothes land wherever you toss them, take a few minutes before bed or before you head out the door in the morning to put them back in their proper spot or in the laundry bin. Don’t forget those random shoes lying around, too.
Wipe down the bathroom. When you fail to stay on top of it, cleaning the bathroom becomes an arduous weekend chore. Instead of letting it go, keep a set of cleaning supplies in each bathroom so that you and your family members can do a mini-clean every couple of days. Wipe down the sink, counters and toilet, clean the mirror and sweep the floor. Using a shower spray after every shower will help prevent soap scum and mold from building up, making cleaning your tub and shower much easier.
Sweep the floors. Sweeping the floors in the most-used rooms of your home every other day will give your home a consistently clean feel and help reduce the amount of time spent on floors over the weekend.
You can even replace your morning trip to the gym with these cleaning tasks, which generate a significant calorie burn and increase daily steps. If you stick to the above regime during the week, when the weekend rolls around you’ll just have to focus on a few deeper cleaning chores, like dusting, vacuuming and washing the floors, letting you get back to the real purpose of the weekend: to rest, recharge and have fun with loved ones.
