The 9-to-5er’s Guide to Keeping Your House Clean
Let’s face it, we usually don’t like doing house chores. Especially if we’re working people with full-time jobs. By the time we get home we’re already super tired and just want to go to bed. Cause beds are comfy. Especially when it’s raining, we don’t want to get up.
Yawnnnnnn.
Man, I really want to sleep now.
But we’re getting off-track, let’s get back to it.
As much as you’d like to put off cleaning for another day, week or month – you get my point – you should probably make it easier for yourself before tackling the hard-core stuff. How?
1. Small things first – like make your bed before you go.
You’d be surprised how much the little things matter. They range from making your bed to washing the dishes after you eat or cups after you drink. And wiping the sink… But it’s really easy for these little chores to accumulate, so be sure to do them regularly. Otherwise, you might end up with a mountain of dirty dishes and cups to wash (ew) or piles of clothes everywhere in your room… like a hurricane hit it.
…and then get a lecture from your parents about cleanliness and get ordered to spring-clean your room. Cough. Flashbacks, anyone?
Don’t worry though, eventually, it’ll just become a part of your routine. And you won’t think much about it – no sweat!
Just take like 5 minutes to tidy before you go to work every morning. You don’t have to dedicate two hours of your life to making your bed, after all.
2. Clean with fun! Wait…what?
No, we don’t mean piling glitter and confetti on your carpet. Or throwing them around and having them fall onto your carpet to make it fun-looking (or should I say, disorganised mess?).
You know what makes house-chores fun? Like, really fun?
Starts with “M.”
Nah, it’s not M&Ms. It’s not “mangoes” or “mints” either.
MUSIC!
Music makes everything 10 times better. Seriously.
Imagine yourself being armed with the vacuum cleaner with Bohemian Rhapsody (classic, that) blasting from your speakers. And while vacuum cleaning the room, wonder if the mess is real life or fantasy. Genius, isn’t it?
Or maybe you could even vacuum to the beat of Bruno Mars’ 24k Magic. Every time he sings “24-karat magic in the air”, you vacuum the entire length of the room. You could even divide the room into sections and vacuum them according to certain beats, maybe.
3. Who says chore lists need to be long? Pshhh.
Like that picture says, “Own today!” Make those house-chores into bite-sized, manageable pieces that you can munch on like a delicious chocolate chip cookie. Yum.
No need to be ridiculously hard when you can make it easy and save yourself from being stressed out. I mean, who says that you need to do 1000 house chores in one day?
Unless, you know, it’s The Day We Don’t Talk About.
The Day of Spring-Cleaning. Like before Chinese New Year.
Those Days. Shudder.
Anyway, just grab a blank piece of paper or open up a planner or word document. Divide the chores up into 4 main categories – Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Yearly. Daily chores can be just making the bed and doing the dishes. Weekly? Vacuuming, sweeping and dusting. Monthly? Wiping the fan-blades or changing your bed-sheets. Yearly – the major stuff, shampoo the carpet or cleaning the oven.
Simple, right? Just categorise them to whatever that suits your lifestyle.
4. By the way, don’t forget to stock up on cleaning supplies.
We might not like the chores, but it’s better than having a house that looks like a typhoon ran through it or something.
Basic cleaning supplies should, of course include a broom, mop, vacuum cleaner (or if you have the money, those robot ones), brush, duster and so on.
Oh, and can’t forget a heavy-duty sponge for those stubborn stains. And an old-toothbrush for those hard-to-reach places.
You might want to get a caddy, box or container of any sort, really for your cleaning supplies so that you can find them easily.
Makes life so much easier.
5. Aim for finished, not perfect
No need to nitpick too much, otherwise you’ll end up cleaning the same place 1000 times. Which, you know, doesn’t help making your other rooms cleaner. Remember, your goal is to make cleaning a regular habit as part of your lifestyle and generally have a clean place that doesn’t look like a disaster.
Another thing is, don’t take on too much at the same time. Do one room at a time, or two at a time depending on how you plan to do it. You don’t want to tired yourself out too much.
That’s it!
