How to keep your house clean when you just don't have time

Keeping on top of house cleaning often feels like an uphill battle.

While movies, TV shows, and even social media would have us all believing that everyone lives in perfectly pristine homes full of shiny, clean surfaces, and stain-free white soft furnishings, the reality is a lot different.

It looks more like teenagers walking around with a cake in their hand - minus a plate, of course - five minutes after you've cleaned the floors.

Or, finally, getting on top of that massive laundry pile, and no sooner than you've put it away, someone else has dumped a whole new load in the hamper.

That’s after you’ve been at work all day and before you've cooked dinner or had any time for yourself.

It truly can feel never-ending.

Although right now, it feels overwhelming, and you don’t even know where to start, it doesn't have to be this way.

In this post, we’ll share our top tips on keeping your house clean when it feels like there are never enough hours in the day.

Create A Housework Schedule

If you find yourself completely overwhelmed by all the housework you need to keep on top of, and you don’t know where to start, then one of the best things you can do is create a schedule you'll stick to.

When creating a cleaning schedule, there’s no right or wrong way to do it, and it doesn't need to be fancy.

You can use something like Google Calendar or a physical calendar/planner in your kitchen where you'll see it.

Here are some examples of how to structure your cleaning schedule:

Daily tasks:

These are your everyday tasks that are done without much thought but that keep your house in order.

Things like making your bed, emptying the dishwasher, wiping down the kitchen surfaces, sweeping or vacuuming high-traffic areas, putting on a load of laundry, etc.

If you’re unsure about your daily cleaning tasks, spend a week or two keeping track of what you do, and then add these to your cleaning schedule. You shouldn't spend more than 15-30 minutes on these daily tasks.

Weekly Tasks:

These are slightly bigger tasks that don’t need to be done daily but are still essential to keep up with your housework. Weekly tasks typically include stripping and changing your bed covers, deep cleaning your floors, ironing, etc.

On average, your weekly tasks should take at most 1-2 hours, but of course, this depends on the size of your house and whether or not you have any help.

Monthly Tasks:

Your monthly tasks won’t always be the same, and these are the big tasks that don’t need to be done regularly but usually take the longest to do overall.

Tasks like cleaning your windows, putting your washing machine on a clean cycle, cleaning your oven, decluttering your cupboards, and washing down your skirting boards generally get done every 1-2 months and usually take a few hours to complete.

Delegate Tasks

If you’re finding it hard to stay on top of your housework, this might be because you’re trying to juggle too many things at once.

Instead of attempting to do everything yourself, which leaves you feeling resentful and burned out, you need to ensure that everyone who lives with you is equally responsible for keeping the place clean and tidy.

Even if you have young children, you can teach them responsibility early on by giving them small, age-appropriate chores.

If you have a partner and older children, they should pitch in, so when you make your cleaning schedule, make sure you’re delegating tasks to everyone.

Declutter

One of the biggest causes of feeling overwhelmed when it comes to your house is unnecessary clutter.

Decluttering can make a massive difference to how tidy your home stays, but it also helps reduce the stress and overwhelm that come with feeling like you can’t move for things everywhere.

The trick with decluttering is not to try and do everything at once - this will just cause you to feel even more overwhelmed.

Pick one room or area, such as the upstairs hall cupboard.

Then separate the items into piles. For example, one pile will be things that need to be thrown out.

The other pile will be things you can donate or sell, and another pile will be things that you'll keep and will be organised back in the cupboard in their place.

Hire a Professional House Cleaning Service

Hiring a cleaner is perfectly normal in many countries, especially in Europe, the United States, and Asia.

Although some people still perceive a cleaner as a luxury in the UK, research shows that around 40% of people already have house cleaning service, or would like one.

It's one of the most cost-effective services a homeowner can outsource to impact your free time and quality of life positively.

With only so many hours in the day, it’s impossible to do everything and do it perfectly. Hiring a professional cleaner is no different from paying for any other professional service outside our expertise or interest.

So, if cleaning is something that you don’t enjoy, but you still want a clean, tidy house, then outsourcing this to a professional cleaner and gaining back some extra quality time for yourself and your family is something to consider.

Even if getting the housework done feels overwhelming, and you don’t even know where to start, it doesn't have to be this way.

At One Less Thing, we specialise in providing excellent vetted, insured and DBS-checked local cleaners to take domestic cleaning off your list.

We hope that you've found the tips in this post useful and that whether you decide to hire a cleaner or develop your own cleaning schedule, you'll now be on your way to having a clean, tidy, and clutter-free home to enjoy.