Your phone rings! It’s your partner at the other end and he tells you about the people coming over to your house tonight. And you almost blurt out, “But our house is a mess right now.”

Feels relatable, doesn’t it? When you are out of your house for more than 40 hours a week, juggling home and work responsibilities, all the while managing your pet’s everyday needs, having a clean and tidy house drops down your priority list.

After all, who has that time?

To save you from embarrassment and keep your house always neat and clean, here are some tips and tricks you can follow (even when you do not have too much time to spare).

1. Divide your household chores

What happens when you let work pile away in the office? One day, it becomes so unmanageable that you spend hours and hours just making sense of where to get started.

The same happens when you push cleaning down your priority list, thinking, “Ah! I can’t spend 2 hours cleaning my entire house.”

I have some great news for you.

You don’t have to!

Just divide all your cleaning requirements into a weekly plan like this:

• Monday — Dust all the surfaces
• Tuesday — Vacuum the floors
• Wednesday — Clean the bathroom

And so on..

You can even schedule it in a different way like cleaning different parts of your house on different days. For example, cleaning your living room on Monday, bathroom on Tuesday, bedroom on Wednesday, and so on.

You can even develop daily habits to ensure that you do not have to keep cleaning unnecessary things every day:

• Put the dishes into the dishwasher after your meals and ensure you go to bed with an empty dishwasher
• Clean the kitchen mess as you create them while cooking
• Put things away when you are done using them instead of letting them create a mess
• Avoid wearing shoes at home
• Before you go to bed, spend just 10 minutes putting away books/papers, emptying the garbage bin, and taking care of any small cleaning tasks.

The schedule and daily cleaning habits make things easier as there’s no unnecessary clutter and you can get things clean by spending less than an hour every day.

2. Find those little pockets of time

What if I tell you that you do not need a lot of time to get some cleaning done in your house? Here’s how you can find those little pockets of time and knock off those cleaning tasks:

• Commercial break? Take your clothes from the washing machine and fold them.

• Your paw-some pet is eating food before his evening stroll? Put the dishes in the dishwasher so that once you’re back, you just need to take the dishes out and organize them.

• Waiting for your friend to pick you up for coffee? Sort through the mail lying on your desk and shred anything that you don’t require.

• 10 minutes till your last meeting for the day? Clean off your desk and put away all the items that you won’t need till tomorrow

3. Find a way to fit cleaning tasks into your routine

Have you wondered why it is so easy to brush your teeth first thing in the morning or close your laptop once it’s 5 p.m.? Because you have tied these habits to something - a time, place, or another activity.

By fitting cleaning tasks into your routine, you’ll have more success following them. Here are a few examples to get started:

• When you wake up, make your bed first
• When you come home from office, instead of placing away all your belongings on the sofa, put your shoes, bag, and coat in their proper place.
• While you’re watching your favorite show on Netflix, take your clothes from the dryer and neatly fold them.
• Before going to bed, put the books on the shelves, the papers in your drawer, and the clothes either in the laundry basket or in the cupboard

4. Make use of the two-minute rule

This rule states that if there’s something that can be done in two minutes, do it right now instead of procrastinating over it. This is such a helpful hack when it comes to taking care of those little things that can be done in a moment instead of letting them pile up.

For example, sorting the mail as soon as you bring it in instead of spending an hour at the end of the week because there’s too much mail, wiping the bathroom sink after you see a stain instead of spending a lot of energy cleaning it later because it’s hard to remove, putting things in the trash bin if you aren’t going to use it instead of letting it take over your entire cupboard, and so on.

5. Gamify your cleaning tasks

One reason we don’t want to sweep our floors or arrange our cupboard is that “It’s so boring!” We would rather play with our furry friends or watch the latest Batman movie.

To make things fun, you can gamify your cleaning tasks. For example, challenge yourself and set time limits. ‘Let’s see if I can clean the bathroom in 20 minutes.’

Or turn it into a game that you can play with your partner. For example, every time you or your partner cleans something, you get predetermined points for those activities. Cleaning the floor would be 5 points. Cleaning the bathroom would be 10 points. And so on. The one with the most points at the end of a week gets a reward like, the person that loses needs to cook all the meals the next week and so on. This way, you can get your cleaning done and have fun too. Win-win, isn’t it?

6. Get rid of things you don’t need

“The more you have, the more you are occupied. The less you have, the more free you are.” - Mother Teresa

There are two reasons minimalism is the trend these days:

• The more stuff you have in your house, the more likely it is that your house will always be cluttered.
• The more stuff you have in your house, the harder and longer you will have to work to keep it clean.

While buying more or less of decor items, supplies, and other things may be a personal choice, the least you can do is get rid of things you don’t need on a weekly basis.

Spend just an hour every Saturday or Sunday to weed out the items you don’t need. You’ll find it easier to clean your cupboards, storage areas, and eventually your entire house.

7. Get professionals to do the work for you

It’s not always easy to juggle everything. You may be working on important projects for an entire month and may not even have the time to perform a necessary deep cleaning routine or clean out the basic stains on your kitchen cabinets or vacuum the floors.

It’s time then to stop feeling guilty about it and let the professionals do the work for you. With the advent of technology, these professionals are now just a click away and within 2-3 hours, they can get your house clean and tidy for your next weekend party.

Homero is here to help you get the most out of your busy life by handling all your cleaning requirements. Book your Cleaning Service today!