Being a stay at home mom is perhaps one of the best jobs in the world, but it is certainly a job. Here are a few of my tricks to keeping my home clean all the time, without having to clean all the time ;)- Schedule! This is probably the most important. Once you have a set schedule for your household duties everything will be much easier. Everyone works a little different so find a routine that works best for you (for example, I schedule my household duties around my sons nap-time, that way I can tend to him anytime he's awake and my hands aren't too full) I recommend creating a daily schedule and keeping it on your fridge.
- Leave shoes at the door! This is certainly the second-most important. Carpets get dirty faster than you could imagine, and I recommend regularly shampooing your carpets to keep your home fresh, but no matter how often you clean your carpets they will never stay clean long if your walking on them with dirty shoes. I think keeping a shoe rack by your front door is a wonderful idea.
- Clean up as you go! Don't wait for a little mess to turn into a mountain before you clean, stick to your cleaning schedule (as mentioned above) but in between times be sure to throw that candy wrapper away or pick up toys that are laying around. You will be surprised at how much cleaning can be done in under a minute!
- Put things up! A lot of time can be spent just putting things in their proper places, so instead of putting things down when your done with them, put them away where they belong. Encourage family members to take this extra step and notice how much cleaner your home stays.- Throw junk away! Old magazines and useless clutter will make your home look messy and give you a lot more to pick up each day, so be sure to designate at least one day out of each week (I picked Fridays) to de-clutter your home, this means throwing out those old mags, cleaning out the fridge and getting those leftovers out of there, throwing those expired coupons away and deciding what you'll use again and what you won't.
These are just a few tricks I like to keep up my sleeve, do you have any super-mom tricks you'd like to share? I'd love to hear them!
