That Dirty Word that All Women Dislike – Housework and What We Can Do About it

Today women are busier than ever because they often times work away from home, are raising one or more children, and have obligations to organizations that are of a personal or business nature to keep up with as well as organize and clean their homes. Ultimately amongst all this business, the housework tends to get left undone. Studies done for the year 1965 showed that most women spent on average 27 hours a week doing housework. Today the figure is 16 hours or less a week being set aside for housework. Not sure where that figure came from but for my schedule, I am luck if I can devote 7 hours a week to housework. Seriously, with trying to keep up with my college studies, running a business from home, caring for my two daughters and our 7 pets, how in the world am I suppose to carve 16 hours out of my week to clean my house? Most families today, come home to clutter, dishes piling up, armies of dust bunnies camped out in every room and laundry mountains. Does this sound familiar? I work from home and this sounds like my home right now. The women who have help with the housework should count herself lucky. I know that for me, the housework always fell on my shoulders as my husband was apparently deathly allergic to it! I did some searching around the internet this morning to see if I could find any short cuts to all the tasks I have waiting for me to do today and found some very good tips on getting the housework accomplished without having to become triplets today.

How To Attack The Dust bunnies

Those pesky clumps of dust bunnies that hide under beds, behind and under furniture and in the corners of your rooms thrive on clutter….yes, the stuff you have laying around that you do not move in days, weeks, even months. The accumulation of stuff that you do not use but cannot seem to part with aids in the breeding of dust bunnies. The best way to stop these pesky bunnies from breeding is to declutter the floor. Be honest about the stuff sitting on the floor, is it really something you are actually ever going to use again? If not, then sell it, or donate it or (gulp) throw it out. Find places to store the items that you do need to keep and have these storages areas up and off of the floor. Try not to keep anything under your bed. Make use of those closet shelves. Organize stuff into plastic containers and keep those containers stacked on shelves in your bedroom or a linen closet. Containers that are clear (so you can see what is inside) and are stackable are great and you can usually get these for reasonable prices at dollar stores.

Now that you have a cleared floor area in each room in your house (you do right?), you need to make a weekly mental note to take a regular mop or swifter mop (my personal new best friend), and sweep under every bed, and every piece of furniture (you may have to move it). Doing a sweep every week of all your floor space is one way to keep those dust bunnies under control. Do you know what happens when you keep those dust bunnies under control? Your allergies and sinus’s suddenly clear up…amazing huh?

Organize Your Cleaning Supplies:

One thing that I have done that has decluttered my cleaning shelves is to throw out all those bottles and cans of cleaning sprays and liquids. On most of my cleaning tasks I use Avon Bubble Bath. I wrote an article on 25 Ways To Clean Using Avon Bubble Bath, which is important to read if you would like to declutter your cleaning shelves. Especially for households with children or pets it is important to get rid of all those toxic, fume producing cleaners and to use something such as Avon Bubble Bath to clean without putting toxic fumes into the air that you breathe.

Take a good look at your cleaning supplies to decide which cleaners are safe to use and make use of multi-purpose cleaners that can do multiple cleaning jobs. Use a basket to carry supplies from room to room, that you can also store these supplies in.

Misc. Tips:

Designate one to three days a week as cleaning days and try to stick to doing cleaning on those days J do not get distracted by the kids, pets, or your significant other. Put away the books, and turn off the t.v., do not go anywhere near that computer. Get down your cleaning basket, grab your swifter mop and do what you know must be done – clean. You will enjoy the other days of the week more if you know that the cleaning will get done, just not at that time.

Daily spruce ups that can be done and not seem like cleaning would be a good idea. You can do a walk through of each room and pick up stuff that needs to be put away or better yet, make the owner of the item put it away. Something that works great for me is if you ask once and the item is still there the next time you walk through the room, grab it and put it in a box in your closet. These items are box residents for (designate a time, one week is great). When the owner misses the item, then just say, the item has been confiscated due to not being put away and will be returned on (name the date). I can assure you that once returned; you won’t see that item lying around again.

Shoes bring in all kinds of dirt from outside. Making a “no shoe” rule for your home cuts down on your cleaning. Leaving shoes on a rug by the doors will really help cut down on the dirt that gets dragged in and left on your floors. Buy cute slippers for each family member and get your loved ones into the habit of wearing these instead of shoes inside the house.

The kitchen is a dirt and clutter magnet. Spills happen, so clean them up as soon as you see them. Trust me it is easier to clean up a fresh, moist spill, then to clean up a stuck on dry one. Rinse dishes as soon as the meal is over and run water and dish liquid in the sink to put the dishes in (unless you are lucky enough to have an automatic dishwasher). If you have a dishwasher, put the dishes in and run the cycle right after the meal. Take a few moments to run the swifter over the kitchen floor each night right after supper or before going to bed.

Here is an idea: pay the person who cleans. During one week, make a tally of how many hours are spent cleaning. Then next time you work out the household budget figure out say $10 an hour (or what ever your budget will allow) and pay this person for the work they do to keep the house clean. Believe me you won’t miss the small change you spend on snacks and other little extras that you spend extra money on each week. You can find the money you need to pay this person, trust me. You may even find that your older child, or significant other is more than happy to be that “cleaning person” that week when they need some extra cash.