A working mom is both a pillar of the household and a pillar of society. Her work is never done and, at times, seems overwhelming. The only way to overcome such adversity is to have a proper schedule for each individual, a quintessential task. One such task is keeping a clean home. A home that is clean is more than just a pragmatic thing. It also carries a deep symbolism. A well-organized home symbolizes a well-organized life.
In other words, cleaning up your home is one of the best ways to stay motivated. Here’s what you should know on this subject matter.
1. Be realistic
The most demoralizing thing about a schedule is the idea that you won’t be able to handle all of these tasks in time. In order to avoid this, you need to make realistic expectations. Keep in mind that even if you can meet these deadlines and milestones, but only barely, you’ll be overworked. This will make you less effective at work and more stressed out at home. As a working mom, your priorities are to be a productive worker and a calm and understanding parent. When you’re overworked, both of these tasks will become a lot harder to handle.
2. Before and after work
Another thing you can do is split your daily chores into three major categories – before work, after work, and just before bedtime. This involves things like making beds, wiping down counters, laundry, and simple decluttering tasks. Ideally, you would work in continuation. For instance, you put away laundry from the morning in the washing machine when you get home from work. Then, you put it in the dryer just before going to bed and then getting it out of the dryer in the morning and folding them. This way, you’re making a system.
3. Look for professional help
As a working person, your hour has a certain value to it (an hourly wage). Therefore, spending your time to thoroughly clean the place on a weekly or fortnightly basis might not be worth it. Instead, you should look for professional help. There are many solutions, even for house cleaning services. You still get to do all those day-to-day chores, but you save yourself the trouble of getting out of your way to do so. In other words, those tasks that are especially strenuous should be entrusted to someone else. It’s really that simple.
4. Cleaning schedule
As far as the actual cleaning goes (for those who do not want to hire professional help), there are several tips and tricks. For instance, you can separate tasks for days. On Monday you could clean bathrooms, on Tuesdays and Fridays you could dust and vacuum, on Wednesday you could clean the kitchen and so on. Provided that you never skip a week and that you handle your day-to-day household maintenance chores in continuity, this too should fit in the schedule quite efficiently. After a couple of weeks of this regimen, it will simply become routine.
5. You need some assistance
Even without professional help, there’s no reason why you should have to handle everything on your own. First of all, the division of household chores is one of the best ways to start teaching your kids some responsibility as early as possible. It’s the everyone-pulls-their-own-weight philosophy that will benefit your child throughout their life. Other than this, once your family experiences a tiny fraction of your own obligations, they might show more appreciation. Either way, it’s a plan without any significant downsides and, as such, something that you should definitely try.
In conclusion
While sometimes it may seem as if you had too much work or as if you’re facing overwhelming odds, with the right attitude and organization, you can, indeed, achieve so much. In the end, it all comes down to finding a system that works in the long run.
Keeping your home clean and neat is something you’ll have to do every day and every week of your life. This means that it has to be something that you can handle, and it has to be something that you won’t hate doing as much. Once you achieve these two objectives, everything will start getting in line.
