You Can Save Time On Household Chores

Your work around the house can take up a big portion of your time, especially household chores. The following ways will help you streamline your household chore activity:

Many people feel that their kitchen is the heart of their home. In many cases, the kitchen table is the place where you gather with your family to eat meals, talk, help your children with homework, and much more. Since so much time is spent in the kitchen, it is not uncommon for most of your cleaning time to also be spent in this room. Here are some tips on cleaning your kitchen quickly and easily:

~ If you are the type of person who is prone to tossing mail and other important pieces of paper on the counter, invest in some containers that you can use to sit on the counter and keep things organized. Once a week, go through your containers and take care of what needs to be taken care of, and throw away the rest.

~ There are many new alternatives to brooms and mops that make cleaning the floors easy. The Swiffer brand is a great example. You can come home, put a pot of water on the stove to cook some pasta, and give your floors a quick cleaning before your pasta water has reached a boil.

~ Don’t waste time scrubbing your pans. Instead, line them with heavy duty foil before you cook your dinner in them. If you forget this step and have a pan that is particularly messy, simply add a few drops of dish soap to it, fill it with hot water and let it sit overnight. The next day, the mess will easily be washed away with little scrubbing.

~ Store as many appliances as you can in the cabinets. This will keep your kitchen looking neat and clean.

Your children’s rooms can also be some of the messiest rooms in the house. Here are some tips on how to streamline the mess in their rooms and get them involved in the cleaning. Remember, the more they do on their own, the less you’ll have to do!

~ If your children are old enough, you may want to consider purchasing them their own laundry hampers, so that they can start learning to sort clothes, and eventually do their own laundry. Of course, this may not be a good idea for small children, as they may end up having more fun throwing their dirty laundry around the room and creating an even bigger mess.

~ If your children are too young to read, consider color coding the storage areas in their room. For example, socks can go into the blue dresser drawer and pajamas can go into the yellow drawer. You don’t have to paint the whole drawer a different color. You can look for painter’s tape that doesn’t stick and just use a portion of the colored tape on the drawer or perhaps you can find some decorative plastic clings. These come in a variety of colors, shapes and themes and you can stick them right on the dresser drawers. You can also use this method to organize their toys and toy chests.

~ Another idea is to take a picture of the item that goes into each drawer or toy chest. You can even make it special by having your child pose with the item. For example, have them hold a pair of socks, take a picture, and place that picture on the outside of the sock drawer.

When it is time to put things away, make a fun game out if by asking your child to find the pajama drawer. They will be more than happy to help you clean up when actually have fun with the process.

~ Busy moms of young children often find it difficult to clean the house with their children underfoot. While it can be difficult, there are ways to keep your home clean and your children entertained at the same time.

~ Nap time, of course, is a prime time to get some chores done. Use this time to take care of some quieter tasks, like dusting, sorting through the mail, sorting laundry, and washing dishes.

~ Instead of trying to get your cleaning done in one big block of time during one day, break it up into fifteen minute increments throughout the day. It will be much easier to keep your children occupied with something else in 15 minute intervals than to try and keep them occupied for a long stretch of time.