10 Tips To Help Busy Moms Keep Their Homes Cleaner For Longer

Child washes dishes with help from an adult.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got one child, two, or a whole tribe, trying to keep your home clean when you’ve got little ones to look after, is tough. But, with a little forward planning and commitment, there are a few simple things you can do every day to maintain a clean home, and your sanity!

To make house cleaning in Tampa a little easier as a busy mom, here are 10 top tips:

1. Get everyone involved

Chores might not be everyone in your household’s favorite activity, but when each member of the household bears some responsibility for them, things get cleaner quicker, and stay that way for longer. You can even assign simple tasks for your kids to carry out every day. From putting their toys away after playing with them, to dusting, or tidying their room, age-appropriate tasks can help your kids feel more grown-up, and if you add a little fun to it (with rewards/treats for completing them), you might not even have to remind them to do it!

Ultimately, ensure that everyone has at least one small chore they can do every day, and you’ll find it far easier to keep on top of grime and clutter.

2. Declutter often and ruthlessly

Most clutter simply takes up valuable space and gathers dust. Go through your home every day and remove anything that isn’t needed. Unless you’re a busy mom who enjoys tripping over things, moving stuff so that you can sit down, dusting item after item, and feeling as if you’re living in a cramped space, regular decluttering is something you should prioritize if you want to live in a cleaner, tidier, healthier home. 

3. Give everything a ‘home’

It’s one thing to tell your kids to put their stuff away, but if they don’t know where it should go, or there isn’t a dedicated space for it, most likely it’ll just stay right where it is. 

Making sure that there is enough storage and space for everything to go away in, will make cleaning far easier, and help to declutter your mental space too. 

4. Use quality cleaning products

Whether you have to road test cleaning products yourself, or rely on reviews from fellow moms, finding out what cleaning products are worth the extra money, and which ones will simply make your job harder, is always a great idea if you want to clean quicker, and better. 

5. Clean as you go

It can be easy to overlook certain things during the day, such as clutter or spillages, especially if your kids are very young, very demanding, or both! But by cleaning up as you go about your day, you’ll find yourself having to spend less time doing it when the kids are in bed or at the weekend. Evenings are for unwinding, and weekends are for fun activities with the whole family; not cleaning!

6. Create cleaner habits

Keeping a home clean for longer is made easier if you buy items that don’t take much effort to keep clean. Whatever you plan to buy, whether it be place settings for the table, soft furnishings, ornaments or furniture, look at the material the items are made from to determine how easy they would be to clean, or how likely they might be to show stains etc. Wipeable surfaces can cut cleaning time in half, while placing rugs and mats at entry points can limit the amount of debris tracked through the home.  

Household rules such as shoes off at the door, or no snacks on the sofa, can also reduce your cleaning workload significantly. 

7. Keep up-to-date with laundry

Having a system in place to ensure that laundry never builds up too much, is a great way to stop yourself from drowning in it. Whether you assign certain days to doing the laundry, or tackle it when the basket is full, whatever system you use, make sure you stick to it so that you don’t run out of items that you need, and aren’t spending evenings and weekends up to your elbows in laundry.  

8. Tackle larger cleaning tasks one at a time

Even if you know there are several big cleaning tasks you need to be getting on with, but you’re snowed under with dirty nappies, work, or a hundred and one other things you’re expected to take care of as a mom, chances are most of them can wait until you have more time. Tackling larger cleaning tasks one at a time will still get them done, without leaving you feeling exhausted and miserable. You might even be able to break some tasks down into more manageable chunks, such as cleaning the sinks, one day, and the toilets the next, instead of cleaning every bathroom all at once. 

9. Stock up on cleaning supplies

Having the right tools and products at hand to keep your home clean, means that you’re not having to spend valuable time searching for them. Keep a caddy in the kitchen, and one in the family bathroom for example, and ensure that they’re always topped up and ready to go. 

10. Seek professional help

If you simply don’t have the time or energy to keep your home as clean as you’d like, you can always schedule a regular clean from a local maid service in Tampa. Busy moms should never feel ashamed to seek such help, and truthfully, all that matters is that your home is hygienically clean and tidy, it doesn’t matter who’s responsible for it!

Being a mom automatically means that your time is no longer your own, and things like keeping a clean home, take an involuntary back seat. But, with a little commitment to the cause, you can use these top tips to keep your Tampa home cleaner, for longer.