Mom Cleaning Hacks – How to Clean When You’re Too Exhausted!
Do you need some mom cleaning hacks or working mom cleaning routine? These home life hacks and cleaning hacks will help busy moms take control of your home and life.
I’m a working mom. I spend all day at work and come home missing my kids and wanting to spend time with them. Somehow I also have to find time to do the other things… cook dinner, make lunches, do the dishes, clean the house, pay bills, help with homework… The list is never-ending!
It. Is. Exhausting.
In moments when I get overwhelmed, I begin prioritizing in my head. What are the things I MUST get done, and what are the things that can get wait until later. This usually means things like cleaning the house get pushed to the next day. And then the next day. Before you know it, your house is an absolute WRECK!
How is it possible to balance all of the things AND have a tidy house?
As I’ve grown as a working mom, I’ve arrived at some mom cleaning hacks that help make it easier and more feasible to have a clean house. Some of these are also coping mechanisms, to help put life in perspective and not stress over the toys that are all over the floor or the drawer I can’t shut because it’s overflowing with crayons and coloring books.
Either way, enjoy these mom cleaning hacks!
10 Mom Cleaning Hacks to Keep Your House Tidy
- Have a basket or bin to collect items to bring up/downstairs
This is one that I’ve found saves a lot of time. I have a bin at the bottom of my stairs. Every time I have something that needs to find it’s way upstairs, I throw it in the bin. Then, the next time I go upstairs, I grab the bin and take it upstairs to put the items away.
Now, the size of the bin is important. You don’t want one that is too big that you will trip over as you’re going up/down the stairs. You don’t want it to be too big that you fit so much stuff in it that you dread putting the things away. It needs to be small, so that when you take it upstairs it takes no longer than 1 minute to put everything in it’s place. This makes it a quick and easy job that you can easily do throughout the day.
It will drastically reduce the clutter you have hanging around the house. - Tidy up your kitchen and living space EVERY night
As a busy working mom, you need small wins. Cleaning up my main living spaces every night is one way that I feel like I’ve actually done something productive. Waking up to a clean kitchen every day helps to get your day off to a good start.
Now, I don’t do a full deep clean every night. I mainly just make sure the dishes are in the dishwasher and the dishwasher runs, declutter the kitchen counters, and wipe down the table and countertops. In the living room I put toys away and tidy up the couch.
That’s it! It really only takes 10-15 minutes and has a HUGE impact on the way I feel the next day. - Get your kids involved
While you’re tidying up the living room (toys specifically), make sure to get your kids involved! If your kids are like mine, this might be a challenge. However, I’ve found some ways to get them more “excited” to help out:- Play a “clean up” song. While the song is playing, everyone puts toys away. You can even turn it into a game to see if you can get everything cleaned up by the time it’s over.
- Set a timer. Sometimes kids just need a challenge. If you say “I bet you can’t clean up the toys in 2 minutes” and then set a timer, you might just convince your 4 year old to start running around like a madman cleaning up toys.
- Create a reward system. Every time the kids help out and clean up, they get a sticker. Maybe when they get to 5 or 10 stickers, they get a treat of some sort. Kids can be very motivated by prizes!
Making this part of your nightly routine can really help instill some good cleaning habits that your kids may just retain for the rest of their lives! (wishful thinking, I know!)
- Identify problem areas and work to fix them
My house tends to have certain areas that ALWAYS seem to be cluttered. When I start noticing this, I know it’s usually time to devote some attention to that area. Maybe it just needs cleaned out and organized.
For example, our mudroom/entry way of the garage has a counter by the door. Not surprisingly, it’s the place we lay things as we come in from the garage. It’s constantly covered in stuff! To fix this, I started looking at the items that were always there: keys, mail, random papers, phones, lunch boxes, etc. I began trying to find a “home” for all of these items that WASN’T on the counter. For example:- I hung a key rack by the door
- I added a box in the cabinet underneath the counter for papers. Now when I come in with the mail I can quickly sort through the mail and random papers I’ve accumulated throughout the day, and stash any papers that I may need for later in that box.
- I started making a habit of immediately walking the lunch boxes to the sink rather than laying them on the counter.
You get the idea. If everything has a place, you’re much less likely to use these spaces as a catch-all.
- Clean up the kids’ bathroom while they’re taking a bath
For us, bath time can last A WHILE. Even after the kids are clean, I’m often just waiting on them to finish playing. Instead of waiting, I take the time to clean the toilet, sinks, counters, mirrors, etc.
Depending on how your house is laid out, you may be able to clean up their bedrooms as well (assuming you can still hear/see the kids easily so they are safe!). This is a great way to multi-task and make the most out of your limited time in the evenings. - Come up with a cleaning schedule
This mom cleaning hack is pretty fundamental, but very important. Rather than just blindly start cleaning things when you have a moment, sit down and list out everything you need to clean in your house on a regular basis as well as the ideal frequency for how often you clean it. This will look different for everyone, but here is an example:- Kitchen floors – 2x per week
- Living room dusting and floors – once a week
- Bathrooms – once a week
- Vacuum upstairs/hallway – once a week
- Dust and vacuum bedrooms – once a week
Once you have a list, figure out what works best for you: spending multiple hours in one day doing all of this, or spreading it out and doing a little each day. Different people have different preferences and schedules, so this will be different for everyone.
If you determine you want to spread it out, put a rough schedule together. Monday: Clean kitchen floors, living room. Tuesday: Bathrooms, etc.
Next, test it out. See how it goes. Did your Monday chores take way longer than Tuesday’s? Maybe you need to spread Monday’s tasks out to other days. The point is, develop a schedule that works beset for you.
Optimize your cleaning schedule so it works best for your family!
- Figure out a schedule for the “other” cleaning tasks
Your weekly cleaning schedule will cover the basics to keep your house clean; but, there are of course other things in your house that will need cleaned. For example: when should you clean out your dishwasher or washer/dryer? When should you wipe down the baseboards? Clean windows?
Similarly to your weekly schedule, list all of these “other” items out as well as your ideal frequency for how often they get done. Then plan it out. Literally write in your planner (if you use one) that you want to clean the baseboards every 6 months. If you actually write it down, it’s more likely to happen. - Keep organizing (and re-visiting your organization)
Having an organized house makes it WAY easier to keep clean. Gradually go through each area of your house and declutter and organize it. Buy bins and baskets and try to give everything a place. Label makers are also a great investment! I use this one that I got off of Amazon and it’s very easy to use.
Once you’ve organized a space, don’t expect that it will always stay organized. Life happens. You may organize it one day only to find it completely destroyed in just a week or two. Stay diligent! Maybe you need to organize it differently.
Just be expected to have to reorganize spaces at least a couple times a year to keep them nice and tidy. The good news is the first time is usually the hardest, and it’s typically pretty quick to re-organize spaces once you’ve done it before. - Designate messy spaces
This is more of a coping mechanism than a mom cleaning hack. I’ve found that there are spaces in my house that are just going to be more messy than others. These places also happen to be the areas my husband “owns” (for example: his basement work shop, his office/man cave).
Even if I dedicate time to cleaning up these areas, I know they won’t stay that way. My husband just doesn’t operate the same way I do. I’ve learned not to let this get to me. It’s not worth getting upset with my husband and it’s not worth my time to clean.
Instead, I just accept it.
Those spaces won’t be as clean. Every once in a while he cleans them up, and it’s great! But having his office be tidy all of the time is not worth the added stress it would put on my marriage. These areas are just messy areas, and if I don’t like them, I shut the door! - Lower your expectations
Again, not really a cleaning tip, but more of a mind trick. I’ve worked really hard to remember that there are much more important things in life than having a spotless house. Kids don’t stay little for long. You don’t get to have that family time back.
So while I do try to find quick tips and hacks to keep my house tidy, I am not interested in spending all of my free time cleaning. This means my house is rarely completely clean. And that’s ok!
I promise, your kids will not remember the house being clean or dirty, but they will remember building a fort out of couch cushions and playing “mommy is a tickle monster!”
That’s it! Hopefully these busy mom cleaning hacks help you find some balance and some easy ways to keep your house tidy! Remember, give yourself grace. Whether your a stay at home mom or a working mom, your house is clean or dirty, you’re a Rockstar.
My hope is that these mom cleaning hacks can make your life just a little easier!
For more mom life hacks, see this post on the simple morning routine that has really changed my life!
