The lazy housekeeper

Strangely enough, despite my personal struggles with housekeeping over the years, I found myself cleaning houses professionally this past year. My editing work has begun picking up, so I expect to put the mop and bucket aside soon. Before I do, though, I thought I would share a few things I’ve learned from cleaning professionally and trying to balance work, parenting, and housekeeping. Here are my lazy housekeeper’s tips on making the most of limited time and energy.

Schedule uninterrupted time for cleaning. Yeah, a lot of these are going to sound really obvious. I’ve tried setting aside housecleaning time before, but the ‘uninterrupted’ part was always a challenge. When I first had a home of my own to keep, I was pregnant (honeymoon baby). Between being exhausted/nauseous, being huge and unwieldy, and being postpartum, I really wasn’t in much shape for cleaning. Then I had a very active baby, then toddler, and from there on out I’ve had at least one preschooler and one baby home with me at all times. Always. Without relief.

Last fall changed that. I had two children in school, and one toddler – the most biddable toddler out of the three – who spent 1-3 days in childcare every week. When I cleaned professionally, of course, I was usually completely alone for a scheduled block of time. It was a revelation to discover that I don’t actually dislike cleaning, I just dislike the frustration of seeing my work undone by a small child before I’m even finished, or the aggravation of leaving housecleaning tasks incomplete because a child desperately needs my attention. I started blocking out afternoons when the littlest was in childcare and tackling one room or task at a time during the uninterrupted time.

You can get a lot done in fifteen minutes. When I clean houses, I clean every flat surface in a house in three or four hours. That means I’m spending twenty minutes or so in each room. That’s not such a huge amount of time, is it? Granted, my clients tidy before I get there-I’m just washing things. But even tidying goes faster when you tackle it efficiently. I know this is an old and well known Fly-lady tip, and it really only started clicking for me in combination with some of the other things further down this list.

DON’T BACKTRACK, and don’t get sidetracked either. Professional housecleaning is all about reducing the amount of time you spend moving from place to place. Get everything you need for your task within arms reach, and take it with you as move, systematically, around the room. I have a cleaning apron designed by an Etsy seller to my specifications that allows me to keep my cleaning cloths, spray bottles, and other tools in easy reach. When I mop or vacuum, I start at the side of the room furthest from the next room I need to clean, so that I can leave the mop or vacuum where I will need it next.

Baskets are a lazy housekeeper’s friend. Jen at Conversion Diary mentioned recently how much it improved her housekeeping when she realized that lids are the enemy. In the same vein, and also as an extension of the previous principle, I now always keep laundry baskets handy when I clean at home. If I leave the room I’m cleaning to put something away, I’m likely to get distracted–and all of that walking back and forth is a bad use of time and energy. So I keep a laundry basket in the room and toss anything that needs to go in another part of the house into that basket. Since there’s little tidying involved in cleaning professionally, then I’m able to make do with a spacious apron pocket for the occasional misplaced toy, or stray dirty dish. But at home it’s always a laundry basket. If I have a good chunk of time set aside, I’ll go ahead and sort out the stuff in the basket and put it away immediately. If I’m doing a 15 minute tidy, at least I can put the basket somewhere unobtrusive until I have time to deal with it!

If you can’t get rid of the children, involve the children. Summer threw off my routine, since all of my kids are home most days. But summer also means that the house becomes messy a lot faster! So I introduced my kids to the “15 minute reset button”, and we all tidy together. Sure, the 5 year old moves like molasses, and the toddler winds up diving into the piles to find a toy to wander off with, but my 8 year old has become really helpful…and it’s helping to impress on him that doing chores can be quick and satisfying rather than slow and arduous. The complaining is cut both by my presence tidying beside them, and the threat of lost computer time if they whine.

If all of the above fails, there’s always multi-tasking. Yeah, it completely violates most of the above principles, but sometimes you just have to seize the opportunities you have. So I tend to wipe down the bathroom sink and toilet when the little ones are bathing (toothpaste is a great abrasive, y’all), I pick up in the family room or fold laundry while we watch movies, I wipe down counters and load the dishwasher while waiting for leftovers to reheat in the microwave for lunch, I pick up kid toys and other junk in the yard while being dragged on a ‘treasure hunt’ designed by my 8 year old. I’m easily bored anyhow (see ADHD), so this actually keeps me better able to handle these moments when I have to be where I am for the time being.

What are your best lazy housekeeping tricks?