Practical Cleaning Tips for the Working Woman

Lets face it, there are only so many hours in the day and you already have most of these filled. Who couldn't use some practical cleaning tips to get your thought the day? As a working woman you have your hands full! Working a full time job, finding time for your kids, and trying to be a good wife leave little time for much else...like finding time for yourself or cleaning your house. There is always the option of hiring a janitorial service to clean your house, but having a maid in your home once or twice a week is expensive, and if you are like most folks these days you are trying to find ways to save money not spend it.

That leaves trying to find the time to clean the house amid everything else that is going on in our lives. All is not lost, while your home may not pass Martha's Stewart's white glove test, you can have a home that is neat, organized, with clean kitchens and bathrooms, all fit into your busy schedule. So, what advice and hints are available to the working woman? Some of what we write about in our cleaning guide is to organize yourself and develop a plan of attack.

The key to effectively maintaining the cleanliness of your home, with the little amount of time you have available for doing laundry and folding clothes and scrubbing the floor, is having a plan, being organized, and using your time wisely. If you are thinking, "oh, this isn't important"...STOP, the secret to house cleaning when time is limited or to speed cleaning is to develop an overall strategy of what you want to accomplish and how you will accomplish it.

So to help us get a handle on how to clean our home with the little time available to most working women, lets breaking these cleaning tips into 5 steps:

Step 1: Develop an Overall Strategy. You first need to determine what it is you want to accomplish. Are you expecting that your window and walls and carpets will be spotless all of the time, or would you simply like to have your home neat and orderly during the week, and tackle the big projects like cleaning the toilet, polish furniture, and removing tile stains for the weekends? It is important to have cleaning strategy for 2 reasons, 1)It gives you some peace of mind knowing what is important and what is not when everything else in your life is so busy, and 2) it allows you to then develop a plan of attack to accomplish the house maintenance and cleaning during the week.

Step 2: Create a Plan. The next step is to create a plan for how we will accomplish our overall cleaning strategy. The plan does not need to be elaborate, nor do you need to spend a lot of time on this, but it is important that you write your plan down so you can refer to it later. Your cleaning plan should be broken down into Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Annually areas and list what tasks should be accomplished in each area. For example, maybe the removal of garbage cans you want done every day, but the shower only needs cleaning once a month. It is not common for most families to clean their upholstery every day, but for the proper maintenance of your furniture you will want to ensure they get a good cleaning once a year.

Step 3: Assign Tasks. You are not in this alone. Once you have your plan created, it is time to assign all of the required tasks to the other members of the family. Often mom is responsible for the bulk of the household cleaning, the family maid, but if mom is also working this puts a significant burden on her. So, lets balance the load and get everyone on the house cleaning plan. Every member of the home will have daily, weekly, and longer term cleaning chores.

Step 4: Execute the Plan. Now it is time to put the plan in motion. Everyone has their assignments and knows what needs to be done, now you just need to monitor their progress. In essence, you are transformed from a maid into a project manager...closely monitoring the progress of all of the cleaning and maintenance activities. Your little army of dirt makers are transformed into dirt buster's...your little band of house cleaners determined to rid the home of unnecessary dirt, odors, and stains! Ok, maybe I got a little carried away but you will definitely see a difference in the cleanliness of the house and the personal responsibility of the rest of the family.

Step 5: Review. This is an important step so don't ignore it. Occasionally you need to review your plans and ensure they are still working. This actually could be part of your plan, to review once a quarter to determine if the household cleaning is going as planned. More often than not you WILL make changes to the plan, and actually, you are encouraged to review the plan more frequently in the beginning to account for the likely changes needed to make it work smoothly.

House cleaning doesn't need to be a stressful ordeal you subject yourself to every day. With proper planning and cooperation from the people you live with, it could actually be kind of fun.

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