Couldn’t all moms be considered busy moms? Yes, of course. Moms stay plenty busy. But in this post I’m specifically talking to the busy moms that feel like you can’t stay on top of your house (or even near the middle) because life is too crazy. Maybe you’re a mom that works outside the home, and your time at home is less than what you may like. Or maybe you feel like you’re always on the run with the kids’ sports, grocery shopping, and anything else you want to add to that list. Whatever your lifestyle may currently be, I’m here to tell you that cleaning your home is not hopeless. With these top 5 cleaning tips for busy moms, you can get on top of your messy home and ditch the overwhelm associated with keeping a clean home. 

And, this is not one of my cleaning tips, but it is worth mentioning here. In all of this mama, you have to give yourself a break and not put so much pressure on yourself. Sure, a clean home is wonderful, but we’re all going to have those days it just doesn’t happen. However, you don’t have to live there every day.

So here we go. Take action, start implementing these tips, and you will see a noticeable difference in your home life.

Top 5 Cleaning Tips for Busy Moms

1. Decluttering

This has, and will continue to be my number one tip for these cleaning tips for busy moms. I know it can feel huge and overwhelming. And yes, it can take a good chunk of time (which can be split up several different ways). But, if you keep all that clutter in your home, trying to stay on top of the cleaning is going to feel almost impossible, no matter what other tips you use. The short of it is, if you have less stuff in your home, you have less to clean. 

I’m not going to go into the details of how to go about decluttering your home, but if you’d like some tips on that, you can find them here and here. 

2. Do One Load of Laundry Every Day

This may not work for everyone, but for me, it is a life saver. As a mom working full-time out of the home, I don’t have a whole entire day to devote to laundry, and who wants to spend their entire Saturday doing laundry?! And what if you have plans on a Saturday, what then? Plus, I hate folding and putting away the clothes, so doing it one load at a time is much more manageable for me, and it keeps me from having piles of clean clothes laying around. If you’ve never given it a try, I would highly suggest you give it a try for a week or two before you say it’s not for you.

Depending on the size of your family you may have to do 2 loads a day. However, if you follow that decluttering tip I mentioned above, it will greatly reduce the amount of laundry you have to do. 

Pro tip: Get a washer that has a delayed wash option. LIFE SAVER. You can put a load in before bed and set it to start an hour before you wake. When you wake up, switch to the dryer, and you’ll have your load for the day done before you even go to work! All you have left is the folding and putting away which feels doable most evenings if that’s all I need to do. Or, if you prefer, throw it in before you head to work and schedule to be done when you get off work. Then dry, fold and put away in the evening. In my opinion, this is one of the best inventions for moms ever.

Gain is my favorite laundry detergent to use right now, and I’m going to give this one a try soon.

3. Create A Schedule

Don’t make it complicated, but make yourself a simple schedule for each day of the week with the chores you tend to not get too often enough. Of course the dishes tend to be an every day must, and a load of laundry if you choose to do that. But make yourself a schedule for things like the bathroom, sweeping and mopping, etc.

Here’s just a simple suggestion:
Monday – Bathrooms
Tuesday – Sweep/Mop Kitchen
Wednesday – Vacuum
Thursday – Dust
Friday –  Windows or Fridge
Saturday – Whatever got missed during the week

If you don’t want to come up with your own, you can find TONS of cleaning schedules online. Take a little time to search around and find something you think might work for your lifestyle.

I totally get it. Some nights you’re away from the house or so exhausted you can barely get food on the table and dishes done, let alone anything else. Those nights happen. But, if you have a plan in place, you are much more likely to get those things done on a more routine basis. Plus, it takes some of the guesswork and stress out when you know right when you walk in the door what you need to do that night.

4. Give the Kids A Chore

No matter the age of your kids, unless they’re a baby, they should be able to help with something around the house. Even the littlest can help with picking up toys, folding and/or putting away laundry, load or unload dishwasher. Maybe the young ones can’t do it all, but they can help. Start with the silverware only in the dishwasher, or let them put the plastic cups in the dishwasher. Use buckets for simple pick up of toys, or use a hula hoop to mark a specific area in the room for a child to clean up. 

As the children get older they can do bigger chores like doing their own laundry, vacuum, sweep and mop, and even cooking. Yes it takes some time (and patience) to teach a child how to clean, but it’s worth it in the end. This helps your kids learn responsibility, gives them skills they’ll need for life, and, especially as they get older, it takes some of the burden off of you.

5. Everyone Pick Up for 10 Minutes Before You Go To Bed

Make this one a non-negotiable. Even if you’re out of the house for most of the evening, taking an extra 10 minutes before the kids go to bed won’t ruin their sleep. Everyone does it all at the same time, and it doesn’t seem like such a chore. Set a timer if need be. This is the time to go through the house and do a simple pick up, or perhaps a couple things you couldn’t get done during the evening because you were out. If you commit to doing this every day, you’ll be amazed at how much your family can get done in just 10 minutes! And, it sets a good tone for the next day.

Tip: if you have young toddlers, you may want to skip out on this one until they’re a little older, and just do it on your own after they go to bed. 

On occasion, I do this with my kids before they go to bed, and then do it again before I go to bed. Even if you get nothing else done that evening, that’s 20 minutes of focused cleaning. 

Make a habit of these top 5 cleaning habits for busy moms

If you can get in the habit of doing these 5 cleaning tips for busy moms, you’ll be able to stay on top of what usually becomes a messy home. For example, have the kids do a quick 10 minute pick up of their toys or rooms before bed, and then the next day when it’s “chore time”, their room will only take a matter of minutes to clean up. You have a lot more family time, and you avoid (for the most part) the fussing and fighting that comes when children get overwhelmed by cleaning.

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