"Cleaning The House Together Makes Things Easier"

" 4 Reasons Your Family Won't Help Clean and How to Solve the Problem "

Many people feel that their spouses and/or children don’t help out enough around the house. In addition to a general dislike of household chores, there may be significant factors influencing your family’s decision not to pitch in. If you feel like a lone warrior in a war against dirt and debris in the home, it may be time to look at the reasons your family is failing in the fight.

Reason #1: Their way isn’t the right way.

If you are the type of supervisor who is never satisfied with other peoples’ results, you may be teaching your housecleaning recruits to fail. Make sure your demands are reasonable. Your husband may not want to use the same method to scrub a tub that you do. If the tub gets clean and you did not have to do it, does it really matter? If your family is failing at accomplishing the job, they may not fully understand what you expect. “Clean the bathroom” can be a vague request. Consider posting a list of what cleaning the bathroom really involves. Try the 15 Minute Cleanups for steps to clean any room in the house. Your family will understand what is required and you will be more likely to have a job well done.

Reason #2: They do not know how.

Sometimes we forget that jobs that are easy for us, may be a mystery to the rest of our family. (Especially if they are used to having someone else do all the work.) Just as jobs outside the home have training periods, incorporate teaching chore requirements to your children. Consider a few days of side-by-side cleaning, followed by supervised cleaning. Be sure not to fall into the trap of over criticizing. You will risk a workers revolution. Training your help will alleviate the frustration of them being overwhelmed by what to do. Besides showing them how to accomplish certain chores, also show them how to make chores fun.

Reason #3: It’ll get done eventually.

Nothing will happen if they don’t do it.
Consider your family member's motivation to clean. Do they have one? If you have consistently cleaned their messes for them, suddenly asking them to take responsibility may come as a shock. Soften the blow by holding a family council and discussing the responsibilities associated with each family member. This is a great time to bring up consequences for not following the plan.

There may be natural consequences. If laundry is not brought to the laundry room every Monday, people will not have clothes to wear. Other families may tie treats, allowances, or TV time to chore completion. It may take them experiencing these consequences a few times to get the idea across.

Reason #4: Everyone is too busy and overscheduled.

If your family is overscheduled and overwhelmed, you are probably feeling the pressure of not enough time in the day. You can look to your family to help pick up the slack, but are they just as busy as you are? Many families today have few minutes left over in the day to tackle ordinary household chores.

If your family is trapped in a time crunch it may be time to reevaluate priorities to insure that necessary maintenance for your home is included. Don’t forget to incorporate leisure time inside the home into your schedule. Help your family learn that their efforts at accomplishing chores can remake their home into an oasis from the chaos of the outside world.

"9 Tips For Speed Cleaning"

Keep Supplies Together: The number one rule for speed cleaning is to have quick and easy access to your tools and supplies. When it's time to clean, it zaps all of your motivation when you have to hunt for needed supplies. Consider creating a cleaning caddy for different areas of your home. You'll always have your supplies right where you need them.

Pump Up the Music: Music makes a big difference in how quickly I'm able to clean. My mix of songs for cleanup music is a playlist of high energy, fast moving songs that make me feel great. Using music can help you to move more quickly, all while giving you the feeling of fun. Just be sure to shut the blinds if your favorite tracks make you bust into dance moves that you don't want the neighbors knowing you have.

Start With Your Least Favorite Room: The room you always leave until last is the best one to start in. Procrastinating the rooms we hate cleaning only makes us feel worse when we say that we're done. When we're finished with everything else, our mind still remembers that we chickened-out of the hard rooms. Do the most difficult and annoying areas of your house at the beginning, when you are most motivated. Once you accomplish the feeling of completing those tough areas, everything else will seem like a piece of cake.

Don't Clean Just To Clean: I know it sounds silly, but don't waste time cleaning things that don't need to be cleaned. If your refrigerator is still spotless from last weeks cleaning, then why bother moving everything around to clean it? If you never use the downstairs bathroom, then it won't need to be cleaned as often as the master bathroom. Don't clean something just because it's a scheduled day of cleaning. Clean the dirty things, and leave the rest alone.

Clean As You Go: When you see a mess, clean it up. We tell our families this all the time, but do we actually practice what we preach? This can be as simple as grabbing a handful of items that belong upstairs when we know we're heading upstairs anyway. It also includes wiping up spills and splatters before they have the chance to harden. Cleaning as you go will save you a lot of time in the long run.





Don't Overuse Cleaners: The knee-jerk reaction is to use as much cleaner as possible in an effort to get our homes clean. This can actually backfire. Too much cleaner can damage the surfaces in our home. It can also leave a residue that will attract dirt and dust like a magnet. Do yourself a favor and use just enough. At the same time, realize that cleaners rarely work instantly. Give a cleaner some time to penetrate the dirt and grime. Then, instead of spending several minutes scrubbing, you'll usually be able to just wipe the dirt away.

Top To Bottom: This was one of the first rules I learned from my mom. Always start cleaning at the top of a surface, and work your way down. This allows you to avoid dripping cleaner, or settling dust over surfaces that have already been cleaned.

Dry To Wet: The second rule I learned was dry to wet. Do your dry cleaning, dusting, wiping down, etc. first. Next, move to your wet cleaning. The more you can take care of with a dry cloth, the less streaking, spreading of dirt, and potential for spilling you'll have.

Put Supplies Away: So that you'll be ready for your next speed cleaning session, make sure that all of your tools are put away neatly. They'll be ready for you the next time you decide to speed clean.