Essential Housework Tips

This is a list of 30 essential housework tips for busy mothers. The best housework hacks that make managing the family household just that bit more simple.

Essential Housework Tips

Oh my, oh my how do such little people, aka your children, generate so much housework?

If it’s not the obstacle course of toys strewn across the sitting room floor…

…it’s the piles and piles of paint

… and worse …

… the stained clothes that are so fiddly to hang on the line …

… or the trail of sand, mud and who knows what that comes in on their shoes …

… the carnage in the bathroom …

… the indescribable mess of potty training …

… the school bags that must be got ready …

Now I have by no means mastered the art of keeping a completely spotless house at all times.

I’m not totally sure I want to.

But I have found a bunch of really simple, really quick, really easy cleaning tips, hacks and habits that do stop our house from descending into complete chaos on a daily basis.

I’ve popped them into a quick-read list, take a look and see which you can start using straight away to make your life just that bit easier. 

Essential Housework Tips

1. Run the dishwasher after supper, empty it first thing, fill it as you go
2. Never let towels out of the bathroom – they will be left in a soggy heap
3. Bathrooms get mucky after a few days so a big weekly clean is a waste of time
4. Quickly wipe round bathroom basin, top of the bath, loo every other day
5. Keep cleaning stuff in each bathroom/cloakroom
6. Keep bin bags upstairs so you can easily empty bins without bringing down
7. Enforce ALL dirty clothes in the laundry basket before bedtime stories rule
8. Hang up clothes that could be worn again … cuts down laundry
9. Have a laundry routine and stick to it
10. Be absolutely brutal about the ironing – work and best clothes only
11. Hang everything up as soon as it’s dry … iron when it’s needed
12. Make it fun … but enforce a two minute “tidy up time” of toys every day
13. Have a large basket into which stuff to go upstairs can be stashed throughout the week
14. Empty the stuff basket and put things back where they belong once a week
15. Making the beds only takes a minute and it will make you feel more in control
16. Get everyone to take their shoes off when they come into the house
17. Start a basic housework routine … that actually works for you …
18. 15-30 mins housework daily more effective than a big blast
19. Clean against a hard deadline e.g. school run … you’ll be much more efficient
20. Start cleaning from the bottom of the house up … this is the bit visitors see
21. Stock up on baking soda & white vinegar … there’s not much they can’t clean
22. Get a telescopic real feather duster, it will dust a room top to bottom in no time
23. Run baking soda and vinegar through your dishwasher every six months to keep it fresh
24. Run vinegar through the washing machine every six months to keep it fresh
25. Give children a spray bottle of water and a cloth so they can “help”
26. Get a Spring cleaning check-list and do one thing off it every week
27. Even if it’s just a few baskets and a pinboard have a “command centre” for post and notices
28. Always cook double quantities … and freeze one quantity to eat at another mealtime
29. However short you are on time do something … 5 mins daily is better than nothing
30. If you’re stuck … ask a mommy blogger … they’ll always have the answer!!

I do hope you found these essential housework tips helpful.

Want more tips? Check out the household section which is full of super simple, sanity-saving, planet-friendly tips.

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