I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

It is important to talk about cleaning in your home.  If your home is clean, you want to be there.  Your kids want to be there.  Your spouse wants to be there.   It feels welcoming and inviting.  You know that you don’t have anything to do.   Trust me, clutter can build up and it can weigh you down (you can read my series about decluttering).   I understand that cleaning is a lot of work and that it is time consuming.  Again- I’ve been there!   I am there!    Today I want to tell you why you need to have the cleaning talk with your family.

Cleaning can be an all-day job, if you let it!  Trust, me… with these 4 sweeties, I know all about it!  I can be cleaning the kitchen and I walk into the living room to find castles, forts and baby dolls.  I want to have a kid-friendly home where our kids want to be.  I don’t want it be a showcase, but I also want it to stay clean and organized. 

It kind of never ends, right?  haha!

The problem is that everyone wants a clean house, but no one really wants to “clean”.  Today- some ideas to get it done!

Did you know that Eighty-five percent of American couples say that cleaning tensions add stress to their relationships at home. However, 96 percent of adults say that having a clean home makes them happy.    That is kind of a catch twenty-too, isn’t it? We just want to have clean homes (well, I do, anyway!)

Have a “cleaning talk”

We sit down and talk about who is going to do what job.    The kids will pick two-three jobs (daily) from their chore basket, filled with age-appropriate chores.  They will also unload the dishwasher, make their beds, put their clothes away and keep their rooms clean.  My husband likes doing laundry (yay!!!) so when he is home on the weekends, he takes over that job.    During the week, he works about 10 hours a day and he helps at when he gets home.   I do most of the other things (you can see my daily cleaning list here).   I stay home with our kids, so I feel like taking care of the house and cooking the meals is a part of that job (being home with the kids).   Still, we need to have a ‘cleaning talk’ because no one can (or should) take care of cleaning the house alone.  We ALL live here.  We ALL pitch in.  As I tell my kids- if you help me clean, I then have MORE time to play with you later.

Let everyone have a chance at the ‘fun jobs’

There are some jobs that are the “fun jobs” in our house.   Using the Swiffer is one of them.  The kids always want this job (they like to compare Swiffers to see who got the most crumbs/dust… they do this several times a day sometimes!
Every day I clean our kitchen floors with my Swiffer.  This is how the kid’s help me clean, too (using the Swiffer).  It makes cleaning easier (no matter who uses it).

Swiffer sent me this awesome Swiffer Big Green Box filled with goodies and they sent me another one to gift to someone… I picked my mom & she was just as excited (she has always used Swiffer products in her house, as well).     The items inside help us to clean up our everyday messes.    It is always quick and easy to use.  It helps our family to have MORE time with each other and LESS time cleaning.  Plus- since it is “the fun chore” in our house, no one ever minds using it!  haha!

You should watch this HILARIOUS video (If you like Modern Family, you are going to love this video!)

The Dirty Thirty

My mom read an article in our paper a few months ago about one mom that did “the Dirty Thirty”.
Every night, at the end of the night, she would say “Its time for the dirty thirty” and the whole family would set the timer and clean as much as they could for thirty minutes.  I LOVE to set our timer on our microwave and “race ourselves” to see if we can finish cleaning a room in eight minutes or ten minutes.
Our family does something similar to the Dirty Thirty (but its probably not as fun as calling it the “Dirty Thirty”).   Every night, after dinner, we ALL pitch in.  We clean the kitchen and the living room.  When EVERYTHING is cleaned up and put away, we can have a snack (try these home made frozen greek yogurt popsicles) and we can watch a show on TV before heading upstairs for bath time and bed time.   I tell them that 7:30 is bedtime, so if we clean up and we have time left, that’s great.  If not, we won’t have time for TV tonight.  This really puts a little pep in their step to work faster and harder to save time for the fun stuff!

Ready for more cleaning tips?   Check out these posts:

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.