A Cleaning Schedule for a Working Mom that Won’t Overwhelm

Moms are busier than ever. While in recent years, moms have been working more and dads have been helping to balance out home and family responsibilities, the past year has seen a shift in that trend. More than 2 million women have left their jobs since March 2020. When kids were sent home from school, more often, it was Mom who made sure they were logging on to classes, paying attention during classes and doing homework, as well as preparing lunches. Moms who were able to work from home found themselves having to manage their jobs and the kids. While the kids were growing bored and distracted as the months wore on, Mom still juggled the responsibilities of home and work, all at the same time. Where, in all that, has there been time to be a cleaning mom? How can one person do it all? We can’t watch your kids or run your online meeting, but we can offer you some tips to help tackle keeping the house clean and relieve some of the pressure. 

Don’t Do It Alone

Moms don’t ask for help. When something needs to get done, most moms just get the work done, even if it means giving up other things like sleep, dinner, or that walk you really wanted to go on while everybody’s doing homework. And 9 times out of 10, it’s best for the rest of the family to stay out of the way of a cleaning mom, right? Wrong. 

Especially while everyone is still working and attending classes from home, there is no excuse for one person to do all the work alone. Get help from the family to get the cleaning done. Do you remember doing chores as a kid? We all hated doing them, but we learned a lot: responsibility for our own belongings, respect for other people’s belongings, the value of time, plus we learned how to take care of where we live. Older kids (and partners) can handle a load of laundry, running the vacuum, or loading the dishwasher. Younger kids, even really little ones, can pick up toys and put them in the toy bin or pick up dirty clothes and put them in the hamper. They’re closer to the floor anyway! 

If you have a tough time getting the kids to buy in on the idea of helping out, start a point system and assign tasks a certain point value. When they’ve earned a certain amount of points, assign an equivalent privilege they have to ask permission for. 

You also don’t have to stick to asking the people living in your house! It’s hard to ask, but it can be incredibly liberating to let someone else help you--whether it’s family, friends, or us! That’s what You’ve Got Maids are for! Don’t be ashamed or embarrassed to reach out and ask for a hand if it gets to be too much.  

Prioritize

You don’t have all day to clean. You don’t even have a whole hour to dedicate to cleaning, and it seems like anything that was clean is completely undone before you’ve even finished. It can get pretty overwhelming quickly and leave you frazzled, especially when you’re trying to get out the door and can’t find your car keys. Rather than freaking out about the whole mess, zero in on the part of the mess that’s most important (or drives you the most crazy) and prioritize those parts to clean. A cleaning schedule for a working mom will help prevent the panic. There are a couple of ways to prioritize.

Clean What’s Important

Make a list of the areas that are most critical to the house running smoothly. Is it the kitchen, with dishes piling up in the sink and papers covering the counter or table? Is it the front door and the trail of shoes and clothes that get dropped there? Does a messy bathroom covered in toothpaste, shaving cream and wet towels drive you nuts? These chores might be non-negotiable for a cleaning mom, and life will come to a screeching, frustrated halt if they don’t get done. Figure out what’s most important to you. Only when those chores are done should you begin to prioritize the ‘want to’ areas. Focus first on what will bring you (and the rest of the house) peace of mind once they’re done. 

Attack Fast Tasks First

What are the fast tasks that only take a couple minutes to do? When you make your next bio break, can you (or someone else in the house!) hang the towels and replace the empty toilet paper roll? When you’re in the kitchen for another cup of coffee, can you take 2 minutes and spray down the counter? Many of these fast tasks are the bare minimum that should be done to keep your home and family healthy. Allow yourself the couple of minutes to clean up the chaos, but don’t go down the rabbit hole - set a timer if you need to. 

Clean Efficiently

A cleaning schedule for a stay at home mom or a mom who’s working from home can include the cleaning tasks that take a bit of time but can be done a little bit at a time throughout the day. Got a pile of laundry? Start your day by loading the washing machine. You can easily take a couple minutes to switch over laundry throughout the day and assign someone to fold it when it’s dry. (Secret: It doesn’t “have to” be folded your way. As long as it’s folded some way that minimizes wrinkles, that’s the point of folding, right?) Instead of picking one room, pick one task that needs to be done in every room and do a little throughout the day. By the time the day is over, all the vacuuming is done! 

Make a Checklist

Some people hate lists, while others live by them. For those who love the list, this tip is right up your alley. Make a checklist for each room in the house and the chores that need to be done. Break the chores down by daily, weekly, monthly, etc. And post them in every room. It will help you keep track of what needs to be done--and helps the rest of the family know too! If you have dry erase boards, even better so you can reuse the list. No time to make a million checklists? No problem, a quick internet search will find any style of checklist you can imagine. 

Don’t forget to be kind to yourself. Being a mom is exhausting. Being a cleaning mom can be downright frustrating. Take time for yourself, no matter what has been cleaned or not. Your peace of mind is most important. If all the lists, prioritizing and multitasking don’t get you anywhere, contact us. And don’t feel like you have to clean before we get there - that’s our job!