How to Make Your House Feel Clean Even When You Don’t Have Much Time

Susan Guinto
by Susan Guinto
Here a few tricks I found from Frugal Living Mom to help you house feel a bit cleaner, without taking 4+ hours or costing an arm and a leg. And depending on how lazy you are feeling you can pick and choose or do them all.
1. Pick up all the junk. Kids (and adults, but we won’t talk about that) make BIG messes. Grab a bin or basket and throw in all the kids stuff. I put their stuff in the hall for them to put away. My rule is if you leave it their overnight, it will not be there in the morning. Surprisingly, it works most of the time! (As a note, pair down the kids stuff.. they really don’t need 50 toys, a few will do. But we will talk about that in another post))


2. Vacuum. I don’t know if it is in my head, but just vacuuming makes my house feel 50% cleaner!


3. Do the Dishes. Yeah, I hate this one. This is one area where I am the Laziest. But a sink full of dishes REALLY makes the house feel dirty. My husband HATES this but my secret for getting it done fast is to do as little rinsing as a can. You need to rinse off the big stuff because that can clog up your dishwasher. But other than that, I just stick them in. Sure a few things need to go through again, but I would rather do that than stand there rinsing. But that’s me.


4. Make your bed. Nothing fancy, just pull up your bedspread and arrange the pillows. Your bedroom will feel much cleaner.


5. Toss the junk mail in the trash right away. I don’t know about you but I am consumed with papers. Do everything you can to get rid of it immediately. When you check the mail stand next to the recycling and just toss any junk.


6. Light a Candle. Yep, if the house isn’t REALLY clean at least it can smell like it is.
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  • Lillian S Lillian S on Jun 09, 2015
    Be aware, though, that the candle burns your oxyen in your house.
  • B. Enne B. Enne on Jun 02, 2018

    Good ideas, thanks for sharing!


    We only run our DW every 2-3 days.

    I usually run dishwater for the bigger items that don't fit/can't go in the DW. I leave it in the sink till after the meal is done, and use that water to rinse the dinner plates that are going in the DW. That way I don't waste more water, and everything gets a quick rinse. I have never had filter or clogging problems in the DW (many of my friends have), AND there is no smell.

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