Housekeeping is a nasty, burdensome and thankless job. Soon after you put your home in order, dust and dirt begin to accumulate over and over.

Needless to say, this can be pretty stressful. With your busy life, you probably don’t have time to clean your home every single minute. Which is why you need to manage your time when doing the chores. Here is a quick guide to help you improve your cleaning schedule.

Make a list. The first thing you ought to do is identify all the cleaning tasks you handle weekly. You also need to estimate how much time it takes to accomplish everything and how often it should be done. The key to managing your time when housekeeping is scheduling. Once you figure out all the chores, write “daily”, “weekly” or “monthly”, “every other day”, “every three days”, etc. next to each one, depending on how often it needs to be done. Make your list comprehensive and easy to grasp. Fill in your engagements on a calendar and determine on which days of the month you will be available to commit to housekeeping. Make sure to fill in the most essential tasks first. This would include vacuuming and sweeping the floors. Group similar or related chores to minimize the time you spend on one area.

Some tasks, such as washing the dishes, making the beds and clearing the table, don’t need to be marked down on the calendar because they have to be done constantly. Consider creating a separate chore list for them. Place it on the refrigerator or your magnet board in the kitchen so it’s easy to see.

Assign tasks to other family members. Are you a family that shares housework? Good for you. The more members pitch in with house-cleaning, the more quickly you can get the job done. When building a cleaning schedule, don’t forget to indicate all the responsibilities that your loved ones will be tackling. Place a checklist or a chart of chores in a visible spot to remind them they have work to do, too. Adjust your schedule. If your cleaning schedule begins to feel a little overwhelming and burdensome, it means you have to do minor changes. The point of building a schedule is to make your daily cleaning routine more manageable and less time-consuming. The moment it starts to interfere in your life, you have to read just it. 

Dedicate half an hour to decluttering before nap time. Wash dirty dishes, sweep the kitchen floor, put toys away, put clean clothes where they belong, etc. Managing today’s chores will help you to start a new day, fresh and tidy. If you have to deal with the messes from the day before, you will end up with more chores and less time to tackle everything. Place a basket in a visible spot and toss all items you find on the floor or in other inappropriate places.

Ask family members to put those away. Rather than sitting on the floor in all unimaginable places around the house, these items will be kept in place and out of sight until their owner puts them away. This will also minimize time de-cluttering. If you have kids, don’t bother to clean your home in the morning. Instead wait until the sun goes down. Doing the chores in the morning is practically pointless because your kids will declutter again and again, so you will have to give the house another clean in the evening. The only exception is washing the dishes. Don’t ever skip them over. 

Here are some tips for managing house cleaning.

The article is contributed by CityCleaners W4