These genius cleaning hacks for busy moms will help you keep the house clean even when you just want to netflix and chill.
I’m one of those strange people who actually likes cleaning their house.
Actually, scratch that. Now that I think about it, I don’t know if it’s the actual cleaning part that I love. I think it’s more that I love having a clean house and for that to happen, I have to clean it.
Tidy? Ehhhh, not always. I have a 14-month-old tornado, so if you show up to my house unannounced, be prepared to step over toys, puzzles, books and sippy cups.
And while I’m not absolutely pedantic about cleaning like my Mum and Nanna are (my Nanna always said that her floors were clean enough to eat off of {not that anyone ever actually did that I know of}) I do keep a clean house.
But I also go through my lazy phases where I’d rather read a book or binge-watch ID channel than clean.
So, what’s a girl to do? You want a clean house, but you don’t actually want to clean.
That’s where cleaning hacks come in.
Over the years I’ve accumulated a number of cleaning hacks that I use to keep my house looking clean and tidy even through my netflix and chill phases.
Here are my top 10 cleaning hacks!
10 Genius Cleaning Hacks for Busy Moms (That Actually Work)
1) Set a timer and clean your butt off
The procrastination struggle is real, which is why the timer trick is one of my favorites.
Instead of laying on the couch coming up with excuses as to why I don’t need to clean the house right now, I get my digital timer out, set it for 10 or 15 minutes and clean as fast as I can.
The ultra-competitive side of me loves this cleaning hack because I always try to beat my previous cleaning record. And if I’m being completely honest (and risking sounding cuckoo) I actually get a bit of an adrenaline rush know that my timer is about to go nuts at any minute.
In short, get yourself a digital timer and start speed cleaning.
2) Clean the shower while you’re in the shower
This is the winningest cleaning hack out of all hacks. How genius is it to clean the shower while you’re actually IN the shower?!
You get to take a hot, relaxing shower while you’re cleaning – sounds like a winning proposition to me.
Of course, make sure you use non-toxic cleaning products so you don’t pass out!
3) Use baskets to stash stuff
This is more of a tidying hack than a cleaning hack, but it’s super handy if you don’t have a lot of built-in storage space.
I have tons of storage baskets (these wicker ones are my favorite) that I use to store everything from toys to shoes to random electrical cords.
At the end of the night I just pile up all of my son’s toys and stash them in a wicker basket. Takes about 1 minute to do and the house looks a million times better.
4) Use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, what did I ever do before I found you? Spent half an hour scrubbing things that you can clean in 1 minute, that’s what!
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is the ultimate lazy girl cleaning hack. Everyone should have at least a few Mr. Clean Magic Erasers in their house at all times.
If you haven’t tried them, they genuinely work like magic. I use them for everything from cleaning my faucets to scrubbing the dirty fingerprints on the interior doors to cleaning the baseboards. Can’t live without ’em!
5) Clean the microwave with a bowl of vinegar
Ok, so it’s not as easy as just placing a bowl of vinegar in the microwave and voila, your microwave is clean.
But it’s almost that easy. I don’t know why microwaves tend to get so grungy so quickly, but it’s kinda gross to have dried food splatter stuck on your microwave walls, right?
Instead of spending 20 minutes scrubbing your microwave with soap and water, just microwave a bowl of vinegar for about 2 minutes.
Open the microwave, stand back for a second so you don’t burn your eyeballs with the vinegar fumes, then use a paper towel or piece of cloth to easily wipe the gunk away.
6) Use a sock to clean your blind slats
I love wood blinds, but they’re freakin’ annoying to clean. I don’t actually have wood blinds in the house we currently live in so I don’t use this cleaning hack anymore. But if you have wood blinds, you’ll love it.
Instead of painstakingly wiping down each blind slat, just put a sock on your hand and wipe along the slat.
You’ll save time by cleaning both side of the slat at the same time, and the dust will stick to the inside of the sock. I used to spray a bit of vinegar on the sock too, to help the dust stick.
7) Clean regularly
I know, I know, this doesn’t sound like a lazy girl cleaning hack. But it’s probably the most important lazy girl cleaning hack there is.
When you constantly put off cleaning the house, you’re actually just making it even worse for yourself when you finally get around to cleaning.
A perfect example of this is the bathroom. If you put off cleaning the bathroom for weeks, you’re going to have to spend hours and use a ton of elbow grease to scrub all the grungy soap scum off your shower, the unmentionable stains in the toilet bowl and the stuck on toothpaste in the sink.
But if you give the bathroom a quick wipe down every couple of days you’ll avoid stains getting essentially baked on and it’ll make things a LOT easier when you do a full clean.
8) Use a lint roller for dusting
Dusting is probably the bane of my existence. That, washing my ultra-thick hair, and people who slow their vehicle down to 1 foot an hour to turn the corner.
So lint rollers are basically my dust busting bestie. I use lint rollers to clean dog hair and cookie crumbs off my couch, clean the lampshades, the fabric dining chair cushions, my office chair, etc.
9) Immediately toss your junk mail
If you’re a couponer, then junk mail can be coupon gold. I’m definitely not an extreme couponer but I do clip out a coupon here and there for things that I would already be buying.
But junk mail can have the tendency to pile up pretty fast.
As soon as I bring the junk mail in, I quickly flip through and cut out any coupons I’m going to use, then I immediately toss the rest in the recycling.
10) Line your baking trays with aluminum foil
I’ll be honest, I don’t really care what my baking trays look like as long as they’re clean.
But if you like to have shiny, silver, brand-new looking cookie trays then this cleaning hack works double duty on that.
Lining your baking trays with aluminum foil before you bake anything will keep your baking trays from going brown, but they’ll also make clean up virtually non-existent. Just toss then aluminum foil, give the baking tray a quick wipe down with dish soap, and you’re done!
Do you have any other awesome cleaning hacks? Share them in the comments below!
Hi I’m Ana. I’m all about trying to live the best life you can. This blog is all about working to become physically healthy, mentally healthy and financially free! There lots of DIY tips, personal finance tips and just general tips on how to live the best life.
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