20 Moms Share Their Spring Cleaning Hacks!

I recently polled The Mama Notes Inner Circle (read about it and join here) to share their best spring cleaning hacks. To be quite honest our house is a mess 80% of the time. We tried having a cleaning company come every 3 weeks but after Flora was born and we were cutting costs we put them on hold and now it’s just perpetually messy. I struggle with getting on a cleaning schedule and I’m determined to get something figured out this year! Here are 20 of the best tips — and by far the most frequently suggested tips were:

Clean during the week so you can enjoy the weekend with your family.

Do laundry every day or a few times a week so it doesn’t pile up.

If you can afford it, hire a cleaning service- it’s worth every penny.

Keep a bag for donations in your closet or laundry room so you can add things to it easily.

1.   I focus on one room a day to deep clean. I work from home so I use that time as my time away from the computer and typically wear a face mask while I do it.
2. I work from hope a couple of days a week and sweep and mop on conference calls when I can. Also, I try to do one task a day (sweeping, dusting, laundry, dishes, mopping, etc.).
3. If you have energy or ‘excitement’ for a particular area of cleaning or organizing, run with it, even if it isn’t the highest priority necessarily. You will feel so accomplished that you did it and can cross it off your list. Also, it’s ok if you don’t do a deep clean. If you have walked past the same sticky spot on your floor a zillion times, just clean that spot and call it a win rather than letting it bug you until you get a chance to mop the whole floor.
4. My best spring cleaning tip is to clean/pick up a little bit each night before bed. It helps tasks and items from piling up and you will be very thankful that you don’t have a ridiculous amount of stuff cluttering your house and your mind.
5. The bathroom – I keep Babyganics all purpose cleaning wipes handy and wipe everything down constantly, especially with potty training happening now.
6. I like to keep a small box in my closet where I put clothes I’m on the fence about donating or things that don’t fit. If I haven’t reached for them again to wear or mend after a few months, I get rid of it.
7.  I’m always cleaning/tidying. I try to have a clear kitchen counter top & new pot of coffee ready for the next day before we leave for work/daycare. I’ll do a deep clean on our bathroom & the kids bathroom every other week & just try to wipe counters & sinks down as we go to keep things tidy.
8. I clean every Monday. Gets it out of the way, and then it doesn’t eat up our Sunday..the only day we have together as a family.
9. Investing in a cleaning crew to come to our house every other week has been a lifesaver, which I know is a luxury! We didn’t get invest in this until my daughter turned 1, and it seriously changed my life, especially as I’m a working mom and my time with my daughter can be limited. It just made me feel so much freer to spend time with her and play, and not rush around cleaning.
10. I dust and vacuum the entire house on Friday, something nice about clean for the weekend. I re-organize and thoroughly clean each room one day (or days) at a time for spring.
11. We do a load of dishes everyday and use Emily Ley’s Spring Cleaning Checklist! I usually try and finish the checklist over a span of a month.
12. Set a schedule on what to do each day of the week and use it weekly that way it’s always clean.
13. Regularly I clean on Fridays so we can enjoy the clean house all weekend together, Including linens and changing sheets. Then I do a “touch up” on Monday night or Tuesday so that it’s refreshed for the week but not as intense. I hold myself to those two times so that I don’t spend all week cleaning and not enjoying my children. My daughter also “helps” with laundry loading into washer/dryer, unloading dishwasher daily, and I give her microfiber cloths to “help” with cleaning days too.
14. I make sure the kitchen and living room are clean before I go to bed. No dishes, nothing on the counters, and all the baby stuff is stored away. The kitchen is always the first priority and if the living room doesn’t get clean it’s not a big deal. If I do this every day there’s really not much to do each night. Takes less than five minutes and makes me feel less stressed in the morning!
15. My husband and I play to our strengths and have assigned rooms we’re in charge of for deep cleaning one day a month and we keep things as tidy as possible on a daily basis since I work from home and he cooks every night.
16. We recently invested in a cordless-vacuum which has been a big win—so much easier to tackle little messes (like under the highchair) in real time. We also keep a tub of clorox wipes under the sink in every bathroom for quick cleanups in between the deep cleans.
17. If something only takes a few minutes don’t put it off. I find this helps me stay on top of cleaning and small tasks on my to do list. If I’m feeling overwhelmed I’ll often start with the things that take less than five minutes.
18. I clean the bathroom while my boys are in the bath.
19. Also, let all the clean laundry pile up and then once a week put it all away at once while you listen to a podcast/watch Netflix. This is the only way I can make myself put laundry away.
20. As soon as dishwasher is done – empty it, then the sink doesn’t pile up.

Laundry

Rather than doing a bunch of laundry all at once, I do one load at a time and make sure to wash, dry, and fold it all that day. If I don’t think I will have time to fold it, I wait until the next day to start that load. I find it much more manageable to complete the whole process for one load rather than having a bunch of clean loads that need to be folded.

I do laundry every day except Saturday and Sunday. I try to be ahead of the laundry because kids tend to go through so much!

I’ve slowly realized that laundry every/every other day is the way to go for us. Some nights I throw a load in when I get home from work, then just move to the dryer before bed. Once I wake up, I put it on fluff & fold after my coffee & before heading out the door.