You all know that I am now working full-time again, an in doing so I’ve let the cleaning slip a little bit. My parents just came to visit to help with the kids while I was in Bentonville, AR for work, and my cleaning beforehand was less than stellar. It was so nice of my parents to visit and watch the kids, but getting ready for them and working at the same time was super hard.
Then I saw this card/ad scroll across my feed in Facebook today and it made me giggle. See below! It made me want to share my tips for making the house look clean when it really isn’t!
Found in my Facebook feed
Okay, so here are my silly tips for making the house seem clean/picked-up, and they work:
1. If you have a pile of clean laundry sitting out (or dirty for that matter), just fold a couple towels and lay them on top. It makes it look like you have a nice folded basket of laundry ready to put away. You can do this with books too! If you have a messy shelf just line up books in front of the mess in a nice straight row and hide all the junk! It works!
2. Closets rule! You can just pile papers and other small things in bags, shove them into the closets, and then go through everything later. Make sure you do go through it later or you will have one full closet of “junk bags!” which no one wants.
3. Buy living room furniture with storage compartments. Our footstool has a lid you can lift and put things in. When the kids have their school work laying around, I can just shove the papers in there and organize them later. Quick and easy! Especially when someone is ringing the doorbell! It’s my 2-minute pick-up trick!
4. Vacuum the house. This does not actually take long. It is true cleaning, but it makes everything around look clean too. If people see nice lines in the carpets they will think the entire house is clean!
5. Spray cleaning solution/air freshener in the air! Make the house smell clean. I only use the “healthier” cleaning solutions, so I am not hurting my kids and pets.
I actually did wash the sheets, towels, and scrub toilets. I’m not a total dirtball. LOL! I actually value having a “clean house” and hate when it gets messy or dirty. I am working hard to balance things too! I want to be able to work full-time, keep up with cleaning, being a mom, and exercising too! I will get there! I am slowly getting into a groove!
And I actually need to give a shout out to my hubby here! He has been really supportive with my decision to work full-time and said, “Now that you’re working 40 hours a week, we need to split the home duties. It’s only fair.” He’s now taken on the kids’ laundry, which happens to be the hardest thing for me to do! I just hate laundry!!! I love vacuuming, washing dishes, and even cleaning bathrooms. Laundry though, I just can’t stand it for some reason!
Do you have any “non-cleaning” tips or things you hate most about keeping a clean/picked-up house?
Great post! My house is a mess right now ! I really need to sit down and organize!
I have learned to stay on top of it by tackling one room for big cleaning daily (dusting, organizing, etc) and not letting things like mail or laundry pile up. If I have enough for a load I get it done. Once you get a system, it is easier to balance it all. When I get behind though, yes your list is exactly what I do when my mother is coming!
This is fantastic. I have a problem that it takes me like three to four weeks to get back to the “stashes” and sort them and put away. A must add to the list…a clean sink. Always clean the kitchen sink.
I like organizing the mess somedays, instaed of cleaning. It does make the house look decent temporarily anyways. One of my favorite thing to do when in a super hurry is stashing dirty pans/dishes in the oven! If the dishes are done and counters, table an stove are wiped, it appears clean. And of course sweeping the dirt under the rug, thats a classic. I know someone that puts a dish towel over top of the dishes in the sink to make it look cleaner.
Love that!!! LOL!
I do a lot of these things, though I sometimes throw junk in a laundry basket and shove it in the closet, forgetting about it until a week later 🙂
I would omit the ‘fresh sprays’ unless you make it yourself. You can use essential oils in busy areas to freshen your mood as you walk by.
My biggest tip is to have baskets and bins. for the kids we have those big round bins which are completely unorganized but they hols all of their toys. Toys off the floor and in bins looks so much cleaner. We also do a basket by the back door for kids shoes. No kids shoes left around the house they are all tossed in a basket.
MY dad gave me a tall dresser which he painted and i put old but nice curtains over it as decor and use that for storage and quick pick ups and go through it about once a month to organize and dejunk.
My big thing is wiping down the counters in the kitchen and bathrooms. If those are clean, I feel like I can get away with not having dust free bookshelves!
Balancing work, family, home duties, etc. is hard. I’ve been doing it for over 2 years and STILL haven’t gotten down the perfect balance!! You’ll get there. 😉
thank you doe these great tips, i certainly needed them lol
Definitely cleaning the kitchen, tossing stuff on top of the washer and dryer and vacuuming…oh and the toilets!
I Love the simple and easy steps you shared, actually I love cleaning and organizing but there are just some days whe I am too tired to do all these stuff…
Great list! I’m an empty-nester now, but I still have one rule of CLEAN that I’ve been doing forever, especially when I was a young working Mom. I’m rather picked-up and neat, but I clean, clean one room a day… this means Monday is kitchen CLEAN, Tuesday bathrooms CLEAN, Wednesday master bedroom CLEAN, etc. CLEAN is picking-up, putting away, dusting, wiping down, vacuum or dust-bust. This way, the entire house is clean every week in usually less than 15 minutes/day. It works for me!
I love them!! A lot of times we just move everything to our office, which no one enters and shut the door. Keeps it looking clean when I really have a lot of organizing to do.
Vacuuming is the ONLY piece of housework that makes me happy. I feel instant gratification – and now that we adopted a dog that leaves a cloud of hair wherever he goes, I do it every single day. Twice on most days. 🙂
Great post!
Great tips!!! Though I hate cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming!!!
Oh man you made me laugh!! Thanks!! This post comes in handy just in time; my mother in law will be here Friday…time to “clean” the house! LOL
My husband says a messy house encourages laziness and I’ve noticed the messier the house the less I feel like doing. We are in the process of moving all the kids stuff upstairs so they don’t take over the living room and dining room. He is the one that does the deep cleaning.
LOL! Love the laundry basket trick, trouble is my mom loves to “help” when she visits. I could see her picking up the clean towels to put them away, and thinking the rest needed to be folded and also put away….I would come home to a pile of not so clean cloth’s waiting to be put in the dresser! 🙂
Too funny!!!
I love that I do almost all of these already! With more money I would “invest” in mess-hiding furniture but for now I utilize the closets 😉 THANKS!
These tips are great! When I was in high school and my mom would ask me to clean the house I would just spray dust cleaner all around the house and she was happy. I only told her about 5 years ago and thankfully she laughed about it!
The Closest is ALWAYS my go-to hiding spot! LOVE this post!
I try to stay on top of everything as it comes, BUT I am not working 40 hours a week- these tips are awesome! What a great hubby- I high-five him from here 🙂
Fun post! If my kitchen counter is clean I feel like I can tackle the world! But when it’s a mess – I’m a nut!!!
Storage compartment furniture are key! I’m a big fan of trunks and ottomans with lids 🙂
I always love the way my house looks after I vacuum clean! Thanks for the tips!
Great tips! Going to have to really remember the laundry basket trick I never seem to get caught up on folding!
We are in the midst of packing right now so if people visit what cha see is what cha get. Vacuum YES! Maybe even put the clothes back in the dryer? lol
Great list! I make very good use of our closets, and a quick vacuum does miracles!
Great post! I have the habit of making things clean when I know folks are coming over. Yep working fulltime and having a busy schedule the one thing that goes by the wayside is cleaning LOL
Pamela
I so wish we had more closets!
Haha, we use closets for quick storage when we have company coming over!
It’s amazing how just vacuuming can make the whole house seem cleaner!
Hahaha, you are too funny! I like the tip about folding just the towels on top…very sneaky. 🙂
LOL this is a great list. I still have boxes/bags of papers I’ve stowed away; can never seem to find time to get to them. lol paper is the worst, though my most dreaded chore would probably be cleaning bathrooms. Vacuuming always makes the house feel so much better, definitely!