Spring Cleaning for Busy Moms

Most of the home keeping blogs I read either suggest going whole-hog into spring cleaning or down play spring cleaning as unnecessary if you do your job the rest of the year. My take is a little different.

While I agree spring cleaning is unnecessary if you maintain your house the rest of the year, unless your kids are older and in school most of the day and you don't have any other job, chances are you can't keep your house as well as you wish. On the other hand, if your children are young and not in school all day and/or you have a job outside of home keeping, chances are unlikely you have time to squeeze in comprehensive spring cleaning.



So here's what I suggest: Instead of making a huge, long list of spring cleaning chores, choose a handful of household chores you really want to get done before the weather warms. Then, each day, take a few minutes - no more than an hour, tops - to tackle them, one by one. You may not finish even a single chore in one day, but if you, for example, wash one window, that's a step in the right direction.


Be sure to write down your chores so you have the satisfaction of crossing them off a list. And, most importantly, don't make the list long or arduous. Yes, you may really want to repaint the house, but if you can't realistically do that this year, do not put it on your list. The idea here is not to berate yourself for all the spring cleaning you'd like to do but can't possibly find time for, but to take pleasure and pride in doing a few extra household tasks without neglecting your family or other duties. If you feel you can only manage one spring cleaning task this year, write it down, work on it bit by bit, and feel great when it gets done.

Happy cleaning!