Not Just A Mom: My Favorite Cleaning Hacks

It's time for another Not Just A Mom link up and today we're talking about some of our favorite cleaning hacks... not really sure that I have any cleaning hacks, but I'll do my best!

I hope you'll join us this month (or next time!)! It's always the 2nd Monday of the month. 

1. USE your dishwasher-- we don't just use our dishwasher to wash dishes; I used to clean the kids toys in there when they were little, I've cleaned glass light fixtures in there, the turntable from our microwave, home décor items, and more. 

2. Along that same line-- put your washing machine to work.  I've washed everything from stuffed animals and soft toys to curtains and even car mats in ours.  When the kids were little and we had stomach bugs flying through the house I'd even unzip and throw all the couch cushion covers in there. 

3. Mutli-purpose mops-- I LOVE our Swiffer dry mop but I did get sick of buying the Swiffer refills though and we use a dollar store chenille sock on there; it picks up just as much as I can just toss them in the washer when we're done.  But I clean more than just my floors.  I use the Swiffer not just to clean floors but the walls, ceiling fan blades, baseboards, and have even been known to tuck a wet rag onto the end and use it to clean windows that I can't really reach otherwise. 

4. Ditch the traditional wet mop-- we swapped to the refillable Libman spray mop years ago and I love that I can fill the well with a vinegar/water mixture and just carry it from room to room to clean the tile and even sealed wood floors quickly and easily with no bucket.  

5. This probably should have been #1-- but get HELP!!  I taught all my boys from a really young age to clean and now that they are all teens they can do just about any job in the house so I delegate a lot of the chores. 

6. Don't wait for the cleaning to pileup-- we try to tackle little cleaning jobs every day.  We clean the kitchen counters, table and floor after meals, we wipe out the sinks each morning and evening after brushing teeth, we'd spend 10 minutes before bed cleaning up toys and clutter when the boys were little (there is so rarely any clutter around anymore). 

7. Clean something every day--- I have made/used several cleaning schedule through the years starting with ones I found on Pinterest and customizing them to our family.  We tackle some sort of cleaning project nearly every single day so our house while rarely all clean in one fell swoop always feels clean enough even when unplanned visitors pop in. We used to clean one room each day or I'd clean ALL the toilets and sinks in one day but whatever chore it was we'd rotate through them until we were back at the beginning.  I shared our cleaning schedule here back in 2020 and not much has changed other than I now have 2 less helpers each day (since Alec is at school and Ian is at work)

8. Get a cleaning caddy-- I find that having all my cleaning supplies in one place in an easy to carry caddy makes it faster to move from room to room and easy to see at a glance what products I need to restock. 

 9. Keep shoes at the door-- we had a rule when our kids were babies and crawling around that no one was to wear shoes in the house; all our family members knew and it worked great for keeping most of the dirt outside and not tracking it through our house.  Even now when my kids and I pop in to visit friends we pretty much kick our shoes off at the door out of habit. 

10. Lint rollers come in handy for cleaning more than just lint off clothes-- you can use them to clean lamp shades, window screens, car seats, inside your purse, even car seats!

I hope you'll join us next month when we share some of our pet peeves

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