Skipping Chores – Too Much Housework

Skipping chores because you have too much housework depends on your priorities and schedule.

We Ask a House Cleaner about skipping chores or spending time cleaning exhausted and worn out.

Angela Brown, The House Cleaning Guru says skipping chores is a matter of saying yes to this and no to that. A savvy cleaner even a DIY  house cleaner needs habits that support not stress your life. 

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Listen: Skipping Chores – Too Much Housework

Watch: Skipping Chores – Too Much Housework

Question: Skipping Chores – Is it Okay?

So today’s question comes from a homeowner who’s a busy woman. And she wants to skip some chores because she does not have time to clean her entire house every single day.

So, she says, “If I’m going to be skipping chores what chores can I be skipping?” 

Answer: Skipping Chores – It’s Not a Sin

This is a great question. Many of us are busy and understand what you are saying. We don’t want to spend all our free time cleaning our houses and doing chores. 

High Traffic Areas

There are a couple of rooms in the house that are high traffic areas. Those are going to be the bedrooms, the bathrooms, and the kitchen.

There are lots of different places we go in the house. But the bedrooms, the bathroom, and the kitchen are going to be the busiest rooms in the house.

When you get home from work, where do you go?

The Kitchen Is Not a Place for Skipping Chores

You go right to the kitchen. You open the fridge you start looking around for some food.

We can’t skip the kitchen because the kitchen is the family hub. That’s where the family gathers and most of the action happens in the kitchen. 

The Bedrooms and Bathrooms Are Not Places for Skipping Chores

So when you go to bed at night you’re spending significant hours of your day inside the bedroom.

And the bathroom right off to the bedroom is also where you’re going to be spending a lot of time. This is where you get showered, shave, brush your teeth, get dressed and get ready for the day. Your bathroom will get a lot of wear and tear. 

So we need to create habits that start with the bedroom and make way through the bathroom and the kitchen. Those are going to be the main areas.

Places You Can Skip

There are things like hallways and stairways that you can skip.

You may spend time in your main living room. That may not be an area that you can skip. 

Here is my suggestion. Each day, take one room of your house to focus on. That way you don’t have to do the whole house at once. You can pick a different room for every day of the week. 

Bathrooms

So you could do all the bathrooms on Saturday. 

And then every other day of the week I’m just going to tidy up as I go.

That means hanging up the towel after you’ve taken a shower. That means making sure that there’s enough toilet paper in the rack. It’s cleaning up the cabinet after you’ve used your hairspray and lotions.  Clean up all that stuff and just tuck it away so that it’s done.

Bathroom Maintenance Cleaning

If you’ve cleaned it well on Saturday, now you’re just maintaining it during the week. By the time you get to next Saturday it’s not going to be a colossal project all over again.

But if you leave stuff out every day, it is a lot harder. By the end of the week, you’ve got hair strewn about and you have to dust spider webs. You have all kinds of stuff that has happened amongst all the stuff that you’ve left.

So you just want to tidy it up as you go.

The Kitchen

We cook our meals in there, so it needs to be sanitary.

So as you bring in groceries from the grocery store, don’t leave them on the counter in the bags. You’ve got to take the stuff out and you have to prep it.

Now for me, I love to shop at Costco. And so when I buy stuff at Costco it’s not little portions. It’s huge, they’re big bags of things.

Do the Prep Work

So I bring the stuff home and unpack everything. I open up the bags and repackage them into airtight containers. And then I put them in the pantry, the fridge or the freezer. 

I always do the prep right there because it’s never going to be easier than right then.

I’m never going to find a better time to do all this. For example, putting a large bag of frozen vegetables into several smaller bags. It’s going to be easiest right now when they’re kind of sort of thawed out from the store.

So it’s important that your kitchen is clean and that you have space to work.

Clean as You Go

When you come in to cook a meal, there are things you’re going to need. You’re going to need pots, pans, spatulas, mixing bowls and all that kind of stuff. 

If that stuff is dirty and in the sink, now you have to waste your time cleaning it. You have to clean it so that you can use it fix the meal.

So as you use it, wash it right then and put it in the dish drainer. Then it will be clean for the next time you need it. 

Yes, There Are Things You Can Skip

You may have a guest room in your house that you rarely use.

And so yeah skip it today, it’s not urgent. It’s not important. No one is judging you.

If you have a room in your house that has a pool table in it. And no one’s coming over today, there’s nobody that’s going to be playing pool, skip that room. It is not important.

When It Is Important

It becomes important when you’re having a party and people are coming over. Then you want to go in and dust it. You want to use your special horsehair brush and brush the top of that pool table off. You want to make sure to dust the legs and you vacuumed underneath it and all those things.

But that may not be a priority today.

Make Decisions About Skipping Chores 

Now it is interesting. In the house cleaning industry, you would expect that I say no you must clean your house all the time.

No, I mean I understand life happens. And there are times, even in my house, when I have to make a conscious decision. If I say yes to this activity I must say no to something else.

Is there something in my house I can say no to today?

I might say yes to a load of laundry but I might say no to dusting the banisters or the stair rails in my house.

Yes to this, no to this.

What Do I Do With All the No’s?

I have a series of no’s that I need to do. Maybe it’s wiping down the window sill or maybe it’s dusting the lamp next to the bed stand. Maybe I said no to that three days in a row.

And then maybe my sister calls on the telephone. And I say hey, we’re going to chat for a few minutes. So then I grab my dusting rag. And while I’m on the phone with her I might put in the earbuds, we can chat and I will hurry and I will clean up all the no’s.

We all have moments where we can clean up the no’s. 

Teachable Moments About Skipping Chores

Maybe it’s when you’re having a conversation with your kid. You say, “Hey, come to help Mommy clean.” And then go through and clean up all the no’s.

Teach your kid how to clean those areas that you have turned away and said no to. Turn it into a teachable moment. Teach them how you said no to this one day, but you said yes to something else. 

In daily life, you can say things like, “I can read you a story right now, but what I’m giving up is this. So if I read you this story right now you have to come help me clean this,” and you get them involved.

Now it’s a family affair, it’s a family game.

The Secret Is to Work Smart, Not Hard

So if you have a series of things that go upstairs, put them on the stairs. You don’t have to make a special trip upstairs right now. You can say no to that right now but put it on the bottom of the stairs.

Then the next time you go up the stairs, grab that item or that basket of items. And take those upstairs and put those away.

I live in a two-story house, and so every time I go up the stairs I’m taking up a laundry basket. When I come down I’m bringing dishes or something else. So I’m always bringing stuff down and I’m always taking stuff up. But I’m not making special trips up and down the stairs to do those tasks.

Yes You Can Skip, but Be Smart

So if you’re going to be skipping some chores, just be smart about the chores that you skip. 

And make sure that the main areas of your house that are the most used are well maintained. So no one’s judging you for skipping, just skip smart. 

That would be my two cents for today.  And until we meet again, leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.  

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Resources For This Episode

30 Days to a Clean and Organized House: A complete guide to transforming your home – http://amzn.to/2wOh98f

Simply Clean: The Proven Method for Keeping Your Home Organized, Clean, and Beautiful in Just 10 Minutes a Day – http://amzn.to/2gRpD8g

Clean My Space: The Secret to Cleaning Better, Faster, and Loving Your Home Every Day – http://amzn.to/2xka4NE

The Complete Book of Home Organization: 200+ Tips and Projects – http://amzn.to/2gTlhgV

The Mindset of Organization: Take Back Your House One Phase at a Time – http://amzn.to/2wONM4P

The Homemade Housewife: The last book you will ever need on homemaking and frugal living – http://amzn.to/2eMq6EA

365 Daily Do Its: Organizing Tips and Challenges to Help You Get (and Stay) Organized Throughout the Year – http://amzn.to/2wOTnYW

http://www.developgoodhabits.com/reward-yourself/ – Habit Stacking
What’s your daily MIT (Most Important Task) as a business owner?

Habits: Simple and Effective Strategies to develop Positive and Good Habits permanently for a Successful Life – http://amzn.to/2xkdkZk

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