It’s not uncommon for working parents like us to feel overwhelmed by the task of keeping our homes clean. There just never seems to be enough time in the day. What little time we do have, we spend cleaning up after our kids and wondering how we’ll ever get to all the other tasks on our to-do list.
Luckily, the Clean Mama blog outlines a simple everyday cleaning routine that is perfect for busy homes and easy to adopt. The blog’s author, Becky, is a cleaning and homekeeping expert as well as a wife and mother of three. Through the Clean Mama blog and her inspiring how-to books, she offers helpful tips and tricks for keeping your home cleaner on a daily basis, freeing up more time to just enjoy life with your family.
Becky says she has always enjoyed cleaning, that the rhythm, routine and instant gratification of it is therapeutic for her. She first nurtured her passion by cleaning homes for extra income beyond her daytime job as an art teacher.
In her most recent book, Simply Clean (Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, March 2017), Becky focuses on ways that you can turn her cleaning routine into a habit, simply by taking just a few minutes each day. It examines how cleaning strategies can change with the different seasons of life – getting married, becoming a parent, etc. It also delves into spring cleaning, decluttering, speed cleaning and more.
Becky’s main philosophy is that you shouldn’t have to spend more than 30 minutes each day on cleaning to see real results. She recommends setting a timer for 10-15 minutes and using that time to focus on cleaning one room. This simple trick allows you to be more efficient and spend less time thinking about it. By biting off a small chunk each day, she says, your home will stay cleaner longer and the act of cleaning will feel less overwhelming.
“Every day a little something,” says Becky. “Don’t worry about getting everything done at the same time. Just do one little thing every day and slowly start adding to it. Little habits add up to one big solution and a better reward at the end. I’d rather have a house that stays mostly clean every day than a house that’s professionally cleaned once every couple of weeks.”
One thing we especially love about Becky is that she has a strong affinity for natural cleaning products like those made by Rebel Green. She calls it her internal driving force.
“It’s really important to me to use non-toxic cleaning products,” says Becky. “I also try to recommend different eco-friendly cleaning options to my followers.”
As is so often the case, Becky found herself leaning away from conventional cleaners after becoming a parent. Her “lightbulb moment” happened 11 years ago, when she found herself on the phone with poison control because her 1-year-old daughter had accidentally sprayed a bleach-based cleaner on her own skin. Suddenly, Becky began thinking about what other harmful products she was using in her home. Thankfully, natural cleaning products like Rebel Green are more widely available on the market today than they were back then.
To read more of Becky’s tips and download free cleaning routine calendars, visit the Clean Mama blog at www.cleanmama.net.