" keep off that temptation . "
Let’s be honest: Keeping a house clean with a job (sometimes multiple jobs) feels impossible to do. So when Reddit useru/–Anonymus–asked: “How do people have the strength to do the housework with a 40-plus hour job?” a lot of people had thoughts. Here’s what they said below.
1.“Objects in motion stay in motion. Get home, do all the jobs you need to before sitting down. Plus, once you get on top of things, it’s easier to keep up with than struggling to get on top of them.”
2.“Clean as you go, and have a place for everything. If you don’t have a place for it, then get rid of it. Clean dishes as you’re cooking. Vacuum and sweep routinely. It only takes 20 minutes or so. Clean bathrooms and kitchens as soon as you notice a mess. The issue is people ignore the mess on purpose to get immediate satisfaction from avoiding the labor, but it’s so much easier and less stressful to just take a minute or two to address the mess as you go.”
— u / Anticrepuscular_Ray
" I cleanse as I go , but you still need to do a proper cleaning . Everyone who visits says they ’re surprised with how clean my place is for a single 40 - twelvemonth - old dandy , but I really have trouble finding time to clean and balance it with enough free clip to not burn out from employment ( and feel solitary in general ) .
I bid I had someone to deal my chore with . Not just for the obvious reason of not want to be alone all the time but simply because doing them together is both more gratifying and less piece of work . "
— u / NMe84
3.“A robot vacuum cleaner helps a lot in keeping the floors clean. I found that vacuuming regularly helps a ton with reducing the dust built up on surfaces too. For other housework such as laundry, dishes, bathroom cleaning, etc, honestly, the best suggestion I can give you is to do them while listening to podcasts or audiobooks. I listen to A LOT of podcasts. I really love them, but I find it hard to listen to them while doing nothing. They pair wonderfully with manual, mindless, and repetitive work. I often genuinely look forward to some of the chores when I know a new episode of a podcast I follow just got published.”
4.“1. Pass by cleaning — Have spray and wipe in each room. Each time you walk through the room, wipe a surface. As soon as you have to leave a room to find cleaning products, it feels too hard. There’s no rule that says you can’t have a bottle of spray in each room. Put your clean laundry basket in the walkway. Every time you walk out, put away three items of clothing. Clean one wall of the shower each day while you shower. It gives you an excuse to stay under the hot water for longer. By the 4th day, you’re done.”
" 2 . Set a timer — if you feel you only have two minutes of energy each day , set a 2 - minute timer . That ’s enough meter to vacuum or mop one room . By the end of the week , the floors will be done . possibly some days you have more , peradventure some days you have less .
3 . Race the boiler , microwave , oven , etc . — Anytime you put the kettle on , slipstream to get as much done in a single room as you may . Do the same with the microwave oven , oven , etc . , and make trusted you rotate room .
4 . Sometimes , a room - by - elbow room approach can feel less overwhelming . clean-living one room every pair of days or so .
5 . Do n’t put it down , put it forth ( this one is problematic )
6 . uninfected as you go while cooking .
7 . pay for a acquaintance over — short , you ’ll have all the motive in the earthly concern .
8 . Body doubling — you could also take in a Quaker over to hang out with you while you do chore . Watch a moving picture while you fold clothes , chat while you clean the bathroom , etc . Time flies , and it does n’t experience as draining on your energy .
9 . It ’s okay to necessitate for help — We ’ve all been in this stead before . If it ’s gotten to a point where it ’s overwhelming , reach out to a friend or family to help do a manufacturing plant reset on the house . You ’ll notice the techniques above work better if you start from a clear slate seed : unmedicated AuDHD . "
— u / BigBlueFeatherButt
6.“I clean for ten-15 minutes in the morning before I go to work. Bathroom/kitchen, bedrooms, sweep the garage. I’ve found that over the years, it’s easier for me to clean in short bursts instead of dedicating a whole afternoon to it.”
— u / golfingsince83
7.“Invite friends* over and panic clean in the 45 minutes before they arrive.”
8.“Don’t buy stuff. Find a nice spot in-between having enough stuff to make it feel like a home and having too much crap. The more crap you buy, the more you have to move to clean and/or dust. My stepmother has a basket of glittery fruit, and it pisses me off every time I see it. What a pointless decoration that is impossible to clean.”
— u / Praetorian314
9.“Don’t give your job 100%. Your job occupies fewer than half your waking hours; save some energy, investment, focus, etc., for the rest of your life. You don’t have to convince your boss or fight them or whatever — just ramp down how much you’re invested in this part of your life.”
10.“From someone with chronic illness where fatigue is my main symptom:”
1 . " I have a leaning of five must - do task each weekday when I eat up work . Mine are take a shit the bed , feed mydogs , nonplus the mail , putting dishes from breakfast and lunch in the sink , and picking up cad toy ( because they are trip hazards ) . I usually work from home and make this part of my routine when I get off employment . The whole list takes about 10 minutes to do , with very easy stone’s throw , but represents thing that make me feel very guilty if I am not able to do them . This wraps up the worst of the daily mess .
2 . For everything else , I have find that focusing on what is really important to me in a fresh house is critical to making the most of my cleaning sentence . I made a list of five general focus region . For me , these are laundry , organization projection , dusting , cunctation , and de - cluttering . I prepare the timer for 15 minutes and focused on this project until the timer perish off . Then , I got to a stopping point and could take my breach . When I am sick , I aim for one round in a workweek . Obviously , for task like washables , this can be hard to complete in a 15 - arcminute stoppage , but I ’ve detect I can get most of the work done , then deck a pile of clean clothes somewhere and treat with it by and by . If I have more energy , I might do a few rounds of these time pulley block and do hourly general clean and jerk on the weekend when I have more fourth dimension . "
— u / shadowmax3
11.“We have two small children with another on the way, so it’s very hard to actually keep the house clean, toddlers see a clean room, and it wakes the devil up inside them for some damn reason and leads to total destruction. We gave up on their playroom; that thing is a sea of Thomas Trains, Paw Patrols, fire trucks, and police cars as far as the eye can see. You have to pick your battles when it comes to kids.”
12.“A 26-year-old guy with a 37.5-hour job and 1.5 hours of daily transport. Combine it with something you enjoy. I listen to podcasts or music or call my parents to have a chat while doing it with a wireless headset in case it’s been a few weeks since we last talked, or every once in a while, talking with a mate on Discord while doing the dishes. Also, you can buy what you need to do comfortably at your own pace. I have bought a load of T-shirts and recently bought six extra towels, alongside three bedsheet sets, to allow me to only do laundry once a month as I live in an apartment complex with shared laundry times. Others have robot vacuums, but I got a cordless vacuum at Christmas because it was clunky to drag around and empty the old one, which has allowed me to quickly get it done, empty and charge. I cook big batches of soup or food for four days and put the rest in the freezer to take for dinner when I don’t feel like it, so I don’t have to cook every day.”
— uracil / ZoulsGaming
13.“I think about my partner resenting and leaving me if I don’t do my share of the housework. That’s where my strength comes from.”
