I am fortunate enough to not be a working mother, but some challenges come with being a stay at home mom, and well that is, staying at home. When your a working mother, your kids are at daycare all day, and well the house stays cleaned and as is when your gone. Staying at home means constantly having an upkeep of sorts because your always using your house. There are some challenges involved with maintaining a clean, not perfect, house. The biggest thing that I cannot stress enough, is not letting yourself get behind! Playing catch up is 3x as much work, as just doing it the first time, on time. Make yourself a schedule, so you do not become overwhelmed. Daily chores are picking up toys, dishes, laundry, and sweeping and/or vacuuming. All these things don't take very long to do.
TOYS---I don't spend all day picking up toys because that's just exhausting. The method I found was, just before I lay Kenna down for a nap, she and I pick up toys, and then we will pick up the toys together again, before she goes to bed for the night. I tried cleaning up toys every hour, but it was wasteful and exhausting.
DISHES---Doing dishes after every meal, or at least rinsing them off and loading them in the dishwasher after every meal prevents an end of the day build up.
LAUNDRY---Laundry, is sometimes daily, but not always, so I just make sure once I get a full load, it goes in the washer. Laundry build up is annoying, and I just hate taking care of 5 or 6 loads of laundry in a day, when I can do one a day or one every other day.
FLOORS---Sweeping and vacuuming is really important, and most of the time I save that for the end of the day, unless a mess is made, then I get it cleaned up right away, so it isn't spread throughout the entirety of the house. I mop when necessary, usually every other day, but sometimes, especially in the kitchen, where the dining table is, I have to mop that room daily.
NONE DAILY CHORES:
BATHROOMS---I usually scrub the bathroom once a week, but the sink usually gets a daily wipe down because my wonderful husband empties his electric razor in the sink and doesn't rinse it down. Our washer and dryer are in our bathroom so I have to wipe up the floor just in front of the dryer because the lint mixed with moisture leaves a little linty residue, on the floor a couple inches in front of the dryer. But that's just an easy 2 second job. I just grab some toilet paper, and wipe it up.
KITTIES BATHROOM---We have a half bathroom, but it doesn't get used, so we put the cats food, water, and kitty litter in there. The cat likes to make a mess of the liter, so that needs to be swept up all the time, but his liter gets scooped or changed every 2-3 days. He has a food and water dispenser, so they just get refilled when I do the liter.
DUSTING and WINDOWS---Dusting gets done once a week, and windows every 2 weeks. One window that I can't seem to keep clean is the glass door leading out to the balcony. Makenna just loves to put her little fingers all over it, so there's always fingerprints.
MOPPING---Mopping gets done about every other day, more so if necessary, but usually every other day. I like to mop with arm and hammer floor cleaner, and a few TBSP of vinegar(an amazing organic disinfectant) but about once a month I go around mopping with a bleach and water mixture, to ensure nasty cold germs or whatever gets tracked in on our shoes is clean. I have to be careful since Makenna and I have bad reactions to straight bleach on our skin.
Prioritize what you need to do, and keep up with your schedule. Don't allow yourself to get lazy because catch up takes so much energy and usually a lot longer than just doing it from the start. Doing a little each and every day also prevents you from having to do a TON at one time. Just keep at it, even if you feel too busy, too tired, or too sick and you'll never get behind or overwhelmed.
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