Once you start living with your spouse, there are certain things you need to go over and organise when it comes to living in the same space together. One of those things is the cleaning and home maintenance. To make sure your house is clean and well-maintained; here are a few useful tips for you and your partner.
Grab a calendar
Staying organised with house chores and cleaning when you’re living with your partner can get challenging and hard to keep up with. That is why having a calendar that lets you know your cleaning schedule can be very useful. For instance, you can do a weekly schedule and organise who washes the dishes on a daily, which one of you does the laundry, who takes the trash out and so on. That way, you are ensuring that you both are staying on top of your house chores and that everyone gets to contribute a little so that your home can stay clean and organised.
When it comes to bigger house chores, you can use a monthly planner or calendar to assign chores. For instance, if you plan to deep clean your rugs or curtains once in a month or few months, this type of calendar can help you organise yourselves.
Create a job jar
There are certain cleaning tasks that nobody likes to do, let’s be honest. However, ignoring these chores won’t help either. Eventually, somebody needs to get to it and get the job done. So, instead of having to pick who does the hard job, why not let a job jar decide for you?
You can pick whatever jar is lying around your kitchen, write these cleaning tasks on pieces of paper and place them in a jar. Once it’s time for you to take care of these tasks, you simply draw from the jar and see who’s going to have to take care of what task. That way, everyone gets a job to do and you didn’t have to decide this yourself.
Enjoy it together
Cleaning may not be the most joyful thing to do in your free time, but if you do it with your partner, there are ways for you to enjoy cleaning and get it done faster. While dividing the chores may be helpful for your cleaning process, cleaning separate rooms at the same time will make you both feel bored out of your mind. Instead, you can try going from one room to another and cleaning the house together. For instance, if you start from the bedroom, one of you can go around decluttering the room and the other one can start wiping the dust off the shelves. Then, you both move to another room and divide the chores inside that room too.
This way, you can spend some quality time together while also getting your house chores done. With a little bit of music and chatting along the way, time will pass really fast. You won’t even feel like you just did your house chores.
Manage your time
Most of the time couples live by different schedules. It might be because one of you works the first shift and the other one works the second shift. It might also be because one of you is a morning person and the other one is a night owl. Whatever it is, this is your chance to practice compromise in your marriage.
For example, one of you can take care of the grocery list in the evening or before going to bed, and then the other person can go get the grocery from the store in the morning. One of you can load the laundry and set the washing machine and the other one can take the laundry out once it’s done. When it comes to food, one of you can cook lunch and the other one can take care of the dinner. It’s all about compromise and mutual respect for each other’s time.
A little goes a long way
Cleaning is not just about those once in a month cleaning sessions where you take care of everything at once by vacuuming, dusting, washing your windows, and so on. It’s also about regular maintenance. The point is to not let your house get so messy you need a whole day to clean it.
Make sure to let your partner know that whenever they can, they should do little maintenance checks throughout the day. For example, if you see a coffee spill on the counter, clean it immediately. Don’t just let it sit there until it becomes all sticky and stiff. Every once in a while dust off your counters and shelves. Take your garbage out and let some fresh air in. That’s how you maintain a clean house over time.
Create a checklist
You and your partner may also have two completely different skill sets. So, sit down and create a checklist. See what you and your partner are good at and divide your chores according to that list.
Assemble a cleaning caddy
Cleaning will become a lot easier when you gather all your cleaning supplies in one spot instead of carrying it around with you all of the time. Grab your supplies, put them in one tote and carry it easily from one room to another as you go.
Get professional help
Cleaning can get pretty overwhelming if you fall behind on your chores and then have to deal with the consequences. It’s okay if you and your partner haven’t been able to clean for a while because of a busy schedule or mental health. If it gets to that, you can always get professional house cleaning services and let the experts handle your house and make sure it’s spotless. This can help you out a lot if you’re feeling under the weather and simply can’t bring yourself to clean that often.
Wipe your feet
To make sure you decrease the amount of dust, dirt, bacteria, and other substances in your house, use both an indoor and outdoor doormat for the entrance of your home. Don’t forget to wipe your feet every time you enter the house. This will help you keep the house well-maintained and you won’t have to clean as much.
Vacuum often
Frequent vacuuming is necessary if you want to keep dust, lint and pet hair under control. If you don’t have time to vacuum little by little every day or every other day, you can invest in a robot vacuum that can take care of this task for you even when you’re at work.
Stick to microfiber
When you dust, the last thing you want is to accidentally spread dust and let it land on other surfaces in your house. To avoid that, try using microfiber dusters that will make the dust stick to them instead of spreading around. This will help keep the dust on the cloth and your house will be properly cleaned.
Conclusion
In conclusion, cleaning is about small everyday maintenance tasks just as it is about grand cleaning on a monthly basis. Make sure you and your partner are staying on top of your house chores by learning how to compromise, manage your time wisely, and organise yourselves efficiently. Cleaning doesn’t necessarily need to be boring. If you clean together and try to get the best out of it, you will be done in no time.