Household management may seem like an antiquated art left back in the 1950’s. Many of us are too busy running from work to daycare to school to even begin to think about flipping mattresses, rotating area rugs and similar mundane tasks that are part of homemaking. Having an effective house management plan will save you time and money. Instead of a never-ending cycle of minor and not-so-minor household disasters, you’ll see the problems coming and be able to deal with them proactively.
*this post includes affiliate links for your shopping convenience, you can read more about affiliate links by reading my Disclosure*
Efficient Household Management Tips
Minimize chaos by making a calendar of tasks and sticking to it. When holidays or other occasions come around, you’ll be able to enjoy them instead of trying to do everything at once.
You’ll save money because you will have attended to problems regularly. Plan for tasks throughout the year at appropriate intervals. Most people can take care of one or major household task per week but taking on more can be a bit much.
Tasks that should be planned for include cleaning upholstery, washing windows, removing cobwebs, changing air filters, polishing silver, cleaning baseboards and crown molding, cleaning chandeliers, washing walls, cleaning the oven, cleaning underneath the sink, scrubbing down kitchen cabinets and shampooing the carpet. Just to name a few!
Whether you use a traditional planner or a family calendar, sit down and decide when you need to take care of some of these homemaking tasks. When you put it in your planner at the beginning of the year, when the month rolls around that you said you’d clean the kitchen cabinets, you’re prepared to do it.
Cleaning Principles
A few general principles for cleaning will help to speed up your efforts. First, clean from the top down. Clean the upstairs before cleaning the downstairs.
Get rid of cobwebs and dirt from the walls before vacuuming.
Do the dishes before scrubbing the floor.
Dust the furniture before shampooing the carpet.
The last thing you clean should always be the floor. Think dry then wet. When you’re cleaning a room, start with the cleaning jobs that require dry methods (dusting, sweeping and vacuuming, for example). Then move on to wet methods (using an all-purpose cleaner and glass cleaner, mopping, etc.).
That way there will be less dirt floating around in the room to cling to wet surfaces. Obeying this often-overlooked rule will save you work in the long run.
Carry supplies with you to avoid wasting time and tracking dirt from room to room. Either have a cleaning caddy filled with your commonly used products or have a few cleaning caddies in different spaces around your home.
You can keep a caddy with bathroom cleaning tools and supplies in each bathroom and maybe one in the kitchen that way you’re not carrying products all over the house.
Use appropriate supplies for the job. You wouldn’t shampoo your hair with laundry soap, so don’t try to clean your bathtub with dish detergent.
And finally, wear protective gear such as gloves and a protective apron as needed. If an apron isn’t your style, wearing a cleaning outfit of maybe an old tee and leggings will be good so that you don’t ruin nicer clothes.
Managing a Household: Paying Bills
Taking care of regular household expenses such as paying utilities, subscription services and other regular monthly bills is an important part of maintaining your home.
Taking a morning to investigate how much of this can be done electronically will save you time and money. Some companies will actually give you a discount for switching to paperless billing.
Establish an permanent weekly date to take a couple of hours to go through all the mail, pay bills and tend to household finances.
By making a firm commitment, you will have peace of mind knowing there aren’t any problems that you are not seeing
Create a Home Management Binder
Take the time and get everything related to taking care of the household in one space. I’ve created a few home management binders over the years and I still tweak them to make them work for me.
I also use my Life Planner as my literal “life planner” and a lot of things that one would find in a home management binder can be found in my life planner.
So what should go in you home management binder? Whatever you want. Starting with everything related to your home such as bills, insurance information and things like that.
You can include cleaning schedules, address book, contact lists for home care, household budget, warranties, savings tracker, pet information, doctor information…the list goes on and on.
It’s a good idea to have a central location that can house all this pertinent household information in case of emergency.
Having a home means it must be run, just like a business or any other organization. Once you come up with a household management system, you’ll find that running your home is a smoother process than just winging it. Hopefully you found this post helpful to begin to find what works best for you and your family.
Project Management Team says
With the help of these tips, one can achieve the objectives of specific goals.