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Do you like living in a clean home, but hate having to do all the chores to get it that way?
It can be so annoying to have to juggle the repetition of constantly wiping down countertops and sweeping floors along with parenting, cooking, working, and everything else you need to do in a single day.
And it’s even worse when you never feel like cleaning.
Who wants to do that when it’s the end of the night, and the next episode of your favorite show is now available, and the couch, a glass of wine, and a big bag of potato chips are all beckoning for you to chill and join them?
I can speak from personal experience. You see, when it comes to lazy cleaners, I’m a classic case.
And you might be able to identify with this title too!
Here is what defines us, in a single statement:
Lazy cleaners try to achieve a maximum amount of cleanliness with a minimum amount of effort.
But we can utilize our laziness to our advantage!
With just the right kind of strategy, with a little planning and preparation, lazy cleaners have the power to transform chores into something pleasant, and make short – yet effective – work of them!
Want to know how, my fellow lazy bums?
It all starts with the following cleaning and organizing advice. Utilize all of these tips and tricks the next time you notice your house is getting a little messy, and you’ll be back on that couch ASAP!
The Easiest Ways to Clean and Organize Your Home
Create Checklists
The first thing is to create or purchase – and actually use! – a weekly home maintenance and chore chart. These schedules give you a clear picture of what exactly needs to be cleaned and when it should be done.
Having a visual reference on display that is consistently updated each week will provide you with a well-organized and concise list of tasks to complete on a certain day each week.
Chores won’t seem as overwhelming or unmanageable when divided up into individual tasks throughout the week.
It is also significantly easier to update as needed when the chart is on display in a very active part of your home that gets a lot of foot traffic, like your kitchen or living room.
Chores Chart Chalkboard Wall Decal, available from Wayfair
This Chores Chart Chalkboard Wall Decal from Wayfair is a simple and sleek option if you are hoping to find something modern and minimalist in design. You will need to buy chalk or liquid chalk markers separately.
The plain black chalkboard boxes provide a blank slate that you can customize to fit your individual responsibilities around your home.
If you want a brighter and more colorful option for the kids in the family, use an age-appropriate chore chart that caters specifically to them.
Magnetic Chore Chart for Kids, 2-pack, available from Amazon
Consider purchasing this 2-pack Magnetic Chore Chart for Kids kit, available on Amazon. The dry erase charts are easy to wipe off and will be perfect to use week after week!
Each kit comes with a magnetic dry erase marker, as well as 126 golden star stickers and 52 illustrated task stickers that you can easily and repeatedly peel off and stick back on the chart. And you have many designs to choose from, like unicorns, dinosaurs, mermaids, video games, and outer space illustrations.
Get Rid of Clutter
Daily clutter is the bane of a lazy cleaner’s existence!
Learn how to manage it, once and for all, by rightfully allocating responsibilities to all members of the household.
Assign a storage crate to each member. As you leisurely pick up clutter each day, put the items in the crates according to whom they belong. At the end of each week, your kids, roomies, or spouse can take their own crate to put their items away.
And you don’t have to do anything else!
Three Posts Woven Rattan Baskets, set of 4, available from Wayfair
I particularly like these woven rattan baskets by Three Posts, which you can find on Wayfair in a set of two, four, or six.
Now that your family’s clutter will be taken care of, you can focus your attention on other small areas of the house that might need some additional help.
Maybe a certain clutter-filled drawer is looking a little crazy these days – once you read our advice on how to reorganize your “junk” drawer, you should be well-equipped with both knowledge and motivation to keep it that way.
Manage Your Laundry Time
Laundry is another chore that can cause some headaches!
In order to manage your time as efficiently as possible, and therefore optimize your relaxation time, consider setting an alarm to remind you when you need to change loads.
With my washer and dryer being all the way downstairs in the basement, I have often forgotten about the laundry when I’m in other parts of the house. Setting an alarm is a helpful step to stay on top of the washer and dryer schedule without any lags.
You can also do other quick chores in 15-minute increments while waiting for the laundry, or enlist the help of your partner or kids to fold and put away their own clothes.
It doesn’t hurt to ask your spouse to help you out. You’re a team, after all!
To stay organized from load to load, eliminate the unnecessary chaos of sorting through all the colors from big piles of dirty laundry by using a basket with dividers.
3-Section Laundry Hamper, available from Amazon
This laundry hamper from Amazon has three separate sections: dark, light, and color. Oh, and it’s on wheels!
Organize Storage for Cleaning Supplies
As the saying goes, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.”
Part of having a tidy home is making sure everything has a place – so keep your storage areas neat and well-organized!
The way in which you organize not only your cleaning supplies, but all of your possessions in general, will help you get through your chores seamlessly.
We’ll focus on your cleaning supplies here, but you’ll want to eventually consider how to organize the rest of your stuff throughout the household. Start small with easily manageable tasks, like reorganizing one shelf at a time in your fridge or freezer.
First, you will need to identify a permanent area (or areas) of your house to dedicate to cleaning supply and tool storage.
You’ll have to think creatively about how you can use any unused space in your house for the most effective storage, especially if you have minimal space.
Once you have identified these key locations, organize and divide your supplies and tools according to how you use them – for example, all of your bathroom supplies should be in one place together, all of your kitchen supplies should be together, and all of your living/bedroom supplies should be in another area that’s convenient.
It’s so easy for all of your tools to be left in disarray after each use, and this can get even worse with time.
To prevent a buildup of clutter from happening, use or install whatever organizational accessories you need to keep everything tidy.
All of your larger household tools will be easy to keep organized if you install a stand to hang items like brooms, mops, and dusters. A wall in your garage or basement might be the best place for something like this.
Holikme Broom Holder Wall Mount, available from Amazon
Holikme’s Broom Holder Wall Mount, available on Amazon, includes four spring-loaded holders that can hold up to five pounds each, as well as four hooks than can hold up to 10 pounds each.
For smaller tools, use handled buckets or caddies to keep everything together, which you can carry around with you as you tidy up – no need to keep running to and from a cabinet to grab what something you forgot!
YouCopia 2-Tier Adjustable SinkSuit Cleaning Caddy, available from Amazon
This 2-Tier Adjustable YouCopia SinkSuite Cleaning Caddy offers a convenient storage vessel to carry gloves, brushes, and sponges. And the removable dividers can be adjusted to create compartments of different sizes. It’s currently available to purchase on Amazon.
Renovate Strategically
Have you been thinking about renovating your home?
You may want to consider some home renovation projects that are specifically focused on improving your cleaning efforts.
Replacing carpets with other styles of hard flooring will help to reduce allergens like dust mites.
And if you want to give your walls a fresh new color, choose paint finishes that are easy and safe to wipe and will stay looking fresh.
If you don’t have a dishwasher, discuss the possibility of getting one installed in your kitchen. When used properly, a dishwasher can save on time and water.
Fixing any holes, cracks, or rips around door frames and window screens can help keep dirt, dust, and bugs out, and prevent drafts.
Installing a household water filter prevents hard water stains, as well as giving you fresh drinking water from every faucet. If that’s too expensive of a project, you install a filter on just your kitchen faucet.
But what if you are searching for an immediate update to your home environment? It’s always nice to freshen the air anywhere in your house with some natural, homemade air fresheners!
Take Care of the Kitchen
It’s inevitable. Time spent cooking and baking in the kitchen will always lead to a mess. And you have to deal with it.
But when you maintain a consistent cleaning schedule, and if you have some nifty products on hand to help you, managing the mess in the kitchen is easy to do – and it won’t gobble up all of your precious time and energy that you want to save for loafing!
Imperial Home Cooktop Burner Cover, set of 4, available from Wayfair
To cut down on oven and stove messes, you can line your gas stovetop burners with heatproof protectors. This set of 4 from Imperial Home can be trimmed to fit your burners. Find them now on Wayfair.
When you’re baking in the oven, you can also avoid any potentially big messes by placing whatever you are baking – such as a casserole, roast chicken, cake, or muffins – on top of a larger rimmed baking sheet.
That way, should your food items spill, the mess lands directly on the baking sheet, and not the bottom of your oven! It’s much easier to take out and wash those sheets than it is to deal with the oven itself.
The microwave can be one of the most neglected appliances in the kitchen. Think about how often you use that thing, compared to how often you wipe away any messes. Try to get into the habit of giving it a quick wipe after each use, rather than waiting until all of the walls are caked in layers of leftovers. And cover your food before heating it, to prevent splatters!
For more tips to keep small appliances looking pristine and in amazing working order, review our article for cleaning these little guys. And you should also take the time to learn the best ways to clean larger kitchen appliances, too!
Use Multipurpose Cleaners
We are in luck, my sluggish sloths! We are incredibly fortunate to have many multipurpose cleaners available to purchase in most stores.
Multipurpose supplies will make numerous tasks around the house simpler and more straightforward, and they will also help you save money – you can minimize your spending by focusing on just a handful of essential products.
Some basic cleaning supplies are a must in every home, and you can use these throughout various areas of the house. Here are just a few to choose that will give you the most versatility:
- Bleach or bleach-based cleaners
- Disinfecting wipes
- Multi-surface cleaners
- Streak-free window and glass cleaners
To save even more money in the long run and avoid multiple trips to the store, consider buying multipurpose supplies like the ones listed above in bulk.
Give It Some Time
This may seem like a lot of advice all at once – but you don’t have to tackle everything mentioned here as soon as you finish reading this article!
Go back to your couch, silly. Rest, relax, and develop your customized strategies in the days, weeks, and months to come.
Divide all of your responsibilities up throughout the whole year, rather than postponing everything for spring cleaning. Smaller messes are much easier to manage in a few minutes at a time.
All of this advice can be seamlessly integrated with your daily household activities as you go about living your best lazy life.
How do you navigate cleaning and organizing tasks in your own home? Are there certain products you swear by that help you save time and effort? Share your story in the comment section below!
Cleaning doesn’t have to be the worst chore ever – let’s destroy the stigma surrounding this necessity! With our full collection of cleaning articles, you can make tidying up your home something you – dare I say it? – actually look forward to doing. Read these guides next:
- 13 Tips to Use a Garbage Disposal Right
- 11 Ways to Remove Stains from Plastic
- Keep Your Kitchen Countertops Sparkling with These Tips
© Ask the Experts, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for more details. Originally published on August 13, 2014. Last updated on April 14, 2023. Product photos provided by Wayfair and Amazon. Uncredited photos: Shutterstock.
About Nikki Cervone
Nikki Cervone is an ACS Certified Cheese Professional and cheesemonger living in Pittsburgh. Nikki holds an AAS in baking/pastry from Westmoreland County Community College, a BA in Communications from Duquesne University, and an MLA in Gastronomy from Boston University. When she's not nibbling on her favorite cheeses or testing a batch of cupcakes, Nikki enjoys a healthy dose of yoga, wine, hiking, singing in the shower, and chocolate. Lots of chocolate.
Great ideas! I especially like the one about clutter. For so many years I kept all types of items around assuming I would one day need it and then kick myself for not buying it, the thing is that all of that clutter made tidying up something I would dread because everything didn’t have a place and finding one was near impossible in my apartment. Last year I finally went through EVERYTHING and donated almost everything in my clutter pile. Cleaning my apartment is so much easier now and almost enjoyable, not to mention the fact I felt good being able to give things to people that were in great condition but just not something I needed.
I am in the lazy cleaner club, too. Vinegar is definitely one of the most economical and most effective cleaners you can have in your cleaning supplies kit. It cleans just about anything, and it is a great disinfectant, too. For those times when I want to use a little something extra, I like to use Simple Green All Purpose Cleaner because it is non-toxic and biodegradable. Thanks for the great article. I am going to implement some of the organizational tips. There are a few areas around here that could be better organized.
I really like vinegar and Simple Green cleanser too. The vinegar is so inexpensive and multipurpose, although I can pass on the smell sometimes because it can be a bit overwhelming and I don’t always want my guests to smell it, and I also like that it is natural…I do my best to not use too many chemicals. The Simple Green is also great when I need to put some elbow grease into cleaning. I also like that I can keep it with me the entire time I clean and use it in almost every room. Trader Joe’s has a similar cleanser if you’re ever in the market to branch out a bit.
Vinegar is fantastic for cleaning. The acid cuts through grease and grime like a dream and you get the added bonus of no nasty fumes. It’s particulary good for cleaning the scale from shower heads and for brightening up bathroom tiles.
I wouldn’t call myself a lazy cleaner but once in a while i tend to fall off the band wagon and procrastinate cleaning, once morale hits hard, i become busy as a bee, thank God am not a hoarder, so in terms of clutter, am off that list, i always like sorting out things i need and things i really don’t need, the ones i don’t need…go to charity or if they are way worn out, the trash can will do me good…the other day, i had to clean a house my mom left me…its up for renting, boy, that house needs more that just a pair of hands, am glad to have stumbled upon this page, borrowing some cleaning ideas will work magic for me….that bathroom deodorizer looks amazing…Amazon.com is my next stop after i finish some errands.
I am definitely a “Lazy Cleaner,” as well. I have very little experience actually performing household chores. I will incorporate vinegar in my cleaning routine, if you can call it that. The one drop deodorizer is a heaven sent for my household.
Same here! I am definitely a “Lazy Cleaner”, as well. I don’t mind cleaning but I tend to push it off until there is too much to do. I need to get better at cleaning and finding easy ways to get it done.
Those are all great tips and tricks for saving time and money on cleaning your house. As someone who will move out from her parents someday, I like to be prepared a lot earlier. I will be sure to bookmark this article and keep in mind as many tips as I can! Thank you for taking your time to write all this and help others!
Both of my parents we’re working when we were in grade school and I remember that we have this chore schedule checklist posted in our fridge. It really helped us divide errands at home especially we’re all girls. I am the youngest so at my early age, I started learning house hold chores. I wish that families and kids in this generation still practice it to combat laziness.
Seriuosly, I would’nt call you a lazy cleaner. The fact that you plan and do this things repeatedly, everyday actually makes you more of a smart cleaner. I wish I have that diligence though.
Since I live on my own, the chores are only done weekly, of course not including the dishes. Its hard when you are the only one to do everything, but then again, Im alone so I have no choice.
Anyway, I’ll list down all your tips especially with the dishwashing liquid. Its good to give your hands some care because it would actually look bad after all this chores. 🙂
Wow..that’s a lot of tips in one article. I’m bookmarking this page so I can come back and read it again.
Keeping my house regularly clean is one of my biggest challenge, emphasis on regularly. I can clean the house, but doing it all the time makes me feel like a hamster trapped in his wheel, accomplishing nothing. I love the ideas of schedules and routines. I have to take a closer look at your tips and see how I can customize it for my own needs.
I also appreciate the comments you made about cleaning products. I try to make my own cleaning most of the time. Vinegar and baking soda are two popular ingredients I always mix when I make some cleaning solutions. Still, there are things I have to buy, and your reviews of them are quite helpful.
With the amount of thought and effort you have put in this article, I don’t think you are a lazy cleaner. If you are, then I aspire to that title. : )
“Do you like living in a clean home, but hate having to do the chores to get it that way?”
This really made me laugh – it’s so me! I often look around at the mess and chaos and wish I was more organised, but the effort involved puts me off really getting on top of it. My husband is pretty good at helping out around the house, but sometimes I just end up re-doing the things he’s done because he would rather do a quick job and be done where I think that if I’m going to do something then I’ll do it properly.
I think you’re right that the only way is to invest some time and effort in getting on top of everything and then making sure you stay there.
I have tried the list thing. I end up making list of small stuff and then just giving up. Organization is something I have a hard time doing. But I know I need to.
I understand your plight in the term organization, for others its more ingrained and for others it’ll take more than a blowing trumpet to get them in the right zeal, to organize things in the house…just find some morale, write up a schedule of how you want to handle cleaning, crank up some music whilst cleaning and get to it, believe me it woks wonders..{a small self-confession, i can organize my house, clean it spick span with no need of a schedule to do so but i ‘ve written schedules upon schedules{mountains of them} on losing weight but laziness gets the best of me…oh yes! and procrastination!}…don’t lose hope 🙂
I have mood swings too when it comes to cleaning or doing things need to be done regularly. It’s really good to take down notes or memo for you to take actions for everyday plan. Whether it’s a chores or errand. It’s a sense of accomplishment for me when I’ve finished done something that has been listed n my to-do list. It isn’t really easy to become a mom , indeed!
Clutter has always been one of my pet peeves. Moving into a smaller place from a larger house forced me to get rid of things. It is easy to start accumulating again so I stay mindful of what it took to root through all of those things that I didn’t want to let go of but knew I did not really need. You are right, baskets and organizers are wonderful at helping to keep clutter at bay too. I found some really beautifully crafted items that are just as decorative as they are functional.
Now that I’ve read that section on bathroom cleaning, I need to go utilize some of those tips. Goodness!
Ah, a lazy cleaner, I can identify with that more than I’d like to admit. I too find that writing out checklists is a good way to get work done. As I cleaning/homemaking book I once had says, the list does not have to be strictly adhered to but serves as a road map for you to work on. So very true.
And I can’t say enough about vinegar, it is my secret weapon when it comes to doing my laundry. Lysol and Clorox wipes are a thing of beauty and make many cleaning jobs a breeze.
I adore this article. Makes me happy to be a woman with a house (apartment) to take care of for me and my family.
This was a great article I would say my biggest problem is the clutter and it just gets worse and worse because I tend to just clean around it. This article gave me some great ideas not just for the clutter but for cleaning in general. Thank you so much for the useful information.
Oh my word love that picture of you! How super creative! I am that cleaner who cleans from top to bottom in usually about a few days time. I never feel like I can catch a break. Perhaps its time to clutter? Have you done an article on homemade cleaning supplies? Where we live, Arkansas, its all the rage right now. Everyone is making their own laundry soap for super cheap, its all they other women I work with talk about. Just an idea! Loved all of you tips and products you suggested though!
This article describes my cleaning habits perfectly! Decluttering is the hardest thing for me to do especially since I live in a tiny apartment. I want to be able to keep a semi clean house and have dishes cleaned everyday but I’m not sure how possible that is with an infant and no help. Thank you for the article its got me pumped to clean my kitchen!
As a stewardess on superyachts dealing with fine linens, finishes, and upholsteries, I can tell you that less is more! I have a cleaning caddy and for day-to-day cleaning I only carry around three spray bottles: soap and water (a few drops of mild Ivory dish soap)– a neutral pH– for marble and granite, vinegar and water for woodwork and other general cleaning, and alcohol water for glass, mirrors, and stainless steel.
Also, for laundry we almost NEVER use bleach. It is too destructive to fabrics not just in terms of potential discoloration but because it destroys fibers. You can almost always remove stains using some other form of treatment (OxyClean, Shout stain remover, vinegar etc.). Also, we only ever separate laundry into lights and darks, not 4 separate color schemes. That should make life easier for busy moms! If you’re uncertain, Shout Color Catcher Washer Sheets work great and will prevent any accidents if you didn’t sort well.
I am not a lazy cleaner most of the time but I have moments, it happens to us all I think. I use to have a checklist on the fridge but took it down. For the most part I can easily remember what needs to be done or did. We live in an apartment anyways so we don’t have a whole house, just a 2 bedroom apartment. With Christmas coming though I do extra cleaning. Just yesterday I washed down the ceiling and hallway wall. I still need to do the kitchen and bathroom. I am not sure of the living room yet. I do not have kids but I think that is a good idea having a list and changing it based on their age.
Being more organized definitely makes the household chores easier. I awlways end up behind with the ironing and end up with a massive mountain. When this happens, I do all the jeans first, these are usually the largest items so getting rid of these first makes the remaining pile look much more manageable.
I recently mopped my floor after procrastinating it for several months. It is great to finally get these little cleaning jobs done. I find it a real struggle sometimes to motivate myself to clean after dinner, although I know if I don’t do it will be a hassle the next day!
Great article, and very thorough Lynne! I agree with the others that you don’t sound lazy, but rather a great time manager, cleaning as you go. This way you don’t FEEL like you’re dropping everything to clean, but the house stays in nice shape!
I’d like to share a couple of my current favorite “Lazy Cleaner” tips, and I hope you find them handy too. 🙂
For cleaning the shower, I have a Scotch Brite Dishwand filled with half Dawn / half vinegar that stays in the shower caddy all the time. Then the shower can be cleaned when someone’s (ahem) already in there, with no wet shirt sleeves or bending over the tub from the outside!
Having young children with messy hands at dinner time, I like to use a fabric tablecloth at every meal. Nothing fancy, just an everyday fabric (bonus points for a busy, stain-hiding pattern) – but it’s SO much easier to whip that off and toss it in the wash than it is to scrub every nook and cranny of the table!
Plastic boxes are a godsend, especially those with several partitions. I have a little workspace in my house and until recently it was very disorganized and just looked like a complete mess. My wife kept on nagging me about it but I didn’t budge. Finally she bought me one of those plastic boxes and forced me to clean up. I did and to her credit my workspace now looks like it was kept by a professional. It’s amazing.
The first line is me. I don’t like to clean, but I like things to be clean.
Sometimes, I get super motivated and go on a cleaning streak. It does feel good.
I have wondered about that formula of Dawn dish soap. Glad to hear it’s good. I’m definitely going to give it a try. My poor hand this winter!
Okay, so I see I had a typo on my old comment. It should have said “hands.”
Anyway, I did try the Dawn Hand Renewal, and I have to say, where has this been all my life? This stuff is great. I love Oil of Olay products anyway, so I should have known this would be good. I wasn’t sure how it would translate to dish soap, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who suffers from dry skin. It really lathers up nicely too, and does a good job of cleaning while saving my hands.
Thanks Lynne!
This is good information for me. Believe me I have wrote a list of stuff I need for my next beat down of my home. The problem that I have is the my daughter is now almost twenty-two, and charts do not work on her. She just ignores them. I try to tell her, ask her, and sometimes demand her help around the house and she either ignores me or does a half at it job. I try to bribe her but she wants it now, I try to be her mom, then her friend, and sometimes her enemy. So, I have wrote down what I need to clean, and I have separated the rooms in which needs to be done first and more vigorously. Now to beg for her help maybe. Anyways, like this post a lot, a great deal of info in here. Definitely usable. Thank you so much!!
There are several good ideas I’m going to try out. The broomstick system behind the door is going up first thing tomorrow! I love that idea!!
I have a few basic cleaning tasks I keep up with weekly, but wish I was better about clutter:( That is definitely my problem area. It just seems to add up by itself sometimes! I have eliminated our Sunday paper subscription because I get the coupons I need in the Saturday edition of a different paper anyway that has fewer ads, so that has cut down on clutter a lot since I’m not going through that paper and recycling most of it anyway. The hardest part for me is finding a place for those things that need fixed. This little toy that needs glued, the book that needs taped, the toy that needs new batteries that we don’t have, etc. Those things tend to pile up and I just try to glue as many things at once, etc. I know if I took care of them as they came up I’d have less piled up, but I feel like I would constantly be doing those tasks. I guess I need to start small!
I cannot believe that you spend such little time cleaning each day. Clutter, I have it and just not enough time to clear it out.However your article has motivated me to find a place to begin, even if it is a little every day. Once I get rid of all the clutter, it will be easier to clean.
Anytime my apartment goes a few weeks without a good clean, I find it to be exhausting to clean the whole place in one go. When I am finally finished, I have zero desire to keep at it and dread the next time the place needs to be picked up. This puts me a cycle that is hard to get out of. The best way I have found to make housework more manageable is to do it more often. That way, it isn’t a monumental task that takes the whole day.
Super germophobe here! How can I get my hands on one of these germ-killing black lights you speak of?
I’m always telling people to close toilet seats before they flush! It is SO gross. I’m like you realize you’re spraying toilet water all over your towels and such, right?
Great advice. Very well-thought out, tonnes of information yet surprisingly concise.
Look at all these amazing comments too! I think everyone can take something from this write up.
You know what I am taking from this? The positive attitude you put into these normally boring chores! Tasks like this if met with enthusiasm are done away with easily. This leaves more time for the important things in life, like having a craft beer while trying out new recipes from this blog!
There are lots of great tips here. It would be great to have a home built to my specifications, but since that’s unlikely to happen, I’ve developed a system that works for me. I used to buy two of every cleaner, and keep one set upstairs and one downstairs, but since I use them less frequently up here, and would drag them downstairs when I ran out down there, I’ve adapted somewhat. When I’m running out of something downstairs, I will replace the full bottle, and bring the nearly empty one up here. I’ve also used the LCD screen cleaner to clean the bathroom mirror, in a pinch up here.
I agree, buying cheap versions of the cleaners we know work doesn’t save money, it just leads to frustration, so I buy the good items, then will sometimes water them down if I need to, such as laundry detergent and floor cleaner.
This is very well written out. I don’t have a lot of room in my apartment so I use the area underneath the kitchen sink for my cleaning supplies. I feel like this every single day. I have 2 small children so every time I clean I feel like it’s an endless cycle. I will definitely try to go for the more organic eco-friendly products from now on. My 11 month old crawls everywhere and I don’t want to have to worry about what is getting on his hands after I clean the floors.
I am a lazy cleaner just the same. I hate it when my place is all messy so I try and keep it clean most of the time to prevent having to do what people call spring cleaning. These products you listed should help me do the trick.
When I read your article, it’s as if I am reading about myself. Once in a while I do my best to keep myself tidy and organized, but being productive with all the mess and clutter can be challenging. Thank you for the tips, especially the checklist idea and the products mentioned.
I am definitely a lazy girl cleaner. I like a clean house every day but it has become difficult now that I am a mother to twin girls who just turned two. Every time I turn around another mess to clean up, I feel like all I do is clean. Having a schedule has helped me, although I am not as detailed in my schedule as some. I keep more of my schedule in my brain, which can sometimes fail me in remembering to complete a chore. Therefore, creating a hard copy of a schedule seems like the smarter thing to do.
Through out the day, I use a mix of white vinegar and water to keep the counters, floors, and anything else cleaned. I also, like to keep Lysol wipes on hand to quickly sanitize the girls tabletops and toy area.
Seeing how organized you are in those photos, makes me realize that I need to get on top of this and perhaps I will gain more sanity.
Thanks for such a comprehensive list of ideas! I’ve always enjoyed looking up tips to help motivate me to keep my home clean, but this one really seems to reign in a lot of ideas! I used to be a bit of a clutterbug, but after reading Marie Kondo’s “Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” I turned my habits upside down. I literally pulled out everything and donated nearly 3/4ths of my possessions. This seemed to help put everything else into place. Now I enjoy buying pretty bins and organizing since I know where everything needs to go! I also buy Lysol wipes in bulk. They smell great and motivate me to wipe down more surfaces because it’s a lot easier to pull out a wipe and go rather than pull out paper towels and several different spray bottles.
I definitely slack off on the cleaning front. Usually the most I manage is throwing out paper clutter and running the dishwasher. It’s only the two of us so it doesn’t get that dirty, thankfully. I like to make my own green cleaners. Instead of buying scouring and scrubbing products, I just use a sprinkling of baking soda with a splash of castile soap. It works for the toilet bowl, bathtub, and kitchen sink. I use vinegar and essential oils with hot water for moping. This mixture also works as a great all purpose cleaner, though I’ve been using a concentrated green cleaner I buy then mix up myself, as of late. If you are wanting to go the green cleaning route, buying some absorbent reusable cloths for cleaning, instead of paper towels you constantly have to buy and throw away.
I find it’s easiest to keep cleaning supplies under the kitchen counter. I spend most of my time in the kitchen and hate having to walk to the garage for spray if I need to clean up something. I’m also a fan of Eco Cleaners such as method and seventh generation. I find these to be less toxic and easier on my skin when I clean. I’ve read in a lot of magazines how to create your own cleaner using alcohol, vinegar and lemon water.
I am clearly a member of the Lazy Department in my dorm. Seeing as how we have lots of members (especially students), these are a lot of amazing gift ideas. Sure, they may not seem all that fun, but they are definitely useful. I’m even considering giving some of these to my mother. Not that she needs it, but these fun little things can help make her work around the old house a bit easier, don’t you agree?
Speaking of lazy cleaners, and me actually being one, I would always liked to try Roomba.
I am like a hundred percent sure, that I am going to have it in one or other point in my life, because just the tought of hoovering or sweeping makes me sick and my flat is always full of lint.
Anyone has it?
I’m a very lazy cleaner, and these tips are great! Thanks for this. I’m definitely going to start with the cleaning chart and chore chart. I like my lists and things to be organized, but you wouldn’t say that if you look at the drawers and so on in my house. I’m printing this article and making it my reference guide.
I have always hated housework and the only way I could cope was to keep a very minimalist house. I simply don’t have lots of possessions – if something has not been used, worn, played with, read, etc etc etc for a year – out they go, I know that somebody will use them.
THEN I married a man who LOVES housework – that has been my best solution. I don’t do any housework now, he loves doing it all, even ironing.
I didn’t manage to marry a man who loves it (quite the opposite: he makes me look tidy!) but I eventually gave up and hired someone to come in once a week to do the hoover, polishing, and dusting. Since he will only so those if the surfaces are clear it gives me and my husband both a kick to keep things tidy, just for the reward of having someone else do the worst of the actual cleaning.
Amazingly it even made DH stop dropping his clothes on the floor…
I think that we all have a little lazy cleaner living inside all of us, and mine it’s definitely present every time that I’m planning to clean or that I’m already doing it. And I couldn’t agree more with the idea of a checklist. They have been my go to since about a year ago. I love how they are a way to remind yourself how many things you haven’t done while you’re procrastinating, lol!
The guilt factor always works for me.