Crash Course Cleaning: Why Home Maintenance Doesn’t Have to Be a Bore

When it comes to household maintenance do you often feel as if you’re on a boring merry-go-round? While home cleaning is a necessary task, I’ll agree that not many of us do it out of pure passion (well, unless you’re germ-phobic or perhaps love to entertain).

Writer: Alana King

You can make your cleaning ritual one that is a happy task and one of which you don’t have to look at with disdain and despair.

Therefore, let me give you some tips on how you can make cleaning your home a joyful and satisfying experience and where the result will fill you with pride.

Dance the Dust away:

One of the best ways to make cleaning a joy is to put it to music. For anyone who has grown up with Robin Williams work, the scene in Mrs Doubtfire, where he cleans the house over the track of Aerosmith’s “Dude Looks Like A Lady” comes immediately to my mind.

They often say imitation is the highest form of flattery. How about imitating Robin’s Hoovering hip swivels with something a little easier? Namely, a cordless vacuum cleaner.

I digress, whatever style, dance is a great way to take your mind off the mundane nature of the task and it will make the time appear to go faster.

Sing Your Heart Out:

Did you know that a broom handle is a perfect stand and microphone for a karaoke session? No? Well, now you do.

When sweeping floors, put on your favourite song and imagine yourself as the lead singer of your favourite band!

It doesn’t matter if you’re tone-deaf; it’s about making the task not so humdrum.

Make a Game out of a Chore:

Do you often have a difficult time trying to get your kids to do their chores or clean their room? Do they moan about the task biting into playtime?

Well, in the best way possible, and Mary Poppins said it best, “In every job that must be done there is an element of fun.” Therefore, make the tasks, such as cleaning up their toys, into a game.

Whether their toys are trapped or are put into something like a swamp or a forest, incorporate it into a fantasy world where they need to be brought back to their original location.

This way, the kids don’t see it as being told what to do and they get playtime while you have them do a job. Everyone wins!

Get in that Workout!

Whether or not you’re the type of person who considers themselves a gym junkie, cleaning your house actually burns those calories. If you use a pedometer, you can track those steps, especially how many times you go up and down the stairs.

With the correct (and safest) movement, you can really get a steady means of exercise, and free without paying for it at the gym!

This way, you are rewarded with a clean house; feeling fit and you didn’t have to spend a cent.

A few House Points and some Healthy Competition:

While I spoke on making chores a game earlier, this is a great way to get your entire family motivated and encourage some healthy competition, even for the adults.

Begin by assigning each area of the house a different number of points. Whoever gets the most areas completed by the end of the week is rewarded with something. Whether it’s letting your daughter go out with friends that weekend or you organise yourself a day for a salon pampering.