For anyone with a busy life who is working long hours, finding time to get the housework done can be a huge challenge. This is true whether you are single or married, with or without kids. The secret of how busy people handle this balancing act is in recognizing that cleaning and housework are a necessary, but not important, part of life. After all, who do you suppose would ever think “if only I’d spent more time cleaning!” when they reflect back on their life?
Here are three different ways that people with busy lives and long work hours balance their household chores. Pick the one which works best for you depending on your lifestyle and personality.
Option 1: Time's Up!
This option has you pre-allocating a set amount of time each week to your cleaning and household chores… when the time is up, you’re done for the week.
This balancing method acknowledges that you never have time to get all your housework done, so this forces you to concentrate on the most pressing household tasks. You can distribute the weekly time as you wish and this can be done on the fly, making it perfect if you're a freelancer whose work schedule changes frequently.
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If you run out of time and the bathroom hasn’t been cleaned, for example, then the bathroom simply moves onto next week’s cleaning list, where you’ll hopefully prioritize it as the first task for that week. It’s as easy as that!
This option is a good default to start with if you're not sure which method to use.
Option 2: The Cleaning Routine
This option has you completing a set list of housework tasks which are the same each week. Alternatively, if you know this is unrealistic time-wise (for example, you have a large home and not enough time), you can do this on a 2 week alternating schedule where you do half the tasks on week A and the other half on week B.
The advantage of a cleaning routine is that your home is almost always presentable, so it’s fantastic if you like to entertain. You can get all of the enjoyment of having guests without any of the resentment that can come from having to clean up first. However, the disadvantage is that this method can take more time overall.
You can do the routine bit by bit over the week.
If you have young children, this method is best because it has the least amount of thinking. It also means you can keep a (relatively!) clean house and have people over without depriving your kids of your attention immediately beforehand with last-minute cleaning.
Option 3: As Needed
This option involves doing housework on an as-needed basis. While its biggest advantage is flexibility, cleaning as-needed has the significant disadvantage that you may either wind up doing too much cleaning (e.g. if everything becomes dirty at the same time, leaving you too little leisure time that week) – or too little cleaning (e.g. if you let things slide).
If doing it as needed, you should still aim to do a household task each day or at least every other day, however small.
This method may be well suited to those who have a big variation in week-to-week work and social activities. They can take advantage of the flexibility this method provides.
This not recommended for parents of young children, because you may wind up needing to do a big block of cleaning at one time this way, for example before guests arrive.
Sanity-saving tips for handling household tasks for those with busy lives
- Don’t schedule housework for weekends or whatever day you are off work. Yes, this will mean doing your housework one or two (or more) evenings after work when you’re tired… but at least it allows your leisure days to be truly leisure days.
- Use faster methods for unpleasant tasks such as bathroom cleaning
- Don’t be a perfectionist. It’s more important that the task be done even if it’s not perfect. You will get plenty more opportunities for scrubbing that shower again in the future!
- Be realistic: if you’re ill, wait until you are better to clean. If that means missing a week of cleaning, so be it. And don’t even think about keeping a clean house if you have a newborn baby who isn’t yet sleeping through the night!
If you're still struggling to get on top of household chores
If your home winds up messier than you would like, designate a "neat area" which has to be kept clean and uncluttered at all times (e.g. a side table in the living room). It won’t solve the entire problem, but it gives you a visible oasis of cleanliness at all times until you can work on other areas.
Conclusion
Attaching too much virtue to household tasks can be counterproductive for people with busy lives. Too much time spent doing housework means too little time available for more significant areas of life. Pick one of these three approaches to help balance your household chores successfully with a busy career and/or other activities.
Beware that if you let it, housework can expand to fill all of your valuable spare time – so the answer is simple: don’t let it!