Parenthood is never easy. How much more if you are raising a child alone. It is challenging and sometimes terribly stressful to describe a single mom’s daily life.
Recently, in the Census Statistics in the United States, more than 80% is home headed by a single mom. The roller coaster of worries of time management and financial worries when raising a child all by yourself.
Much more when you have to manage your children, their school, your work, and the entire household. How can single mothers do all of these?
Chin up! You can still do housekeeping and make it a little easier and manageable. Here are some tips to help you with house cleaning.
1. Do 15-Minutes Cleaning Every Day
Let’s be honest. It is challenging to look forward to doing chores, especially when you have to do hours of work. Save yourself from cleaning the whole day. Instead, spread the house chores throughout the week. If you do 15-minutes of cleaning every day, you can easily keep your home clean and tidy.
Schedule a cleaning routine by listing all the different chores. Check how many chores and which of the chores you can do within 15-minutes. Keep the to-do list somewhere visible.
Each day, check your list and spend 15-minutes on the listed chores!
2. Organize Your Time
You have to organize your time to do all the things you need. Make a list of the things you have to do within the week. You have to include on the list the events and activities your children have to attend and your work schedule. Once everything is on the list, check which day gives you enough time to do a quick clean up.
Block that time on your calendar for that day. Make it into a habit that cleaning is a regular priority. It will make you stay on top of it, making your week to week easier.
3. Let Your Kids Help
Sometimes we burden ourselves thinking we are alone. You have to remember that you have your children to help you. Although they can be the ones who are making the mess, you can discipline them in helping you clearing it up.
They do not have to clean the entire house from top to bottom. Instead, ask them to do an age-appropriate household task. You can start them by teaching them how to make their beds, tidy themselves, or sort clean laundry.
These small jobs collectively take some responsibility off and save you more time. Moreover, giving them the responsibility will boost their self-confidence. You are hitting two birds with one stone!
4. Make Cleaning Fun
Cleaning is quite a dreadful thing to do, but you have no choice but to do it. But, you can always make cleaning fun with your kids. You can listen to an upbeat playlist to excite you up while cleaning or listen to your favorite podcast.
Listening to a podcast or playlist while doing housework makes you forget about the time. Moreover, your focus is not only on cleaning.
5. Consider a Cleaning Service
Although this is not the most affordable solution for every single mom, it’s worth considering this option if you have a budget. If you are struggling with coping and managing everything, there’s nothing wrong with getting help.
Help from the cleaning service will save you time and reduce the mental load from doing everything alone. Hire a maid service to get off the burden. You do not have to enlist all of your chores– just the bigger ones and leave the lighter and manageable things to clean.
