Our floors always need mopping. They’re an aesthetically-pleasing blonde colour of laminate that is an absolute nightmare to keep clean. The finish shows every water spot, sweaty sock print, and speck of dirt (light or dark).
But I’ve decided that, when it comes to cleaning, good enough is good enough. I’ve never been overly careful about my cleaning regime, but lately I’ve upped my nonchalance by cleaning in the near-dark.
Hear me out.
I find myself frequently opting to scrub down the bathroom or mop the floors at night with only ambient light from other rooms. I get things clean enough, but can’t see tiny specks of dust or streaks on the mirror. The job is done and it looks spotless to me in the quasi-darkness.
And then I just squint my eyes during daylight hours and tell myself it’s Good Enough.
Your turn. What’s your best cleaning hack (other than outsourcing)? Where have you recognized it’s okay to be good enough – where are you struggling to manage expectations?
Header photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash
Kristin
This is a different kind of hack but when we do 10 minute tidy as a family, I mentally pick an item in the room (something common to both kids like a wrapper or game controller) and whoever puts it away gets a prize/cookie! This is twofold for me: showing a team spirit by cleaning up something they may or may not have used and even more important, TEACHING THEM TO SEE THE MESS! We’ll see if this creates long term results (ie not walking by a dish or dirty socks for a week) but at least in the short term I get my house pretty picked up.
Elisabeth
This is genius (and reminds me a bit of All-of-a-Kind-Family where the mom hides a penny and they have to find it when they dust, ensuring they’re thorough)!
Thanks for sharing, Kristin!
Beckett @ Birchwood Pie
Bravo! Right now “as much as I can do with the time and energy that I have” counts for good enough. I have grand visions of deep cleaning and decluttering the house but realistically it hasn’t happened and I can’t see it happening in the near future. It’s fine.
Elisabeth
Time and energy are so fluid. Sometimes we have extra and other times we’re working with a deficit. I think I struggle sometimes to triage what really needs to get done. But I definitely know I’m becoming less and less fussed about the state of my floors. (Having a robovac does help.)
Jenny
Hahaha, this is my kind of cleaning. And, you’ve got me thinking about floor colors… we’re probably going to have to replace our floors soon (thanks to the situation of the cracked tile in the kitchen) and hmm, maybe a darker color is the way to go!
Elisabeth
I think the key is to have a mottled texture. Something with whites and greys and yellowish tones. We had some orangey/grey streaked tile in our entry way when we bought this house and while it wasn’t the prettiest it didn’t show ANYTHING! A friend has tile with various shades of grey – but they’re textured – and it doesn’t show the dirt.
We have an orange-y wood tone in our basement and it has a lot of colour variation and is pretty good about not showing stuff, but I think it has more to do with the fact there are a lot of different shades in each board, not that it’s dark? A solid dark tile can show A LOT of dirt, I think?
We have white tile in our bathrooms – again, they came with the house…not my choice – and they show every strand of hair and dust bunny! Argh!
NGS
My hack is that there is a Swiffer, bleach spray, paper towels, and a broom on each floor of the house. If I notice there are dust bunnies EVERYWHERE (and there always are), a Swiffer is within easy reach. I mean, I don’t always take the time to actually use the Swiffer, but it’s there.
Elisabeth
Yes! Having necessary supplies within arms reach is crucial. Dust. Why so much dust?! Though our biggest issue is hair. A and I both shed like crah-ra-zy and there is hair everywhere. Sigh.
Suzanne
I feel like I am do a lot of “it’s good enough” recently, which… well, it’s a useful way to cross things off a list, and sometimes crossing a thing off the list is the most important aspect of a task.
My “hack” is similar to Engie’s — I keep a toilet brush and toilet bowl cleanser in each bathroom, and a roll of paper towels and a bottle of bleach spray in each bathroom cupboard, so that I can clean ON A WHIM. Do these whims ever strike? It’s rare. But I also like not having to drag a soggy toilet bowl brush with me around the house, so that’s a definite benefit.
I also buy toilet paper in bulk from Costco every few months and then stock all the bathrooms with extra toilet paper. (Why are all my hacks bathroom related?) No one is going to be caught without toilet paper in my house!
By the way, the brand-new floors in our new house are super dark — nearly black. And they show EVERY SPECK AND CRUMB. I am constantly wandering around with the dustbuster, muttering to myself about what a terrible choice we made. Although the floors ARE pretty. The floors in my old house were more of a reddish medium brown and that didn’t seem to show nearly as much detritus.
Elisabeth
Yes! I also do the toilet brush beside every toilet trick. Also: rags, cleaning spray, and paper towel.
I just responded to Jenny along these lines. I think solid colours are the issue? We have solid white tiles in our bathroom and they show everything. But we have reddish/brown vinyl wood tones in our basement and it doesn’t show much of anything. I think a lot has to do with texture. Various shades of grey (with a hint of yellow/orange in it) seem to be the best? White tiles are horrible. Nearly black apparently are also tough…and light laminate is NO FUN! Though I’m very glad we have functional flooring and that it is aesthetically pleasing…I just wish the previous owners had gotten something with a bit more texture to it!
Kyria @ Travel Spot
I had grey tile with white grout, which inevitably became greyish brownish grout, and I am a little OCD so at first I would scrub the grout with bleach and a scrubber on my hands and knees. As time went by, I realized that greyish brownish grout is great! And actually matches the tile perfectly! And I would just mop and not worry about it. There is only so much time in a day. PS if you ever get grout, get brown tiles with beige grout! PRO TIP.
Elisabeth
I have no idea what colour the grout in our bathrooms was originally (probably white) but it is grey now!!
In our first apartment after getting married the shower had white tile with white grout and it was awful. I remember being pregnant and scrubbing and scrubbing and crying because I could NOT get that grout clean. I know you can buy grout paint…but I can’t be bothered at this point. Good enough is good enough, right?
ccr in MA
Good enough is definitely good enough! The way I look at it, every day you give 100% of what you have to give, but you don’t have the same amount to give every day. So in this way, “cutting corners” is a really valid way to approach tasks like this. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of done–some done is better than none! (I can keep up the cliches allllll day.)
Elisabeth
This is so wise and really honours the fact that our energy levels, appetites, needs etc can vary day-to-day…wildly! This is part of what it means to be human and not robots.
And I am here for ALL the cliches 🙂
San
I love this, Elisabeth. I like my house to be generally clean, but I don’t obsess about it. I think the “low light” approach is just the perfect way to keep everything reasonably clean without doing that.
Not sure if it counts as a cleaning hack, but I will sometimes just vacuum/sweep instead of mopping to save time and because hair/dust bothers me more when I see it on the floor than spots (although it depends how visible/big they are).
I also like to “clean up as I go”. I don’t really have a set cleaning schedule and usually try to clean when I see the need for it.
Elisabeth
I don’t mop as much as I should, to be honest. I feel like our floors get so sticky and dirty. And yes I am going to throw my kids under the bus here, but it’s true. 90% of the sticky splatters are their fault (or their friends). It’s a good tradeoff because it means the house is being used well…but I’d say I’m several weeks overdue for a very thorough mopping! I’ve been too tired in the evenings…and who wants to mop in the daylight and see all the things one might miss 😉
Like you, I don’t have a set schedule. I clean when I feel like it needs it. Also, our kids have a bathroom that is mainly “theirs” – it’s also the bathroom guests use if they visit. So when we have people coming over I make SURE to clean the bathroom, but otherwise I just pretend it’s not there because the kids do not care.
Gigi
To whoever is considering dark floors – IT WILL SHOW EVERYTHING! I promise. Our kitchen tile is an ugly textured brown/gray tile with an indeterminate shade of grout. It doesn’t SHOW dirt but no matter how many times I scrub it; it still LOOKS dirty. I hate it. But have also reached the point of well, I mopped it. I know it’s clean. And that’s good enough.
Elisabeth
Yes. Dark floors – at least without a coloured texture, show everything! Much like clothes. I have some dark black jeans and they show everything!
Ally Bean
What’s your best cleaning hack (other than outsourcing)? A retired husband is a wonderful cleaning hack. Who’d have thought he’d suddenly want to vacuum for something to do!
Where have you recognized it’s okay to be good enough – where are you struggling to manage expectations? I think it’s good enough to keep bathroom cabinets organized in a general way, but struggle with my need to have food put in the pantry and refrigerator exactly where I want it.
Elisabeth
A retired husband is the ultimate form of outsourcing. Someone else does the work, they have a vested interest in the outcome and, best of all, they are FREE!
sarah
When we first moved into our house we had gorg blond laminate wide plank floors. We chose them, and we LOVED the way they looked. BUT. Upkeep was terrible. I made everyone wear socks all the time because even bare feet made prints– it was hell. We replaced it with the floors we have now- really thick hickory that are also light but definitely rustic in a way that means I NEVER MOP. Like, twice a year with a steam mop and spot cleaning when necessary. Sometimes, my socks get dirty walking around (yikes!)but the floors always look great. It was been a literal life changer.
Elisabeth
YES! The prints! I have two people with sweaty feet and even with those socks – since they are wet – I can see TOE PRINTS through the wet material. UGH.
I didn’t choose the floors and am not the type to change them since – EXPENSE ALERT…but they are painful to keep clean. In fact, it’s impossible to keep them looking clean for more than 25 minutes. For real.
Diane
Cleaning in the dark! Hahahaha!
Well – for me, I *want* it to be kids and lowered expectations for what they can achieve. Although sometimes it’s *more* work to get them to clean so that doesn’t always feel great.
Lately when I’ve been overwhelmed by the post-dinner kitchen, I’ve been setting a timer for 15 minutes and saying to myself, “I’ll only do fifteen minutes of cleaning.” And the benefit is two fold – 1) I find that after 15 minutes, things are “clean enough” and 2) I realize that I can actually do a lot more in 15 minutes of cleaning than I can do in 10 minutes of dreading and griping and procrastinating + 5 minutes of cleaning.
Elisabeth
Yes! It is often so much more work to have the kids help. One of the things I’ve been doing lately is finding little menial parts of a task that I need to do but that are easy to outsource to the kids. Can you run this basket to the laundry room? Can you get my phone from my bedside table? Can you take the compost out of the bin? Lots of little jobs that don’t become part of a set routine (it makes them A LOT less likely to complain), but is a major help to me. Sometimes I’m washing dishes and have wet hands and instead of drying them to do the task that pops into my mind, I can now call one of the kids and send them on the errand.
Yes to the 15-minute hack. I do something similar sometimes (often only 3 or 5 minutes, if I’m being honest about my “laziness”). It’s either good enough or the momentum of getting started propels me through to the end.
Lisa’s Yarns
I had dark floors in one of my condos and they were horrible!! They showed every strand of hair or crumb. I vowed to never get dark flooring! Our house has original wood floors from when it was built in 1925 but there is enough difference/texture to the wood that things don’t show easily. Thank god. I am solidly in ‘good enough’ for so much, especially since we don’t hire a cleaner. I will get bursts of motivation and will deep clean something. But mostly I am just sort if a shoulder shrug stage of life because I just don’t have the time or energy to keep our house as clean as I would like. I do try to keep things tidy, though! Or as tidy as a home with a toddler can be!
Elisabeth
It really is all about the texture and some variation in colours!
I’m 100% Team Tidy over Team Clean. I like to tidy, I don’t like to clean. Also, cleaning is demoralizing because with two kids it just DOES NOT STAY CLEAN. Sigh.
Sara
I like to clean the toilet and the sink while the boys are playing in bath. I can usually do the tub quickly right after they get out.
I honestly do not mind any cleaning job except cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. My tank is completely empty and I have zero motivation. Ideas to overcome this are very welcome (and none of them can be a partner because I don’t have one 😉
Elisabeth
I used to struggle mightily with the post-dinner cleanup. Especially in the era when both kids needed to go to bed right away. Now that they’re older I dread it a lot less because they’ll often entertain themselves or have some other thing going on (plus, they can bathe themselves, brush their own teeth, get themselves dressed – bedtimes can be completely hands off for me now which I couldn’t even IMAGINE in the little years). But when I knew I needed to clean the kitchen, AND brush teeth AND change diapers AND do the bedtime routine…it was a lot. Especially when John was away or on calls (for years, he tended to be out of the country or downstairs on a call at bedtimes, so I did hundreds of solo bedtimes…it is not the same as doing everything as a single parent, but I can relate to the: “if I don’t do it, NO ONE is going to do it.”
This is hard. Things I did:
1) Sometimes I left the mess. I would clean the kitchen in the morning while the kids ate breakfast. Yes it sucked to wake up to dirty dishes, but sometimes I needed the sleep (or some mindless scrolling or a long hot shower after the kids were asleep) more than I needed clean kitchen.
2) Sometimes I set a timer. Usually for 5 minutes. I would tidy all the dishes, load the dishwasher, put away leftovers in that time span. I’d either leave whatever was left at the end of that time and do it in the morning, or the momentum of starting was enough to propel me through to the end.
3) I used paper plates. Not all the time, but if there was an especially hard week, I would make things as easy as possible. Paper plates were easy! What would this look like if it were easy? If some answers come to mind, do that!
4) Have a cleanup song. I can’t remember how old your oldest is, but having an up-beat go-to song that signals cleanup is great. A child 2-3 years old can man a broom – sure the floors won’t be any cleaner, but they might be engaged? Clean while the song is playing and it slowly acclimates the kids to the fact that after dinner we listen to a fun song AND we work together to clean.
Mostly, though, this is just a really, really hard season. I can remember the sensation of being so tired I wanted to just collapse in the middle of the kitchen floor. Or coming out after bedtime and seeing all the mess and starting to cry. I remember a few times falling on to the couch at supper time and literally not being able to move I was so tired. It DOES get easier. I promise. Every stage of parenting has challenges but, for me at least, the physical exhaustion of those little years can be soul-crushing. It’s 100% worth it, but it can feel like every ounce of your personhood has been drained, every inch of your body has been touched and needed, and your brain wants to explode from the sheer tedium and overwhelm of the demands on your attention, body, and mind. You will get through this, my friend, but I desperately wish I could wave a magic wand and clean your kitchen for you tonight <3