Welcome to part two of my three part series: The Busy Mom’s Guide to a Clean Home. Today, I will introduce to you my best tips and tricks to clean your home like a boss. Enjoy!

When I was young, I was not a tidy kid. I remember one day specifically, I was about 10 and had a couple friends over (one of which was a boy!) We were looking for a game in my bedroom and I heard my friends laughing. To my horror, I saw among the piles of junk, there was a pair of underwear front and center. Not one of my prouder moments. Thank goodness camera phones weren’t invented yet. Can you imagine?

Fortunately, I’ve learned a thing or two about keeping things clean in the past 20 years. And my unmentionables are no longer on display.

Here are the best tips to avoid an embarrassingly dirty house.

Set a timer

My number one secret to spending only 30 minutes a day cleaning is to set a timer. I’m a procrastinator, so I always work best under pressure. Also the time you have to spend on a task is exactly how much time it will take you to do that task. If you have 30 minutes to clean, then clean for 30 minutes. Whatever you don’t have time to do, you start with next time. It is also great motivation to stay off your phone and get stuff done.

Use quality cleaning supplies

It is a waste of time and money to buy sub-par products. If they don’t work, you either won’t use them or you will spend so much more time than necessary. Do yourself a favor and use awesome products that (almost) clean for you.

Do a little every day

“But I hate to clean! Why would I want to clean every day?” That was my reaction when I first sat down to create my cleaning schedule. But which sounds better to you: spending 15-30 minutes every day cleaning in your free time or spending 6 (or more!) hours of your weekend scrubbing your home? Maintaining a clean house is much less work than having to deep clean every week.

You will never have a perfectly clean house

Confession time: I am a perfectionist slacker. I have a problem with wanting everything I do to be perfect… or I just don’t do it. (Most of the time, it’s the latter.) I have honestly spent 2 hours cleaning my windows and then didn’t clean the rest of my house for a week. Ladies, do not get caught up on perfect. Do the best you can with the time you have. In all the years I’ve lived on my own, I have never once had someone inspect my home with a white glove. In fact, I have gotten compliments about how nice my home is without me spending all day cleaning it.

Don’t clean what isn’t dirty

My cleaning schedule says that I should run my dishwasher every day, but some days my dishwasher doesn’t have anything in it. Do I run it anyway because my schedule tells me to? No way! The same is true of anything in your home. Do you have rooms that no one ever goes into? Those rooms probably don’t need to be vacuumed every week. Just clean what is dirty.

Prioritize your cleaning

Focus on where you spend the most time and where you are most likely to have company. My downstairs office is currently under construction. We are saving to replace the flooring that we damaged due to flooding. Because it is not being used and isn’t a place we spend much time, it is last on my cleaning list. (Which means that it hasn’t been cleaned in a while.) But that’s ok. I have more time to focus on the social areas of our home. My top priorities are our kitchen and upstairs bathrooms because they both get the most use and get gross quickly.

You can’t clean clutter

“Let in only those things that are greatly desired, no more and no less. That’s how to make sense of the world, and the only real way to achieve happiness.” – Vicki Pattersson

I’ve found that a lot of people don’t really have a problem cleaning their house, they have a problem with junk. I like the idea that we should only allow the items that bring us the most joy into our homes. Everything else, is just collecting dust.

A place for everything and everything in its place

In an ideal world, my home has color coded bins and containers that fit my various things perfectly with pretty matching labels. Unfortunately, I’m not that cool. What I do have are various bins, boxes, and cabinets that house my junk. I have a junk drawer in the kitchen. I have not at all organized toy bins in my somewhat organized shelves. I have a mess of mismatched hangers in my closet and I even have some unfolded clothes in my dresser. But you know what I do have? Everything in its place. No clothes on the bed, no toys left on the floor at the end of the day, and no junk on the kitchen table. Is it perfect? Nope, but it’s good enough for me in my phase of life.

Cleaning your home can feel overwhelming and frustrating, especially if you have kids (or messy husbands). But it doesn’t need to be stressful or time-consuming. If I can learn to keep a house clean, than anyone can.

Be sure to check back next week to see how I keep my house clean in less than 30 minutes a day.

Now it’s your turn, let me know in the comments below.

What is your biggest cleaning struggle?

Or what advice do you have for other moms out there who struggle to keep a clean house?