Have you thought about a cleaning chart? What I find is the hardest part about keeping a home clean with multiple people is for everyone to do “their part”! In my household of two teenage sons, a 5 year old daughter, a husband and a cat, it always seems like no one wants to take responsibility for cleaning up! I’m sure this is true with college roommates, and anyone else who has to share a living space with other people. Take a look at our home organization ideas on Pinterest here!

How a Cleaning Chart may Keep Your Household Sane

A cleaning chart or roster can be an essential ingredient of a happy household. If you’ve ever lived in a share house, and been forced to put up with a filthy housemate, then you’ve already had a taste of the types of problems that cleaning rosters are intended to solve. They can be great for homes where there are lots of people and lots of cleaning tasks to do, and they also work well for busy people or anyone else who wants to make keeping the house clean a little bit easier. In its simplest form, a cleaning roster is a high level schedule of regular household cleaning tasks.

How To Make Your Cleaning Chart

Start by making a master list of all the cleaning chores that need to be done.  You may want to brainstorm the list first, and then go over the house considering each room to see what you might have missed.

The next step involves organizing these tasks into those that must be done daily, a couple of times per week, weekly, monthly, seasonally, and yearly.  To get you started, here are some examples of tasks that might be in these categories:

Cleaning Chart Daily:

Dishes, cleaning floors and other surfaces, and putting away paperwork;

Cleaning Chart Every few days:

Laundry (depending on how many people are in your household), mopping, and vacuuming;

Weekly:

Vacuuming (if your house doesn’t accumulate much dust), dusting, and general cleaning in areas that don’t get much use;

Monthly:

Ceiling fans and light fixtures, walls, windows, air vents, and deep vacuuming in nooks and crannies;

Cleaning Chart Seasonally:

Outdoor areas, HVAC units, windows, and appliances;

Yearly:

Spring cleaning, and other deep out-of-the-way cleaning that you only do once a year, such as attics and basements.

Note: Don’t just copy the cleaning roster above!  Well, actually you can if you want… but you’ll find it much more beneficial to design one of your own that is tailored to the needs of your household.

Designate Tasks

Next, decide how many people are available to do which cleaning tasks.  Create a rotation so that nobody has to do one particular job every time.  Make sure you take into account what each person can and can’t do.  Some things might be impossible or dangerous for little kids, and you should be careful about assigning too many tasks to family members who work long hours.  Try to get everyone involved in cleaning and remember that kids who do some housework tend to have higher levels of responsibility, maturity, and self-esteem.

Molly Maid has some great cleaning charts for kids, adults, and more, here.

Create Your Chart

The best way to create your cleaning roster is using the computer.  In fact, you can download roster templates from various websites that allow you to shortcut the process a little.  Or, almost equally as easily, you can make your own using a simple program like Microsoft Excel.  Start by recording each of your family member’s work or school schedule, and then start assigning tasks to the available time accordingly.  It might be a good idea to choose times of the day for certain tasks.  For example, general tidying up is a daily task that works well just before bed.

If it’s the first time, you may also want to allow for some flexibility; pay attention to what works well and what doesn’t, and then be prepared to go back and make some changes later.

Need help in creating a cleaning chart? Spending for Less has some great ideas!

Cleaning Chart for the Entire Family:

Perhaps the biggest challenge is getting everyone to follow the cleaning roster!  In order to overcome this difficulty, you may want to post it in a place where it will be easily seen, like the refrigerator.  Also, if you find that it’s tough to get the kids to do their work then it’s worth considering creating a rewards system.  For example, if all of the tasks are completed by the end of the week, then they get a prize or treat. This sort of technique can be quite motivational; you’ll find that rewarding them for doing their cleaning works much better than punishing them for NOT doing it.

If you’re battling against a super messy house and you haven’t tried a cleaning roster before then give it a shot. If you get it right, then it can generate great results.

This article was written on behalf of Housework Heroes. Get in touch to learn about their cleaning franchise opportunities, or if you want some further reading, then take a look at their article on eco cleaning tips.

For more home cleaning tips on Stagetecture, click here.

When you are in a temporary place in your life – an apartment, or rental home that you don’t plan to stay in for more than a year ̶ why spend money buying furniture that you will have to pay to move or won’t fit in your more permanent future home? This is where rental furniture comes in very handy! Here are some tips for how to rent your way into a fully-furnished apartment with no life-long commitment:

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Couches and Sofas:

Believe it or not, you can rent a sofa! Go ahead pick out a small sofa that suits your small apartment and pay a small monthly amount. You can do this on a month by month basis until you are ready to move and then you simply give the sofa back! Or if you fall in love with the rented sofa, you usually have the option of buying it and using your monthly rental fees towards the final cost. When searching for rental furniture visit www.davidphillips.com/rental-furniture to give you inspiration for your home.

TV’s and Electronics:

For any lifestyle, it may be smart to rent your TV’s and electronics since their technology is always changing. Why pay thousands of dollars for that new ‘must have’ TV only to discover a newer, better model out the following month? Rent the TV that suits your needs, and then when the new model comes out return your old model and rent the newer model.

Tables and chairs:

Again, renting kitchen tables, side tables, and kitchen chairs just makes sense! Why pay full price for furniture that you won’t want after a year? Temporary living equals temporary furniture – it only makes sense AND saves you a ton!

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As you can see, you can literally furnish your whole home with temporary furniture and electronics. It is best to search your local listings for reputable furniture and home rental companies. Search for a company that offers the best monthly payment deals and has a broad selection of furniture models and choices. You will also want to find a company that allows you to use your monthly payments towards the purchase price, just in case you fall in love with a particular rental piece. Overall, be wise, do your homework and don’t sign any dotted line until you are satisfied with the rental deal.

For more home savings ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

Apartments use 65% less energy than single family homes!

Apartment living is a lifestyle that can be greener than you might imagine. Higher density means less consumption. Because you have other dwellings on either side of you, above and below, it costs less to heat and costs less to cool. It’s like each apartment unit provides insulation for multiple other units. Contrast this with a single detached dwelling and it’s fairly obvious that you won’t have the same kind of insulation. Even townhomes and row houses use less energy than single detached homes for the same reason. The detached home is fully exposed on all sides.

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Compared to alternatives, you’ll use so much less energy by just living in an apartment. But it doesn’t stop there! There are so many things you can do while you’re living in an apartment that will contribute even more to a greener lifestyle.

A greener apartment lifestyle

By turning the heat down, Americans could save more than 500,000 barrels of oil each day–that’s over 21,000,000 gallons.

It already costs less to keep your apartment warm as described above, but you can still turn your heat down a bit and that saves even more. Here are a just a couple of tips:

• Use energy efficient appliances if you have the option.

• Put in a programmable thermostat.

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Those who live in apartments tend to use less energy in other ways as well. An apartment lifestyle lends itself to the use of greener transportation. Public transportation by bus, train or subway is usually closer to multi-residential dwellings for obvious reasons. So apartment dwellers, whether renters or owners, or more likely to use public transportation or even walk to work because of close proximity. This is going to hold true whether the commute back and forth to their home is for work or more recreational in purpose.

You can find these and many more statistics, practical tips, and resources for green apartment living in a free green apartment living guide from Rent Café. You’ll be amazed at the number of things you can easily do that make a big difference. Get your free guide now.

For more apartment living ideas on Stagetecture, click here.