Raising a family is often one of the main goals for buying a home.
Ironically, when raising several children and working to provide steady income, it can be difficult to find time to take care of your residence. Fortunately, these tips may make it a little easier to keep up a clean, well-maintained home while caring for your busy brood.
Schedule Routine Home Maintenance
Set aside some time periodically to schedule all necessary maintenance checkups. Organize contact information for HVAC, plumbing, roofing, and electrical experts who you can call within thirty minutes or so to set up routine annual inspections. Try to arrange the inspections within the same day or two so that you can coordinate your schedule to be at home for all the appointments. This will save time instead of trying to occupy the children or take off time from work for inspections scheduled over several days.
Maintain your home’s comfort level to help keep kids calm by arranging air conditioning services to keep the household environment suitable for the season. Consider scheduling maintenance in preparation for the upcoming time of year. For example, as fall approaches, check your heating and insulation in prep for winter. If you are in spring, heading in to summer, check your air conditioning, etc.
Get Everyone Involved in Taking Care of Your Home
Assign housekeeping tasks to everyone. Even a toddler can pick up toys or toss used towels into the laundry basket. Chores should be age-appropriate and monitored to ensure kids learn how to do them correctly. Simple tasks like making beds, loading the dishwasher, and feeding pets build kids’ responsibility and self-esteem while helping to keep up with the housework.
Set a Few Basic Rules
Trying to remember numerous rules can be difficult for anyone – especially kids. Instead, offer just a few rules that will help to keep your home basically orderly. For example, one rule could be that nothing is left on any floors in the house after 5 p.m. This could include clothes, books, dishes, or other things that clutter the house. Everyone should be responsible for putting away their own things.
Another rule might be putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket or they won’t get washed. Rules like this help to control messiness and make it easier to sweep and vacuum the floors as well as keep up with the laundry.
Make House Upkeep Fun
Home care doesn’t have to be drudgery. Everyone can pitch in to rake leaves in the fall or plant flowers in the spring. Hold family contests to see who cleans their bedroom the neatest, with the prize being an extra scoop of ice cream at the frozen custard stand. Singing or dancing to music, especially in tandem -while physically mopping, dusting, or doing dishes-can be fun for everyone.
Don’t let family responsibilities keep you from maintaining a comfortable and efficient home. Try tips like these to engage everyone in the same purposeful goals.
Lizzie Weakley is a freelance writer from Columbus, Ohio. In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors and walks in the park with her three-year-old husky, Snowball. She recommends these air conditioning services.
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