10 Tools to Help You Clean House Faster (So You Can Homeschool On)

Since I started homeschooling, I hate cleaning house more than ever.

I love teaching my kids and find it to be very fulfilling.

Cleaning my house sucks time away from doing what I love…and it’s usually messy again in just a few hours!

So demotivating!

Most homeschool moms I have talked to admit that keeping house is a huge struggle while trying to balance the homeschool lifestyle.

If this is your struggle too – you are not alone! In fact, I believe you are in the majority of homeschoolers.

Why Homeschooling AND Keeping House is so HARD

1. You have a full time job now

Taking on the role of homeschooling your kids is no small thing. It does take a lot of time, energy, and commitment.

Expecting yourself to clean at the same standard before homeschooling is crazy!

There are just not as many hours in the day as there used to be.

I personally know several homeschool moms who have hired cleaning help! (Due to severe back pain issues, I have hired cleaning help in the past too. If you can afford it, it is a wonderful gift to yourself.)

2. You are home most of the day

Your friends who work outside the home have kids who run off to school/daycare for most of the day.

They eat their meals and make their messes there.

Your kids eat all their meals and snacks in your kitchen.

They play in your house, track in mess when they go outside to play, and make craft messes at your table.

And you don’t have a janitor to come behind and wipe it all up.

In fact, you are the janitor, teacher, lunch lady, principal, and parent.

All those hats can get heavy as you attempt to keep the house slightly presentable.

3. You’re too busy cleaning to clean

Because your family is home all day, you are busy picking up and cleaning all the immediate messes: breakfast dishes, craft explosions, toy/book clutter, food spills, etc.

You are so tired from teaching, parenting, and cleaning, that it becomes really hard to find the energy and time to do the more involved cleaning of bathrooms, floors, and dusting.

Is cleaning the house even that important? Shouldn’t I just focus on my kids and homeschooling?

Um, yes cleaning is important. No, you should not let everything go.

A house that is messy, disorganized, cluttered, and dirty is no place for fun, imaginative learning and play.

It is a place of overwhelm, stress, lost items, and frustration.

It is a place your kids don’t want their friends to visit and a place you’re too embarrassed to let guests into.

Keeping the balance of  homeschooling and housekeeping is something that most people realize is important…but they still struggle with striking that balance.

I think that some people may even abandon homeschooling because they never figure out how to balance homeschooling and the rest of their home and life.

Well, do you have a solution?

Yes!

The first thing you need to focus on is collecting the right TOOLS to clean your house.

Having tools that can help you clean QUICKLY and INEXPENSIVELY in the key.

If you know you can quickly and easily clean your home – you are much more likely to keep up with it.

Below are the tools that I use to sprint through my house and get it clean in record time – so I can keep my focus on my kids and my homeschool.

10 Tools to Clean House Faster So You Can Homeschool On

1. Disposable Gloves

Before I start any serious cleaning, I always grab a pair of disposable gloves from the kitchen.

Why?

I am convinced it helps me to clean much faster because I am less grossed out by having to touch yucky things.

I just dive right in and start cleaning with what little time I have – no hesitation about having to deal with germy things.

I love that I can peel the gloves off and throw them in the trashcan after heavy duty cleaning.

These are the gloves I prefer. I order them from Amazon and the box usually lasts me about 2 months.

2. DIY Multi Surface Spray

I was so tired of people telling me that I needed to buy $20 bottles of glass cleaner so that my family would not be exposed to harmful chemicals.

I was aware of the Windex fumes blowing around my house, but I just couldn’t stomach paying so much for cleaning supplies.

Well, I ended up making up my  own DIY multi-surface cleaner! And you can too!

All you need is:

Spray Bottle (mine is from the dollar store)

White Vinegar

Lemon Essential Oil

Just fill the bottle with half water and half white vinegar.

Add 10 drops of any Lemon essential oil – this is the one I use. This helps to cover the very strong smell of the vinegar and one bottle will last a very long time.

Because white vinegar is known for its antimicrobial properties, I use this super inexpensive spray all over my house.

I can walk quickly through my house with ONE cleaner and spray down mirrors, glass shower doors, sliding glass doors, any counter top, tables, and bathtubs.

I love that I don’t have to switch out cleaners! I also love that my 8 year old daughter is safe using it while doing chores!

You can check out the cleaning power of vinegar at this Healthline.com article for more information.

3. Reusable Dust Gloves

I have tried so many different things for dusting.

Is it just me, or are swiffer dusters a huge racket?

Anyhow, I finally found these fantastic dusting gloves!

I have had them for years, they are the only dusting product I own, and they have stood up well to many washes.

There is nothing faster than using your hands to go through your house and dust! I love that it helps me to easily dust tight places like air vents and the dust actually sticks to the gloves!

My daughter can also easily use these gloves, so she actually does most of the dusting for me!

4. Flushable Bathroom Cleaner Wipes

I love the DIY spray, but I definitely still use a special cleaner for the toilets.

I am so thankful I found these awesome wipes!

All I do is put on my disposable gloves, wipe down the toilet with 1-3 wipes, and then drop the wipes into the toilet – too easy!

No harmful sprays kicking chemicals up into the air and no roll of paper towels getting away from me.

I have searched several grocery stores to restock, but I have only been able to find these time saving gems at Amazon.

Check them out here.

5. Disposable Toilet Bowl Cleaner Wand

I am completely grossed out by toilet bowl wands.

They are filthy and everything they touch is filthy.

Years ago, I started using this disposable toilet bowl wand and I have never looked back.

You can clean the toilet bowl in less than a minute and move on with your you life – what’s not to love?

This is the wand I prefer, but there is one drawback.

The disposable cleaner head is not flushable. You have to put it in the trash can when you’re done.

I wish I could flush it and not worry about it dripping toilet water anywhere. I’ve learned how to handle it, but it’s still a bit annoying.

6. Bleach Tabs For Toilets

It is a huge help to keep these bleach tabs in your toilet tank.

They give off  a nice clean smell when you flush AND it helps keep your toilet bowl clean longer.

What is faster than not having to clean the toilet bowl at all??

7. Cordless Vacuum

I am obsessed with my cordless vacuum. Obsessed.

I wanted one for a long time, and finally purchased one because I was having terrible back issues. My regular vacuum cleaner was just too much for me to haul up and down stairs. I was always in pain after using it.

I did a lot of research and bought a Dyson V8, and I have been so happy with it for the last 2 years!

It is fantastic to just grab the vacuum cleaner off the wall mount and walk through any room – no worry of cords or outlets!

Because it is so much easier to grab and get going with, I clean with it more often and much faster than my old Shark vacuum.

It is a huge purchase, so I want to walk you through the pros and cons for the vacuum I have. I am sure there are many similarities with other cordless models.

Pros

• It is thin and doesn’t take up a lot of room
• Comes with a wall mount, so it is always charging when you put it away.
• The “Fluffy Head” floor attachment is a dream. This thing vacuums hard surface floors like I couldn’t believe! All the cheerios, glitter, and park debris came right up on the first pass. You can also put it right up against corners and it still gets everything. My kid accidentally dumped about 1,000 perler beads underneath her bunk bed last year. The fluffy head attachment picked them all up in about 1 minute. I felt like I was on an infomercial!
• No cords, so you can quickly go from room to room, up and down stairs, or wherever you need to go in a flash.
• You can take it out to your car! I don’t have a lot of time as you know, so being able to vacuum all the goldfish and dirt out of my car without messing with a cord is amazing!
• It is light weight enough that you can use it to vacuum up cobwebs out of hard to reach corners
• We have used it many times to vacuum spiders and other creepy crawlies off walls and ceilings. We even used it to vacuum up a wasp that got in the house. Very effective bug catcher!
• It is much easier to handle than a normal clunky vacuum. My daughter can easily grab it and clean up her own messes. Win!
• It is a bagless system, so no need to buy vacuum bags
• Over 2 years it has maintained its suction power and battery life. Dyson is a quality name brand, so I knew I would be getting a vacuum cleaner that lasted if I paid a little more.

Cons

• It is expensive. I ended up just using a no interest store credit card (Amazon has a great program) and paid a small amount every month for 6 months. We don’t normally use credit cards, but this seemed like a great deal and my back really needed the vacuum cleaner now.
• You have to stop and switch attachments when you go from carpet to hard surface. I wish they had an attachment that was just as effective for both areas.
• Because of its lightweight design, there is no where to store attachments on the vacuum. The wall mount has storage for two small attachments, but that’s it.
• It is top heavy, so be careful trying to lean it against something. It will probably fall over.
• The battery life is about 10-20 minutes depending on what settings you are using. It is enough for me, but if your house is larger or has a lot of carpet, this vacuum may not work for you.
• This is probably the biggest con: Once you own a cordless vacuum, you can never go back to one with a cord. It would be like owning a cell phone and then trading it for a rotary phone hard wired to a wall. Unthinkable! You can never go back.

If you think this vacuum is the answer to your prayers, check out the Amazon reviews for the Dyson V8 and Fluffy Head attachment for more input!

8. Bissel Swiffer Steam Mop with Reusable Pads

After the floors are vacuumed, it’s now time to mop. I am not interested in any messy, heavy, time consuming bucket or mops.

I have been using a Bissel Swiffer Steam Mop for years, and I love it!

You just pour regular water in it, plug it in, wait for a few seconds, and it’s ready to go!

I don’t even buy the disposable pads for it because I think they’re too expensive (I also have no idea what chemicals are in them).

Instead, I found a microfiber reusable pad that is made to fit the mop perfectly. It comes in a pack of three and can be easily thrown in the wash and air dried.

Once you buy the mop and the pads – that’s it! No more buying cleaner or disposable pads for it!

I have not found a mop that cleans better, faster, or cheaper.

Oh, and it dries fairly quickly, so when your kids walk up to you asking for juice – minimal footprint marks in your mopped floor 🙂

9. Bona Hardwood Floor Mop

Steam mops are not always the best for wood floors, depending on what type of wood you have.

Thankfully, I love this super easy to use Bona Hardwood floor mop!

All I have to do is grab it, push a button in the handle to spray the Bona cleaner out in front of me and then start mopping!  Too easy!

My mop has stood up very well over the past 2 years and I have only had to change the batteries once.

The cleaner bottle is refillable, so you can just add more to it as needed.

The Bona cleaner leaves a nice shine on my floors and dries quickly too.

The microfiber pads are also machine washable and can be air dried.

Remember: Reusable = Cheaper!

10. Always have wet wipes on hand

Our youngest child was potty trained almost 2 years ago, but we still have regular deliveries of wet wipes sent to us from Amazon.

Why?

I have found that having wet wipes readily available makes wiping up sticky messes so much easier and faster.

Dipping a paper towel in water causes water to drip over the floor as you walk to the mess.

Using a cloth to wipe it off the floor causes the same problem AND then you have to throw the cloth in the wash.

When you grab a wet wipe, it’s already wet and can easily pick up up whatever stick your kids dropped on the floor, wipe their sticky hands and face before they touch your throw pillows, or even do damage control in your car when needed.

I especially love wet wipes, because if you do it quickly, it’s a simple job. If you wait and tell yourself that you’ll get out the mop later…the stick may dry to the floor and become much more difficult to clean up.

Like trying to chip it up difficult. Yuck.

Faster Cleaning – Talking from experience!

We went through a move recently and I had to be ready to show our house with very little notice while still homeschooling.

That was rough!

The phone would ring and I would only have 3-4 hours to wrap up school and run through my house with all of the above tools and make it “showing worthy.”

That experience was stressful, but it taught me that if I had the right tools – I really can clean my house so much faster!

If you are struggling to homeschool and get housework done, I strongly encourage to look at the tools you are working with.

I think you will find the above 10 tools will help you clean faster, better, and cheaper so you can put more of your energy into your homeschooling – where it belongs!

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