"I love to scrub the kitchen floor on my hands and knees because I do it better than anyone else in the world. But my first love is vacuuming. When I vacuum I am powerful--no lint can resist me. There's no surface I can't vacuum. I even vacuum my cats to save a step or two."
- Comedian Dela Poundstone

Notwithstanding the rare individual who finds transcendence in cleaning, most of us would much rather get it over with as fast as possible. And that appears to be a national trend. In 1965, weekly cleaning took up 27 hours for women and 4.6 hours for men. Now women clean a mere 15.6 hours a week and men 9.5 hours. That's a solid 6 hours a week that dust bunnies rule the home. Gone are the happy homemaker days. Most women now work outside the home; any free time is better spent catching up with friends or being an active parent.

If you've got the feeling that housework is no longer a big concern, rest assured that cleaning product companies are sure of it. Do you remember the old television ads showing people waxing tables and various objects to such a sheen they could see their reflections? It's been a while since those ads were a hit. Sales of polish, wax, carpet shampoo and oven cleaner, to name a few, have all declined by 10 to 50 percent in the last two decades. Interestingly however, sales of air fresheners have increased. We may not be clean but we like to smell clean!

How do you keep your house spick and span in the shortest possible time?

1. Teach your children to clean up after themselves at an early age. Don't take the attitude that it is work; try to make it as habitual as brushing teeth.
2. Break the habit of throwing clothes, newspapers etc., on the floor. It takes almost as long to put items where they belong.
3. If you don't have a dishwasher, put dirty dishes in the sink with just enough water to cover lunch and dinner dishes. When it comes time to wash them you will save water trying to scrub off dried stuck-on food.
4. Don't be fanatical about washing clothing after one wearing. Think how much water and energy you will save if you wear shirts and pants twice or more (unless they're very dirty). Studies show that we are not reaping the benefits of our labour-saving devices-we do more laundry than people used to. In fact, in the 1920s and 1930s, when few women had washing machines or other appliances, they often spent less time on housework than women in 1965.
5. Put a dirty clothes hamper in everyone's bedroom. When it's time for a wash collect only the hampers instead of rummaging for dirty clothes.
6. Fill a spray bottle with 1 part bleach to 30 parts water. Spray on your shower and bathtub after each use. You will avoid tough to remove mold in the grout.
7. Cook large meals and freeze portions in microwaveable or ovenproof dishes for quick meals. You'll cut your dish washing in half.
8. Make it a house rule to remove shoes at the door.
9. Keep separate cleaning supplies, especially sponges and clothes, for kitchen, bathroom, floors etc. You'll save some time gathering them and also help prevent spreading germs to your food.

High Tech Gadgets
If you're looking for more options to reduce your workload, consider these space age solutions. Plug in the DC06 self-navigating vacuum from Dyson, U.K. then sit back and relax. Fifty sensors send data to three on-board computers. It makes 16 decisions per second as it navigates your home and records where it's cleaned thus no dust bunny is left unturned. The DC06 retails in the U.S for a mere $3,500.

If a cook's helper is more your style how about employing WENDY in your kitchen? Researchers at the Waseda University in Tokyo have created a robot to perform household chores. She even has "fingernails" made of soft rubber topped with a rigid nail to help improve her precision. WENDY has passed an important test: she's cracked an egg into a frying pan. But does she do windows? Until then…

Return to: Maintaining Your Home

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