17 Incredibly Simple Tips
To Keep Your House Clean (That You Can Do Today)
Keeping your home regularly can be tough if you have kids, pets, roommates, a busy schedule, and/or long-term guests in your home! Understandably, you won’t have many seconds to spare by the end or even at the beginning of your day.
Make a Schedule
A daily schedule is important because it reduces the stress brought on by a large and/or long list that spans an entire week. Make your lists practical and easy to do right then and there so you can start crossing tasks off of your list from daybreak until the evening without even thinking about it!
You can have one general list in your kitchen where all tasks are listed, or you can have the tasks that need to be completed in each space listed there! For example, if your task is to make the bed, then write that task somewhere in your bedroom so you can mark it off before walking out!
Other task ideas to keep your home clean include:
- Put dirty clothes in the hamper.
- Do one load of laundry and run the dish washer simultaneously
- Set a timer for 10 minutes and put items in their places
- Wipe down X number of surfaces and then switch to different ones the following day
Get Your Kids On Board
If your kids are older and you didn’t start them young, here are reasonable and daily tips that you can start implementing with them the moment you walk through the door!
- Make them a part of the cleaning solution NOT the problem. Children, regardless of their age, do not want to feel blamed for something they don’t see as a problem!
- Set realistic expectations! Make their job to clean up after themselves regularly before adding family tasks like vacuuming or mopping.
- Be extremely specific! Regardless of age, paint the picture and give examples.
- If your kiddos are young, play some music and act like you’re enjoying the cleaning and they will too!
- If you have multiple youngsters, make cleaning a game!
- Put it in writing and show them how to mark it off.
Come Up With Incentives
Sometimes, you just need your kids to help you around the house and you don’t have time to make it into a fun game or have the energy to argue about what should and shouldn’t be done.
A hectic work and life schedule do get in the way periodically, so these are the times when an incentive needs to be given!
- Offer their favorite food for breakfast or dinner for helping.
- Allow an extra hour of staying up late.
- Give them more TV for that day.
- Sometimes, money, if they’re older.
- Allow them to choose a reward within reasonable means.
Clean Your
Carpets Regularly
One of the great benefits of this generation is the fact that you can outsource your home work! Things like, having your carpets cleaned, can be completely and utterly done by someone else. Carpets are notorious for being extremely dirty if they are not cleaned regularly because their fibers hold onto dust, debris, dirt, and particles floating in the air.
Whats The Best Way To Keep Your Carpets Cleaned?
Hire a cleaning crew that comes weekly, so more than just your carpet gets cleaned.
Find an affordable yet effective vacuum that can quickly clean up daily messes
Find home remedies that leave your carpet smelling fresh like, spreading baking soda on a surface and vacuuming it up!
Hire a local company to come clean the carpet while you’re out
Make Cleaning Fun
Aside from making it fun for kids, make it fun for yourself. Cleaning can be tedious and frustrating early in the morning or after a long day of work and errands. Sometimes when you’re home cleaning alone it can seem silly to make cleaning a goal and give yourself a reward in the end, but it isn’t silly, especially when you’re tired.
Make it fun for yourself by:
- Making a cleaning playlist
- Set a timer and give yourself specific things to do
- Reward yourself when you’re done!
- Make it a daily race in a certain amount of time and try to improve on how much you clean daily
Get a Rumba
When it all comes down to it, who doesn’t want a vacuum who can run without you ever having to do anything? A rumba can be set to vacuum at certain times of the day and can be switched on for when you’re cooking, showering, or simply too busy to take time away to vacuum!
Rumba’s Can Be A Huge Help For The Following Reasons:
You don’t have to take time away from your schedule to clean
If you have animals, fur will no longer linger on your floor’s surfaces!
Simply clean out the filter and watch your floors sparkle
You don’t have to be home to have it run
The vacuum can be control by an app
Be Strict About Putting Things
Away After Using Them
Why does it matter if your things are put away if you know where they are? If you’ve ever been in a rush or wondered why your phone charger wasn’t directly next to your bed once you had already made yourself comfortable, then you need to be stricter about putting your things where they belong. This is something that can be done within every moment while you’re home! Don’t procrastinate, just do it immediately, give yourself that happiness.
- If you have animals, this reduces the chances of your belongings being taken or broken.
- The likelihood of finding your things when they aren’t placed in their designated spot decreases when/if you’re ever in a hurry
- Without proper organization guests will look at you like you’re a slob, even if it is the furthest thing from the truth
- The longer you wait to put things away the less of a chance you will put them away
Make Laundry A Aaily Ritual
Do a load a day to keep your stress away! Laundry can pile up way too quickly and suddenly the mere thought of having to fold all of those pieces of clothing has become a dread. Here is some advice, do small loads daily and commit to folding and putting them away. If the loads are small but consistent, laundry becomes another simple part of your routine and doesn’t take any time away from the things you want to be doing, like not doing laundry!
- Keep the dirty clothes in the washer!
- Run the washer daily to keep important items ready to use
- Avoid having wrinkled clothing if you’ve had time to wash and iron it
- Always have what you need at your disposal
- You will never have a huge load to fold and put away!
Keep Your Trash
Can Empty
Keeping your trash empty is beneficial for so many hygiene and safety reasons! Whether we’re talking about the trash can in your bathroom or the one in your kitchen, don’t let weird smells, molds, and bacteria scare guests away.
Smells are extremely unpleasant and can actually be breeding grounds for bugs and airborne bacteria that will negatively impact your health.
Keeping your trash empty is beneficial for so many hygiene and safety reasons! Whether we’re talking about the trash can in your bathroom or the one in your kitchen, don’t let weird smells, molds, and bacteria scare guests away. Smells are extremely unpleasant and can actually be breeding grounds for bugs and airborne bacteria that will negatively impact your health.
Keeping a small trash can help you keep up a continuous cycle of recycling and removing it from your home! Why should you bother? Because:
Don’t let trash linger to the point where your home smells strange
No one wants roaches crawling around their house due to their trash
Reduce the number of flies and flying bugs in your home
Animals love trash bins! Including cats and dogs
Avoid airborne bacteria caused by trash
Cut The Clutter
The minimalist movement of the last 2 or 3-years has come up with a good point, if you don’t use or think about it, get rid of it! Donate to local shops that will be able to provide it to a family who will use your item! If charity isn’t your thing, have a garage sale. Sometimes freeing space up in your home can help you enjoy new hobbies or redecorate areas you never thought to before. Clutter is unnecessary:
- Clutter can easily be cleaned away right now
- Do not let sentimental attachment to extra items cloud your judgement
- Get rid of things sooner rather than later
- Clutter can be removed from any part of your life
- Designate an area that is your donate pile and take it with you as you walk out of the door
Stay Motivated
What motivates you? To go to work, to go workout, to go meet up with friends, etc. whatever that is, translate it over to keeping your home clean. Staying and being motivated is such a personal journey and one everyone needs to take on their own.
Don’t follow your friends motivation, find what drives you to continuously keep your home clean and livable.
The same way you make workout or work goals, make cleanliness goals and make plans to achieve them
Make a list and at the end reward yourself for working hard
Do things immediately stop procrastinating, it will never help
Remember, no one likes visiting a dirty home
Remember, this is for you!
Keep Yourself Or Each Other Accountable.
In a household of more than one, make a list with each person’s name and ensure that they do their part! If they don’t, call them out! Make sure they know that a home is a team and without each person doing their part the team suffers. Having a clean home is not up to one person when others live in the home.
- Don’t let your kids leave their things anywhere other than their room
- Make everything the families, including vacuuming, pets, dishes, and laundry
- Everyone can do their part and help out around the house
- Keep kids and spouses accountable early on so the importance of cleanliness is established early