10 Easy Ways To Keep Your House Clean
How To Keep Your House Clean
Tired of stressing about how to keep your house clean? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a live-in maid to keep your house clean all day?
I started implementing these daily chores, and there is no more stress, just a feeling of accomplishment.
When my house is a mess it raises my stress level and anxiety to an all time high.
I couldn’t go on like this anymore. I tried different methods but these methods that I’m going to share with you are the only things that worked.
So take a look at what worked for me, give it a try for at least two weeks and see the difference it makes.
Hopefully these will be new habits that will last you a lifetime.
Here are 10 ways to KEEP your house clean
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1. Make Your Bed
The very first thing I do in the morning (after doing my hygiene) is go right back to the bed and make it up.
Sometimes, I admit, I don’t feel like it. But I know what will happen if I don’t – It will grow into this snowball of procrastination screaming “I’ll do everything LATER!” And we can’t have that!
Making your bed doesn’t take a lot of time and you’ll get this incredible feeling afterward. It’ll make you want to keep your entire bedroom clean.
I always like to make my bed look like it’s about to be featured on Pottery Barn and while some mornings I may have to do it more quickly than at other times it has become a habit so it still gets done. Now, I take pride in making up the bed.
There is nothing like wrapping up a long hard day and heading up to that room to be greeted by a beautifully made bed to jump into! Ah tranquility! And only after a shower of course!
By the way, do you eat in your bedroom? If you do, I’d highly recommend limiting the food to one location, The Kitchen! When you eat and snack on foods, you’ll drop crumbs, even if you feel like you don’t. And crumbs can attract critters.
Just by making up your bed, it sets the tone of how the rest of your day will go.
It’s crazy how something so small can make a huge difference.
2. Clean The Kitchen Every Night
Every night (like our prayers), we clean the kitchen. We put the dishes in the dishwasher, clean and wipe off the countertops with disinfectants and wake up the next morning with a clean fresh start.
For the past few years after the counters are clean, I love using this Magnolia Lemon Counter Spray. I used to get this from Target, but it looks like it’s exclusively sold by Magnolia directly now. If you do get this you’ll love it! The scent stays around for a while and it smells clean, fresh, and earthy. That’s the best way I can describe it.
Honestly, there’s no better feeling than waking up to a clean kitchen. If you don’t already do this, try it!
Your dishwasher, just like anything needs to be cleaned just like the counters. Run your dishwasher empty once a week with a cup of bleach. This should and will kill any germs that’s left over from dirty dishes.
If you use a kitchen sponge, like we do, to clean, make sure you clean the sponge and throw it in the microwave for 2-minutes every day while it’s still wet. This will kill E. coli and other bacteria.
If you’ve got more than two people in your household, I find it helpful to have certain days to clean and trade-off, or you could save time and clean together.
Pantry / Fridge Maintenance
Most refrigerators and pantries have similarities, and that’s *forgotten items*.
Fridges, freezers, and pantries are notorious for clutter. Expired, freezer-burned foods give the illusion you have more edible food than you think.
The best way to make sure food doesn’t go to waste is to shop from your pantry and create meal plans from the food and spices you already have.
I use this Meal Planner to help me keep my pantry, fridge, and freezer clean and to stay on budget.
Budgeting is so important! If you’re in debt or struggle understanding your personal finances, you need to create a budget that actually works.
Just by implementing this simple element into my life, I paid off $40,000 of debt in a year!
You might be able to too. Here’s how I did it.
Declutter Your Kitchen
You may also have a few items you could get rid of like appliances you don’t use very often, appliance manuals should be kept in a file to keep for reference (even though you can always google the model number to get the manual electronically), condiment packets (if you even still have them), to-go menus, and unwanted cookbooks. Put those items some other place than the counter, less is more.
3. Put Things Away After You Use Them
Have you ever thought your space looked dirty when it’s actually just “junky”? There is a huge difference!
Yeah… I can help you fix that!
This usually happens when we don’t put things away after we use them. Things like toys, notebooks, cups, unfolded blankets, etc.. I know that mini list was full of random items, but that’s exactly how our homes get every now and then.
Just clean up after yourself. It’s so simple, yet most of us don’t get into these healthy habits.
If you’re stuck in a routine that isn’t working for you to keep your house clean, get your housemates involved and make it a family thing. There’s strength in numbers, especially when everyone is able to pitch in every now and then.
Before you leave a room make sure it looks the way it did before you came. Or better yet, if you drop something, pick it up right then, don’t let a second get in there. This mindset can create good habits.
4. Do Laundry More Often
Is it just me? Or can your nose smell from across the street too?!
Fabrics hold onto odor. And if you’ve got a lot of dirty clothes, it can really start to smell. One of the best ways to keep your house smelling good is minimizing the number of dirty clothes in the house.
I do laundry every Saturday morning. I’m talking about ALL the laundry in the house, bedsheets, pillowcases, and blankets.
Creating a routine and sticking to it really impacted how we keep our house clean. We normalized a routine that keeps our house clean that doesn’t affect our life outside the home.
When you create a routine, you get used to it and don’t mind doing chores. It becomes something you just do.
When you’re washing your loads, try to wash your kitchen towels separately from your other laundry, same goes for gym towels.
Doing laundry gives our house a clean smell like clean cotton.
If you want to make your house smell good all the time, check out this article.
5. Take Off Your Shoes
Minimize dirt in your home by taking off your shoes while you and others are inside the house.
This cuts down on the possible transmission of disease-carrying bacteria.
If you need some tips to help your houseguests take off their shoes when you have company, you can pick from the list below of what we added to our house to make it easier:
- Put a shoe rack near the door
- Get a ‘WELCOME’ mat
- Verbally ask (if it isn’t obvious already)
- Keep a wicker basket or bin and fill it with socks for guests
Doing these few things will help to cut down the amount of time you spend on keeping your house clean.
6. Declutter
Let’s face it, we all know there’s something around the house that doesn’t need to be there. Don’t become a hoarder.
There’s a few things we can do to declutter. We can look at the items that are in good shape and list them for sale on platforms like Amazon, eBay, Mercari, and Poshmark.
Selling clutter and items you don’t use anymore can be extremely profitable.
You can earn several thousand dollars just by flipping products on eBay. Rob from the Flea Market Flipper is the MASTER flipper and earns about $130,000 flipping items from Flea Markets and thrift stores PART-TIME online on eBay.
When I heard this, I had to test it out to see if it really works. After selling on eBay for just two months, I flipped a Kate Spade bridal clutch that I got from Hautelook.
Just that one item was over $250 in profit! I couldn’t believe I did that! FYI – Hautelook has great designer deals. That’s where I get most of my products. I did a deep dive on how to sell on eBay for beginners.
Platforms to Sell On:
Some of the designer names that do VERY well for me are:
- Rae Dunn
- Kate Spade
- Tumi
- Badgley Mischka
For the other clutter, you can donate your items to places like The Salvation Army and Goodwill. There are so many people that need clothing or other items and it’s just good to give back. Click here for a more detailed list of where you can donate to.
7. Keep Items In A Particular Place
Hiding things in your home is an art!
As long as you’ve got the space, you should be able to keep your items in one place so that they’ll have a home to go to when it’s time to be put away, and everyone in the household should know exactly where that place is.
A vacuum is a perfect example of what I’m describing.
Usually, when you go over to someone’s house, you don’t see a vacuum. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. They just got rid of the clutter.
So here’s a short list of storage spaces to hide your clutter:
- Closet
- Ottomans with storage
- Under-bed storage
- Storage Baskets
I put blankets in the ottoman and love that I can hide them when we have company.
I’m really picky, so if you’re anything like I am, you don’t want your guests using your blankets LOL.
8. Clean The Bathroom
First, grab a plastic grocery bag. You’ll use that as your garbage can.
Second, get the cleaning music ready because this is one room that takes me a bit of time to clean up.
Wipe down the countertops and sink with disinfectant cleaner, scrub the toilet with a dab of bleach, clean the shower/bathtub (vinegar is great for eliminating mold so use this to wipe down all the shower areas and grout and never mix this w/bleach or other cleaners), sweep and mop the bathroom floors, and the very last thing I usually do is clean the mirrors.
The first time I decluttered my bathroom, I was utterly disappointed by how many Victoria Secret Body Sprays I’d collected over the years and had barely used one!
Do you still have something you forget you even had? Now, I ask myself, do I love it? If not, my decision is made. I’ll get rid of it.
My new rule of thumb is if I haven’t used it in a month, get rid of it.
What also seems to pile up are those tiny partially used soap bars. Use this time to throw them away!
9. Recycle The Paper
I highly recommend picking a day of the week to recycle the excess paper around the house. That junk mail can pile up, FAST!
Create two piles 1) Keep and 2) Toss.
If you’re just getting started getting rid of the paper stuff you’re probably wondering what I mean. I’m talking about paper like old receipts, junk mail, outdated maps, and business cards you don’t and won’t use. If you’ve got a shredder this would be the time to use it. Invest in a file cabinet and create a file (nothing fancy required) just keep everything in a folder, for example 2021 home repairs, this will be a great habit to start being better organized.
Once you’ve gotten rid of the piles of paper items, your house will look a lot less cluttered and you’re helping the environment by recycling.
10. Dust And Vacuum
The very last thing on my list is dusting, mopping, and vacuuming.
To save me time, I usually mop and vacuum after I’ve deep cleaned. Maybe it’s because of the lack of energy or desire to do any more cleaning.
So, that’s it!
Does this sound like something you can start? Let me know in the comment section below what rooms you struggle keeping clean the most.
If you liked this article or have any suggestions on anything else I should add, let me know.
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