11 Habits That Will Keep Your Home Clean

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We’ve all been there. Someone’s coming over and we scramble to get our home presentable. Do a quick dust, pick up everything off the floor, check the bathroom, and throw the dishes in the dishwasher (or just the sink).

Does any of that sound familiar? And do you dread the thought of having to go through that when you hear someone’s coming over?

Wouldn’t you rather keep your home presentable so you didn’t have to go through that every time someone wants to stop by?

 

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Life Gets Busy

 

But I know, life gets busy and we think we don’t have what it takes to keep our home this way. We just don’t have the time or the energy. Am I right?

Well, I understand how you feel. I used to hate having to keep my home in good condition all the time. I was tired at the end of the day to clean up everyone’s messes. And I hate cleaning bathrooms. I thought I’d much rather spend hours cleaning my home each week (or when I could) then to maintain my home each day. That’s what I thought.

Then, it got me thinking. I love habits. Habits play a big part of my life. I recently read a book, Atomic Habits, that completely changed me. I go to bed at a certain time each night and get up at the same time each morning. My morning routine is the same each morning because I’ve built up a habit to do it each day.

Couldn’t I do the same with my home? Build up habits to do each day or each week that would keep my home manageable so I didn’t have to scramble to clean up my home when someone wants to stop by or worse yet, just shows up unannounced.

I tried a handful of things to see what played out to be the biggest ways to keep my home clean and uncluttered. And here are the habits I think will keep your home the same.

 

 

Habits to a Clean Home

 

1.. Make your bed everyday

• Do this everyday. It makes such a difference in your bedroom. Your room could be a little messy but when the bed is made, the other messes aren’t as noticeable. And let’s be honest, crawling into a bed that’s been made is so much more comfortable than a messy bed where you can’t even find your sheets when it’s time for bed. Take a minute or two and make your bed each day. It’s worth it.

 

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2.. Keep ahead of laundry and dishes

• These are the most demanding jobs we have to do in our home. We no sooner get these caught up and there’s always more to do. So, I get it when they are the last things on your mind. But how good does it feel when you walk into your kitchen in the morning and there’s nothing in the kitchen sink? No dirty dishes anywhere. You can have this if you build up a habit to do your dishes every night after dinner (or before you go to bed). Same goes for the laundry, get one or two loads of laundry done from start to finish every day. And by finishing, I mean get each load of laundry folded and put away. And remember this, folding and putting away one load of laundry each day is a task. Folding and putting away three loads of laundry each day is a chore. Don’t let laundry build up. Keep ahead of it by doing it each day.

3.. Stop shoes at the door

• We have a habit in our home (my kids too) to take off our shoes as soon as we walk into our home. This cuts down on the dirt that gets tracked through your home. And this ultimately cuts down on vacuuming and mopping. Think about what’s on the bottom of your shoes that you are spreading throughout your home. If you want to clean less, leave your shoes by the door. Get a shoe storage bin or shoe rack to keep them in so you don’t have a jumbled mess of shoes by the front door.

4. Vacuum often

• I know I just said that keeping shoes by the door will minimize time spent vacuuming and mopping but you’ll still need to vacuum often because let’s face it – even leaving shoes at the door doesn’t eliminate dirt in your home. But it cuts it down a lot. I typically vacuum my home every few days and I don’t have any pets. If you have pets, you’ll probably have to do this more often. But I mop less often by vacuuming more.

5. Wipe up bathrooms daily

• Each morning, when you are finished getting ready, just wipe away any hair, makeup, or toothpaste that may get in or around your sink. Keep wipes nearby or rags and cleaner to do a quick wipe around and in your sink. Follow it up with a quick wipe of the toilet to keep everything cleaner longer. Doing this will mean you won’t have to clean your bathroom as often. I also keep a cleaning solution and grout brush in my shower that I use to clean it once a week while I’m showering. I’ve used these rags for the past two years to do my daily wipe up around the sink and toilet.

6. Dust weekly

• Use a feather duster and go around and dust all of your flat surfaces. This won’t take long and you’ll be happy with your clean surfaces throughout your home. Doing this every week will ensure you don’t let clutter stay on flat surfaces very long either. Remove the clutter as you dust.

7. Daily 15 minute pick up

• Maybe this won’t take you 15 minutes each day if you keep this up but this will make such a difference in your home. It will also help with the vacuuming and the dusting by removing the clutter off the floors and flat surfaces. This will also make the home more presentable when there isn’t any visible clutter around. For a quick clean up – grab a laundry basket to collect things and redistribute everything around your home as to where they belong. This is quicker than going back and forth.

 

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8. Everything has a place

• Use this approach so you know where everything belongs. When this is followed, cleaning up the clutter and putting everything away is much easier. And things don’t need to sit around wondering where you should put them.

9. Wipe up kitchen after each use

• The kitchen is the heart of the home. It’s been said that if the kitchen is clean, visitors won’t care as much with the condition of the rest of your home. And the definition of a clean kitchen is clean countertops and a clean sink. Remove all of the clutter from your countertops and keep the sink clear of dishes and you will have a presentable kitchen every time. And when your countertops are cleared off, wiping them clean is a super easy and quick job.

10. Have a touch once mentality

• For anything that enters your home (think of mail and other things), go through it once. Deal with what you have right away. I have a paper system in my home that keeps papers under control so they aren’t scattered around my home. It’s in my kitchen and it holds a few folders – an action folder, a to be filed folder, a coupon folder, and a shred folder. I know with this system, when paperwork comes into my home, I know what to do with it. I don’t throw it on my counter to deal with later. That only creates clutter. Deal with everything once.

11. Do any one minute tasks

• As you go around your home and you spot anything that you know will be super quick to do, just do it. Don’t think about it, just get it done. A piece of laundry that needs to go into the laundry room, a pillow on the floor, pens and pencils on the countertops, and any other situation that you know will only take you a minute at most. Get into a habit of doing this all the time and this will cut down on the clutter in your home. Have five minutes, see if you can clean up 5-20 things quickly in your home instead of scrolling through Facebook.

 

Final Thoughts

If you can make a conscious effort to sticking with these habits, your home will stay neat and clean longer. You’ll clean less often because you’re maintaining and minimizing your home from clutter and dirt. If you need any help with sticking with habits, I strongly recommend reading Atomic Habits. This book is so insightful and packed with practical steps to building habits.

Get started today with these habits. Start with one or just a couple of tasks so you don’t get overwhelmed. And make a commitment to yourself to stay on track so you don’t fall back into your old ways. Follow these strategies to keep your home clean and organized.

 

Are there any other habits that you do in your home that help keep it clean and organized? I’d love if you’d share them in the comments.

 

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