Tips to Keep Your House Clean (most of the time)
My OCD brain loves a clean house. But lets be honest, there are actual humans living in here. So having a clean house all of the time is frankly not possible. However, there are a few tips that I have learned over the years to keep your house clean.
These are the habits that will help you keep your house in control and tidy. Not perfect. But manageable.
My favorite habits to keep your house clean
1. PURGE often
Don’t leave purging to a once-a-year thing. Become a consistent purger. When you see things that you don’t need, don’t like, and don’t want, get rid of them. If they are garbage, throw them away (You don’t need to save every single piece of artwork that comes home from school. In case you want to remember it, take a picture and put all of the pictures of artwork and crafts in an album for each school year). But, they can be recycled or donated, even better. I keep a box in each of our kids closets for donated items (mostly clothes) and drop it off to a donation center every few weeks. If you go through your home often, and make it into a habit, you wont be overwhelmed with an accumulation of stuff throughout the year. It also makes you more mindful before you buy new things.
2. Make SMART Purchasing Decisions
I have to admit, I am still working on this. But the easter bunny and santa claus no longer bring junk that I’ll just end up throwing away after a week. I am also guilty of raiding the target dollar spot when frankly I don’t need another tea towel, or Christmas themed coffee cup. Less stuff means less stuff to purge later on.
3. Find a Place for Everything
Once you have gone through and purged, find a PLACE for all of the things. They need a HOME within your home. Everything should have its own place; designate a drawer, basket, shelf… whatever it might be. And what is better yet, Label it!
Keep all batteries in one container. Keep all technology together (cords, chargers etc.). Keep office supplies together etc. Do you spend most of your time looking for things? If you group the same items together, you will save so much time looking for them! I find this most helpful in the playroom. All the toys are grouped according to category and then labeled. This also makes it easier for the kids to put their toys away and helps them find what they are looking for.
If you are looking for more toy room storage tips you mind find this post on how to organize your toys and playroom storage ideas helpful!
4. Always Put things where they belong
Our daily lives are all busy, but trust me it will pay off to put things away, right away. When you bring in your kids backpacks, go through them and put them where they belong. When you bring in your latest target purchase, put all items away when you get home! If you put all these little things off until the end of the day, you will have much more to sort and be more overwhelmed! The more you do it, the more of a habit it will become. Remind yourself to put things away now instead of later!
5. Create Drop Zones
I don’t know about you, but we have a lot of stuff. From toys, to school papers, backpacks, etc. there is always stuff that needs to be sorted out. Our daily lives involve so much stuff. We are bombarded with papers, toys, laundry, mail.. and the list goes on! If you figure out a way to manage that will make your life easier! Decide on where all the stuff can go when it comes home and needs to be dealt with… and not just heaped up on your kitchen floor and kitchen counter.
Our main drop zone is our laundry room where we have room for storing coats, backpacks and shoes until we need them again.
Our second drop zone is our pantry which we turned into a little command center where I hang papers, store important school documents and hang lunchboxes.
6. Make the Beds Daily
This is one I swear by. Make your bed everyday. Its amazing how much more calm and tidy your house will feel with a neatly made bed. Just try it for a few days, I promise you’ll feel better!
7. Run the dishwasher
Sounds simple right? Load your dishwasher immediately. Don’t make a habit out of storing those dirty dishes in the sink, it will just be something you will have to do LATER. I find it easier to set a time of day to run the dishwasher. For example, I always run the dishwasher at night before I got to bed and then unload it every morning.
8. Stay on top of laundry
In your house this may be every day or every other day. For use, I do a load once a day, usually right after I unload the dishwasher. This way I am not overwhelmed by mountain of laundry at the end of the week. All laundry is done by Friday, and I take the weekend off. All laundry is folded right away, and put in a designated basket to be carried to the correct room.
9. Do Clean ups throughout the day
A couple of times a day, go around the house and take about 10 minutes to put away everything that is out of its place. I involve my big kids and they tackle the play room. I do it randomly throughout the day usually during nap time, and before I start the dinner routine.
10. Clean up before bed
It may sound silly but do a quick sweep around your home every night before you go to bed. Put things back in their places. Put the dishes in the dishwasher and run it (if it’s full). Fluff the pillows on the couch, fold the blankets, and store away all the toys (yes, I really do that every night). Waking up in the morning to a tidy home will set you off on the right foot for the next day.
11. Involve YOUR KIDS
This will help you keep your sanity. My four and three year old participate in cleaning up their playroom and bedroom daily. If it helps, create fun chore chart with stickers. When they have their chart filled up with stickers reward them with a small prize!
12. Don’t aim for Perfection!
Lets be honest, perfection is not reality. The whole things is a process. Try one tip at a time and see if it helps within your own home. Start with a good purge, organization and a few new habits!
So, there you have it mama – quick and simple clean house tips to keep your home looking mostly clean, most of the time.
To read some easy tips on how to keep your refrigerator organized click here.
How do you keep your house clean? Please comment below!
This is a great blog post! Such great tips. Thank you.
Definitely going to be coming up with the drop zones in my house. I think this is best to do quick pick ups and keep the littl ones accountable too.