A few weeks ago I sat at my kitchen table that was piled high with paperwork I needed to sort through and took a good look around me. There were mounds of dirty dishes, crumbs that were days old, and toys strewn everywhere.
I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell had happened.
In that moment, I had some kind of epiphany that this wasn’t some rare anomaly of a day where things were just a bit more hectic than usual. Oh no, this had become the normal of what my house now looked like.
And you know what? It didn’t feel good at all. I really enjoy having a clean home, so it made me sad to think that my current messy environment was probably bringing my overall mood down a bit.
I wondered how I got to this place where my house felt like a constant disaster and I could never seem to catch up. Especially when earlier this year I felt like I had mastered the art of keeping a decently clean home despite having a toddler tornado running around and being a work from home Mom.
My mind began to race in trying to determine what I had been doing earlier this year that helped me to keep my home so much more orderly than it currently was.
I finally came to the realization that I had subconsciously developed habits that were the sole reason my home had stayed clean during that time. I wasn’t even aware I had developed these habits, but looking back it occurred to me that those daily routines I adopted were the small (but significant) difference in me having a home that felt peaceful versus chaotic.
The past few weeks I’ve re-adopted some of my former habits and have to say, they really do make such a difference in keeping my home more picked up. And as a result, I feel more relaxed and at peace with spending so much time here!
I wanted to share some of these habits that have helped me to keep my home clean in case you are struggling like I was and left wondering how to get back on track with making your home an oasis that you love to spend time in!
I also created a printable checklist for you to have easy access to these tips, so you can use it as a visual reminder or reference it later on. Be sure to fill out the form below to grab it for free! ?
7 helpful habits to keep your home clean:
1. Load and turn on your dishwasher every night, and then unload every morning
Dishes are my least favorite household chore to tackle, which is super unfortunate because it’s probably the one chore I have to do the most often too. I would seriously rather scrub 5 toilets than do 5 minutes of washing dishes….and yes, I’m weird š
One thing I’ve found that really helps me is to get into a super consistent routine with my dish washing so that there are never huge mounds of dishes waiting for me. If I let dishes pile up, I might as well write them off as a lost cause because there’s a high probability I’m not touching them for a few days (not like this has ever happened…whoops!).
I’ve now gotten into the habit of loading up my dishwasher all throughout the day as we eat meals, and then turning it on every single night. Our dishwasher is usually full after just one day, but even if it’s not quite full yet, I still turn it on to get everything cleaned.
Then every morning I unload the clean dishes so we are left with a nice, empty dishwasher to put our dirty dishes into throughout the day. Easy peasy! Making this space for dirty dishes first thing in the morning helps me to not be deterred in dealing with them after every meal because there’s really no excuse to not pick up after myself then.
2. Do at least one load of laundry every day
I know laundry is typically labeled as a “least favorite” chore for a lot of people, but for some reason it’s always been one of the chores I actually enjoy! Unless there are bodily fluids from sick kids involved….then I hate it as much as everyone else. Hah!
One thing I’ve found that makes laundry more enjoyable for me is that I try to complete one entire load a day. This usually involves throwing a load of clothes into the washer first thing in the morning, moving them into the dryer around lunch or dinnertime, and then folding and putting everything away before I go to bed.
This means that on any given day, there are typically no clothes sitting on the floor of my laundry room. It’s great to feel like I never need to do marathon laundry and folding sessions, and I find myself enjoying the 5 minutes or so that I’m forced to sit down every night to fold clothes.
Related: 5 Reasons Youāre Failing at Staying Clutter-Free
3. Regularly declutter
This is a habit that really helps to keep your home from getting too chaotic with extra stuff you don’t need anymore! I love regularly going through our closets and random drawers throughout the house and figuring out what we can donate or toss.
I find that just because a particular item served me well last month, doesn’t mean it necessarily still serves its purpose or is useful to me this month. And if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s having things around our house that are not needed, wanted, or used. They are wasting space and need to go!
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4. Put items away as you use them
This is more of an ideal than something that I’m actually able to do on a 100% consistent basis, but it’s something I strive for nonetheless!
It’s so much easier to pick things up as you go rather than needing a huge cleaning session all at once. Some of my favorite routines to implement this particular habit are:
- Putting dishes in the dishwasher or hand washing them right after I’m done eating or cooking.
- Putting away my makeup and other toiletries every morning after I get ready for the day.
- Throwing dirty clothes in the hamper right after taking them off.
These routines sound so simple that you wouldn’t think they make that big of a difference in the overall state of your home, but I promise you they really do! Spending just an extra minute or two to pick up after yourself can make your life so much easier and make keeping your house tidy feel almost effortless.
Related: Tips and Tricks for Quick and Easy Cleaning
5. Spend 15 minutes tidying up every night before bed
This one habit alone is golden for keeping your house tidy, especially if you have kids or aren’t super great at picking up after yourself throughout the day.
One of my favorite things to do to get my house back in order after a particularly chaotic day is to set a timer for 15 minutes and make it my own personal challenge to see how much I can tidy up and clean during that time frame. My hubby is usually in charge of bath time for Little Miss, so I typically use that time when she’s preoccupied to tackle tidying up our house.
It’s a great way to “reset” your house for the next day and go to bed feeling good about having a clean home. Waking up the next morning to everything picked up is the cherry on top too, I love waking up to a clean home!
Related: How to Keep Your Home Clutter-Free with Young Kids
6. Take your shoes off right when you come home
This is a great habit to adopt for multiple reasons. Not only does taking your shoes off right away help you keep them from being scattered all around your home, but it also cuts down on the amount of dirt and mess you are tracking throughout the house.
I’ve personally always found it to be rather gross to wear shoes in my home. You are tracking all kinds of nastiness from the outside world into your cozy abode, and making it that much harder on yourself to keep up with washing your floors.
If you really like wearing shoes in your house, consider investing in a pair of indoor shoes that you change into when you get home that never get to step foot outside. It will help you a ton in keeping your home cleaner without much extra work on your part.
Related: 19 Cleaning Hacks to Make Your Life Easier
7. Deal with items as soon as they enter your home
This concerns everything from mail to even items you’ve just brought home from the store. If you deal with each item as soon as it enters your home, you don’t give things a chance to build up and then become an overwhelming pile of stuff you have to deal with all at once.
Instilling simple routines like sorting the mail as you bring it in and finding a home for new items you’ve just purchased can make such a huge difference in keeping the clutter around your home at bay. Put things where they’re supposed to go right away so that you don’t have to deal with an even bigger mess later on!
Do you have any habits that help you in keeping your home clean? Let me know in the comments below!
Donāt forget to grab your free printable!
Yes, yes, yes!!! I love all of these tips! I totally do the dishes as I go and it’s huge for us. Our kitchen is always clean, yet I never feel like I’m spending gobs of time cleaning it.
I’m with you on taking your shoes off the second you walk in the door! John’s are so gross I make him leave his in the garage LOL, and the girls are trained to put theirs away the second we come inside. I wear socks around the house at all times though.
Fantastic tips!! The one thing I could be better at is cleaning for 15 minutes before bed. Or doing anything productive for that matter! Come 6pm I’m basically a lost cause hahahaha
That’s awesome Sarah!! Haha yes, I HAVE to do dishes as I go, otherwise they truly do pile up and then I start avoiding them. I need to train Little Miss to put her shoes away too, she needs to start picking up the slack around here haha.
Love the tips! I find it easy to keep a clean house when you do the little things so that your not cleaning for hours on the weekend when you should be enjoy some life. We have always kicked the shoes off at the door and I feel that is super helpful with dirt and yucky germs. I usually take about 15 minutes in the morning to do some type of cleaning….run the vacuum, clean the bathroom, clean the kitchen sink, throw a load of laundry in and hang it on the line for the day to dry while at work. When I get home it is dry and I fold and take it and put it away immediately. I hate laundry…I hate when it piles up to be put away…or to be washed….did I say I hate laundry!
I completely agree Lisa! I absolutely do not want to be spending hours every weekend cleaning, so doing little bits here and there throughout the week is more my style too. Taking 15 minutes every morning to help keep things picked up makes it so much more manageable!
I love this! I need everything in it’s place and chores to be done as and when. Organisation is the key to a happier mind and a happier mind is a jolly happy soul!
Thanks Michelle! I definitely agree with that, I always feel more uplifted when my home is tidy and organized!
Awesome tips!
My biggest take away is dealing with items as soon as they enter your house. We always just leave it in the hall closet for days! So thanks for this much needed tip!
It’s hard with twins to keep the house clean all hours of the day so these tips should totally help me out! Thanks!
Thanks Elna! And absolutely, I struggle keeping it clean with just one toddler, I can’t even imagine two haha!
This is SO GOOD! It’s amazing what strong habits can help us keep under control in the house. What a great list.
Thank you Daisy! Agreed, good habits make all the difference in the world!
I’m totally with you on the dishes–I hate them, too. I don’t have a dishwasher, so I do it in small increments. 10 minutes of dishes, then a little TV time. 10 more minutes of dishes, then some other cleaning (which then feels like a relief!) and so forth til I’m done. Haha! I hate it!
My favorite tip is the 15 minutes before bed. This can make all the difference!
Glad to know I’m in good company Chela! Haha it truly is my least favorite chore, I always thought I was weird so this makes me feel better that you feel that way too š
Great tips, I’m actually surprised how many of them I do already! My favorite tip is tidying up 15 minutes before bed, I started doing this and it’s amazing the difference it makes waking up to a clean house!
That’s awesome Sammy! And isn’t it crazy how big of a difference it makes?!
Make sure to also include time to rest and recharge in that busy schedule. Apply Stress Awayā¢ to your wrists and reflect on your dayāthe parts that worked well and the parts that didnāt. Readjust to continue moving toward being as productive as possible. Not only will this help you get more done, but itās also a great chance to let your mind unwind and decompress. Take the time to celebrate all youāve accomplished and reward yourself for the hard work youāve put in! I plan the hardest tasks first. It makes the rest of the day go faster and I feel like I am in charge.
I’m encouraged that I do a lot of these, but I certainly could improve on dealing with items as they come in the house, especially after going shopping or errand-running. And I’m trying to train the rest of the family to put things away after they use them, but I’m mostly flying solo in that effort right now! My 18-month old definitely isn’t ready to adopt this philosophy. And regarding laundry, I debate with myself all the time what is the best/most efficient schedule for washing. I may give the once a day smaller loads idea a try to see how I like it.
And I think you and I are two peas in a pod. I hate dishes (though I follow the exact same philosphy as you), and I really enjoy laundry and decluttering. š
Haha glad to be in good company Nicole! And don’t worry, my 2-year-old isn’t on board with putting thing away after she uses them yet either lol it’s mostly me putting her things away for her, but we are working on it! It’s the effort that counts, right? š
Like you, I recently realised that chaos was my home’s permanent state, rather than a small lapse. I’ve been working hard to get things back under control – especially doing the 15 minutes at the end of the day thing. There’s a long way to go, but that’s making a huge difference.
I’ve been researching and writing about the link between clutter and stress and its a compelling reason to get the house back under control again!
Great tips – a reminder that we all need sometimes š
Thanks so much for sharing Bee! š
good habits to keep home clean. I hope I will follow it.
Great points. Itās really to do some basic cleaning daily and have a schedule for general cleaning. Anyways, thank you for sharing this and itās well-informative. Cheers!
Hi Thankyou for being so honest and truthful about keeping your head above housekeeping waters … If you get what I mean … I’m a grandma now l adult son and husband and myself left at home ….and yet it’s still a struggle to keep house clean … And let’s not even talk about the clutter !!! No let’s talk about your clutter!!! and amazingly honest ways in which you sort it out … Life seems to be a treadmill of things !!! Your tips are fantastic thankyou sarah
Wonderful tips! I am not a mom, but I do live with my parents and one sibling. Sometimes the house gets out of hands, everything is being spread as houses tend to do ;). A fellow introvert, I also find clutter to be confusing and prefer our home to be clean and neat at all times. I am definitely going to use these to clean my Carpet and house. The information that you mention in the article is very informative for me.
I like reading your tips! This is what I really wanted to follow these days. I found my home messy event though I tried to clean every day.
Lovely tips and hacks! Thank you so much for sharing this post. Decluttering your kitchen and home is maybe the most important and difficult thing for me. I especially love your idea of Steam Cleaning with lemon and oiling the cutting boards.
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Thank you. Regularly cleaning is another really great habit to form since it prevents chores from building up and becoming a monstrous hassle later
Those are some great cleaning tips. My husband and I are actually looking at houses right now, so weāre hoping to be able to move soon. But I am confused about how I cleaned my new house and Carpet. These tips really came at the right time. Thanks for sharing! I really need this information.Decontamination Disinfection Application Services
Those are some great cleaning tips. My husband and I are actually looking at houses right now, so weāre hoping to be able to move soon. But I am confused about how I cleaned my new house and Carpet. These tips really came at the right time. Thanks for sharing! I really need this information.For more information about you home visit here to get the best type of information.
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Thank you for your list of helpful habits. I agree with all those steps)
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feingraceblog.coIāve just been winging it, honestly. Since I quit work and my cleaning lady a year ago, I really have had no organized plan for keeping my house clean. As I put my make up on in the morning, I look down at the soap scum in the sink and think to myself, āWhen did the cleaning lady come last? Oh, wait a second, I am the cleaning lady ā. Donāt get me wrong, I ADORE a clean house and freshly laundered linens and my house almost always ālooksā clean. But I am curious how all you veteran stay-at-homers do it? Do you follow the tried and true sayings from the vintage tea towels? How does it go? Monday is wash day, Tuesday -ironing, Wednesday-sewing, Thursday-market, Friday-cleaningā¦ā¦something like that. So, I thought Iād work on a schedule for the girls and I since weāre now homeschoolers. I know itās hard to read but see what ya think. We will do our chores right after breakfast and start our school day with a clean house! Iām becoming so Little-House-on-the-Prairie. (weāre now on season 2, BTW). Iāll have to capture this little bit of homekeeping on camera so you can see our aprons and stylish gloves. I may even have to capture it on video so you can hear Bach playing in the background. You laugh but if Iām the cleaning lady now, weāre gonna do it my way! Oh and donāt tell anyone but I already killed the fishāyou know our SCHOOL MASCOT. Iām using small font because itās kinda like whispering. His bowl was cloudy and well I added some chemicals which were apparently not so fish-friendly. Heāll soon be replaced. For now please donāt mention it in front of my children.
thanks u for sharing this article,
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Hi Christina, I’m wondering about the practicality of tip number 2, will my electricity bill go high if I do the laundry every day?
Wonderful information on cleaning checklist, thanks a lot for sharing this kind of content with us.Regular cleaning keeps your home dust-free and makes it a better environment for your family, especially anyone with allergies.At the beginning of the work shift it should be neat. Keep hair tidy, keep nails short and clean.These tips have always worked for me and helped me to make my kitchen neat and clean.
These habits are really helpful you really made an amazing helpful post for us ………. am supper excite to try all these
Thank you so much man
10 minutes of dishes, then a little TV time. 10 more minutes of dishes, then some other cleaning (which then feels like a relief!) and so forth til Iām done.roof cleaning
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