Want a Clean House All the Time? Do These 8 Habits Every Day

Inside: Keep a clean house all the time by doing these habits every day. They won’t take much time, but they’ll make a big difference in your space.

A guest post by Cora Gold

Everyone wants a clean home, but maintaining that cleanliness is a constant challenge. Life gets busy and it’s hard to find the time or energy to stay on top of cleaning tasks.

The good news is that there are a few little daily habits that you can follow to keep the house clean at all times. Commitment and consistency is the key. And if you can get other family members in on the tasks, even better! 

Keep a clean house all the time with these habits that don’t take a lot of time but help to keep your home in shape.

Keep Your Home Clean All the Time with These 8 Habits

If you want to keep a clean house all the time, habits will help you to achieve that.

Daily cleaning habits don’t take a lot of time but can have a massive impact on your home.

1. Take Care of Dirty Dishes

Rather than letting dirty dishes pile up throughout breakfast, lunch, and dinner, aim to clean things up afterward.

Americans spend a little over 30 minutes conducting food preparation and cleanup. In the grand scheme of things, washing the dinnerware is quick work.

Put dishes in the dishwasher right after meals. Making an effort to at least place everything in can save time when you finally turn the wash cycle on at the end of the day. Remember to unload as soon as you’re able after they’re done.

2. Remember to Make the Bed

Making your bed in the morning is one of the best ways to clean up the home. It makes the bedroom look much more presentable, ready for rest when the day is over.

It is helpful to air out the bed for a bit before making it, but once you do it can help set the tone for the day. It’s a simple way to make your room look cleaner and help you feel accomplished.

Organize the pillows and make sure the blanket is folded neatly to seem untouched. You can make a mission to change the sheets once a week.

It can take extra time, but it’s more than worth it to sink into the fresh bedding later on. 

When you have a busy schedule, you can still keep your home clean. It just takes setting aside a few minutes here and there to make it happen.

3. Put Things Away, Not Down

Every person has that moment when they pick something up and leave it at the most convenient spot.

Unfortunately, this unhealthy habit can accumulate quite a bit of clutter and disorganization. Try to break it by adopting the mantra “Don’t put it down, put it away.”

Here are a few items to practice it with:

• Personal care products: If you’re grabbing makeup from your vanity table’s drawers, return it to the proper organizer instead of letting it stack on the surface. The same goes for your skincare and body care products in the bathroom. 
• Documents and books: When you work from home or bring papers back from home, you may tend to make them pile up on your desk. File these away in their proper folder. You should also return books to their appropriate shelves.
• Cleaning supplies: Guilty of performing cleaning chores and leaving the supplies on the scene, promising that you’ll put them back after a little rest? It only takes a minute or two to put them back where they belong, so put in the extra time. 

4. Have Kids Put Toys Away

Every parent knows the annoyance of tripping over toys every day.

Only 28% of parents say that their children complete chores regularly, so most of us know the struggle of getting kids to clean up. While it may seem easier to just do it yourself instead of arguing, try to avoid it. 

Establish from a young age that your kids are responsible for cleaning up their own toys. Make sure to have bins or shelves to store toys so your child knows exactly where to put everything.

Emphasize every day that once playtime is over, it’s time to clean up. If you make it a regular routine, eventually your child will do it without being asked. 

5. Sort Out the Clothing

Laundry is typically done weekly. However, on the day that you complete a load, remember to fold and put it away.

Some people tend to forget, but it can build an unhealthy habit where you just have a pile of clean clothes. Divide it into batches and sort through it.

You can also declutter your closet and put the clothes in a donation box during the slower days of the week.

As for the dirty clothes that you accumulate, always remember to put them into a laundry basket. Keeping everything in one place will keep your space so much cleaner. 

6. Vacuum the High Traffic Areas

Cleaning the house daily gets exhausting if you thoroughly clean every single room. Focus on high-traffic areas like the entrance, hallways, and living room.

Vacuum to remove dust and freshen up the space. 

If you want to invest in a cleaning tool that will save you time, try a robotic vacuum cleaner. As technology progresses, these appliances have become more attuned to adapting to the home environment and can save you precious time every week. 

7. Clean Messes as They Occur

Another key habit is to clean messes as they occur.

For example, if you’ve spilled something on the carpet, don’t put off cleaning it for the next day. It will leave a stain and create additional stress. Take care of it as soon as possible.

If you have helpers in the kitchen, have them assist with cleaning up as you prepare the food. That prevents a headache to deal with once the meal is over.

You can also make a daily habit of wiping down the counters and tables. Messes in these areas may not seem visible until you look closely. Dampen a microfiber cloth before running it across the surfaces. 

8. Bring the Trash Bags Out

Have you run into the issue of wanting to throw something away only to realize that the garbage can is completely filled to the brim?

Instead of meticulously perching it on top, wrap it up and bring the trash bags out daily. It will provide you with much-needed space to throw things away. 

It’s best to dispose of the trash bags in the common areas since they tend to accumulate the most garbage quickly. For the personal rooms, you can instruct family members to bring them downstairs when they finally get full.

Bonus: Aspire for “Clean Enough”

Daily habits require an everyday mindset, and you should aspire for a “clean enough” space. The truth is having a clean house all the time is relatively ambitious.

While possible, it’s different from getting rid of every speck of dirt from the nooks and crannies of the home. There can still be lingering dust in hard-to-reach places, and you may leave a sock or two under the bed.

The lack of perfection can drive some people up the wall. However, harboring unrealistic expectations can bring frustration and self-judgment, as well as depression to a certain degree.

Aim for imperfect simplicity and having a clean enough home. Be proud of yourself for pursuing these daily practices. You can still set aside weekends for deep cleaning to thoroughly freshen the space. 

Keep a Clean House All the Time with These Habits

Keep a clean house all the time with these habits. You can designate days for certain tasks if it’s a little overwhelming. Avoid being hard on yourself and focus on doing your best with household management and cleaning.

Which of these habits to keep your house clean all the time will you work on first? Let us know in the comments below.

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