13 Secrets to Keeping a Clean House {Every Day!}
Feeling overwhelmed about trying to keep your house clean and tidy? Here is exactly how to keep a house clean with kids. You’ll like how easy it is.
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If you find yourself walking in the door and wondering “Why is my house so messy for a family that seems like is never home?”
This post is for you.
For me, I can’t live in a cluttered house.
There I said it.
Walking in the door at night and seeing stuff lying around truly bothers me and it makes me feel like I’m not in control. I’m not talking about baseboard meticulous clean, but I’m talking about the dishes are in the sink & the toys are picked up before I go to bed kinda clean.
I might have papers that need to be sorted through, but they are in one pile rather than strewn across the counters. Over the years, I’ve accepted that’s who I am, and thankfully, Jordan is in step with me. We are both better parents when we feel less distracted by the dishes piled up on the counters, the toys lying on the floor and mounds of laundry in baskets around the house.
Are you ready to know how to keep your house clean and tidy?
You could skip it all and jump straight to a housekeeper that does deep cleans, but even if you do that, you’ll still need tips to keep a clean house in between visits.
13 Secrets to Keeping a Clean House Every Day!
Pick Up the Living Room Floor After Bedtime
Does the living room floor look like a tornado after bedtime each night? If so, do a quick sweep of toys before you sit down for the night. Simply picking up the toys and tossing them into baskets or corralling them into a corner will instantly make your home feel cleaner.
Clean the Dishes As You Are Cooking Dinner
I’ve found that keeping up with the dirty cooking/prep dishes while dinner is cooking is way less overwhelming than staring them all down at once after dinner. Inevitably while cooking there are a few “down” minutes between cooking steps. Rather than pick up your phone and scroll through Instagram, keep the dishes moving like you’re on a cooking show.
Commit to ONLY 15 minutes of Clean Up Every Night
If you find yourself dreading Saturday mornings because it’s your cleaning day, take several items off your to-do list!
Commit to 15 minutes of cleaning each night. You can stick with this method since it’s such a small commitment in the grand scheme of the evening. Spend 15 minutes vacuuming, picking up toys, wiping down the counters or dusting the family room.
Don’t plan on doing it all, plan on doing something instead.
Become a Minimalist (declutter, declutter, declutter)
Have you ever heard of the proverb, “Less stuff, less to clean?” Me either, I totally made it up.
But it’s so true!
If you find yourself simply overwhelmed with how much there is to clean in your home, it’s time to become a part-time minimalist. While you can’t easily downsize your home, you can downsize the stuff living in it.
Click here to discover 75 areas to declutter in your home today.
Once you have completely decluttered your home, you’ll be in a much better spot to keeping it clean. [My advice? Start decluttering in the room that you can never keep clean, like the Kitchen or the kids’ rooms]
Other Posts I think You’ll Enjoy:
- How To Tackle Spring Cleaning When You’re Too Busy!
- The Simplest Way to Clean Kitchen Cabinets
- Where to Start Decluttering in Your Home Today
Make 1-2 nights Vacuum Nights
If your kids are anything like mine, they leave a trail of snacks and papers. To feel like your home is feeling straightened up, make a point to vacuum at least twice during the week to keep on top of the crumbles.
Admittedly, we don’t have a dog, our kids are messy, and I leave a trail of dinner ingredients all over the kitchen. Therefore, most nights I’m sweeping the kitchen floor. It helps me feel like while the house isn’t perfect, it feels better to walk out of the kitchen in the evening.
Use Your Mornings to Straighten Up
Are you an early bird? If so, make a point to wake up 20 minutes earlier than usual, take your shower, and then pop in some headphones to start laundry (the delay feature is my BFF).
While waking up is never fun, I can say that it usually feels pretty productive to at least do one small task in the morning than at night.
Here are some quiet things you can do before anyone wakes up (with 2000’s hits playing in the ears):
- Laundry Prep in the Washer
- Fold Laundry
- Wipe Down Kitchen Counters
- Sweep Hard Floors
- Empty/Load Dishwasher
- Prep Dinner for Next Night
- Wipe Down Cabinets
- Dust Surfaces
- Wipe Down a Bathroom
Multi-Task While You Have Some “Down Time”
If you already have your dishes in the dishwasher while dinner is cooking, take a few spare moments to empty the recycle bin, wipe down the counters, or sweep up any crumbs that are on the floor.
If you started a laundry load via delay mode earlier in the day, move over the load to the dryer. This should give you plenty of time to do another load if you need to squeeze in an extra one.
Make a Small Goal For The Night And Finish It!
Are you someone who can’t turn down a challenge or a commitment?
If so, then try this…
At lunch, write down in your planner one small goal for cleaning the house that night. If you’re a total rule follower, you are WAY MORE likely to follow through and complete that small goal.
Try it once or twice a week.
If it works really well, then make it a part of your routine to write down your plans right before you leave your desk.
Plan for a Big Clean on Saturday, Keep it Tidy Until Then
If you know that you do your best work on the weekend, then let yourself do that. But that doesn’t mean that you should do all the work in one time. Incorporate some of these tips and tricks to set yourself up for an easier weekend cleaning spree.
It’s all about keeping the house straightened up throughout the week so that on Saturday you can do a deep clean on just ONE area of your home.
Focus your Saturdays on specific tasks that you wouldn’t normally do, like cleaning baseboards, vacuuming furniture, or wiping down blinds.
Rotate these areas throughout the year to keep a semi/kinda regular system that makes you feel like you’re on top of things.
Download your free Spring Cleaning Checklist HERE!
Wondering How To Keep A House Clean With Kids?
These 3 ways will help you stay on top of the mess even when you are busy raising a home full of kids!
Set a Timer
If the thought of cleaning a house with kids sounds downright overwhelming to start, it likely is. Rather than tackle the whole house set a timer on your phone for 15 minutes and clean one area each night of the week.
Pop in some headphones and dance along to some 2000’s pop while you are cleaning or decluttering.
Once those 15 minutes are up, simply stop.
Take a look around at what you accomplished, pat yourself on the back and start a new zone of the house tomorrow.
Don’t want to miss the music playing? Set another time for another 10 or 15 minutes and keep cleaning!
Use Cleaning Tools that Save You Time
If you have to clean, you might as well make it worth it! Save time cleaning your hard floors with machines that Vaccum, mop, and dry in one pass. My favorite tool is this super handy tool. It saves us HOURS each week and totally worth it.
Another huge time saver for us? This vacuum for our carpeted areas. I like how easy it is to maneuver around, the ability to quickly clean my stair treads, and how much it picks up.
Want to know more about the Bissell Crosswave? You’ll love this, then!
Find Cleaning Products that You Like
It’s one thing to dread cleaning, but it’s another thing to enjoy cleaning. Make cleaning worth your while by finding cleaning products that you stand behind. You may be all about anything that smells good from Target, while your neighbor down the street seeks out the strongest anti-bacterial products. There is no wrong answer here. The goal is to keep your home from making your overwhelmed.
I hope these tips for keeping a clean house help you start creating your own small habits. Don’t go too big at once, start with 20 minutes at a time and in no time you’ll be the one sharing your secrets with friends on how to keep your house clean and tidy!
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