*sigh* Yes, your list of new home essentials includes cleaning products.
While many of us do groan at this, according to Psychology Today, clutter can be a big cause of stress. Staying on top of your cleaning chores is the best way to ensure your home stays neat and tidy, and you can stay more relaxed. When you spend a small amount of time cleaning each day, the tasks don't build up, and you don’t have to spend your weekends cleaning the house.
Here, we offer a few suggestions of habits you can cultivate to make your life a little easier.
Making your bed takes only a minute or two, but it puts you in the right mindset to stay on top of all of your other little chores. At the end of the day, you’ll love walking into your bedroom and seeing a nicely made bed.
Clutter builds up over time when you forget to put things away in their proper place. When you’re about to leave a room, quickly scan the room for items that don’t belong. If you see something, pick it up and put it away on your way to the next room. By making this a habit, you’ll see a significant reduction in the amount of clutter around your home.
You’re tired after a long day of work, but it’s best to get the kitchen cleaned up. Don’t wait until the kids are in bed. Do it soon after dinner. Wash all of the dishes, put leftover food away, and wipe down the countertops. It’s fine to leave a few dishes until later in the night – a glass that’s still being used or a pan that wouldn’t fit in the dishwasher – but you don’t want to be staring at a large pile of dirty dishes at 11 PM.
Your home’s high-traffic areas are going to show wear first, so do your best to keep them clean. If dirt gets ground into the carpet or even into laminate flooring, it can wear the materials down prematurely. Use a broom, Swiffer, or vacuum every day if you have kids or pets. If you live a quieter life, you can do this every few days. Robotic vacuums make this even easier.
If you really want to keep your home clean, it starts the minute you step in the door. A well-organized mudroom is the perfect place to leave your things. You can have a hook to hang your coat, a bowl for keys and maybe even a cubby for a work bag you'll just need to grab on your way out again. Not only is this convenient, you'll avoid bringing stuff further into the home that will likely be left where it doesn't belong. Take your shoes off here, too, and have slippers ready to step into so you're not leaving footprints on dark floors.
Before you go to sleep, do a quick walk around the home to look for books, toys, paper, and other things that have been left out. Quickly put these away.
Alternatively, purchase a “clutter basket” and put all of the items in that basket; this is a great way to say goodbye to clutter in the living room. When you have time, go through the basket to put things in their proper place. If you’re tired of putting your kids’ things away for them, purchase each one their own clutter basket. You put the things in the basket, but they’re responsible for clearing out the basket on a regular basis.
Often, it feels easier to just do the cleaning work yourself rather than nagging the kids or hovering over little ones to make sure they do the task correctly. However, you’re creating more work for yourself in the long run. It’s a good idea to get kids into the habit of cleaning the home. Everyone who lives in the house must do their part.
Laundry can really pile up, especially when you have kids. It’s smart to run a load of laundry whenever you have enough to fill the machine. Get it out of the way in the morning, then spend the evening folding in front of the TV.
Most of our suggestions so far have been for little things you can do to keep your home tidy. However, you’ll still need to take care of big things like cleaning the bathrooms and mopping the kitchen floor. If you don’t want to spend your weekends cleaning, try to take on one of these tasks each day. It’s only when you have to do everything together that it takes a long time. Many families make this easier by creating a cleaning schedule so they know what needs to be done and when.
If these habits are new to you, it can take some time before they become second-nature, so don’t beat yourself up if you forget. However, the more often you can commit to working on these small tasks, the better you’ll feel about the way your home looks.
To take a more natural approach to your cleaning tasks, consider how you can get your home gleaming with green cleaning!