Alright Mamas, this one is for you! With all of the to do items we have to get done in a day, it’s virtually impossible to keep the house clean! With the demands of work, shuffling kiddos, making dinner, and tending to the piles of laundry, exhaustion typically sets in before the cleaning of the house does. Are you with me on this?
I feel you because I’ve been there and still have days like that, but I’ve implemented a few strategies in my house that have helped A TON! You see, there isn’t a cleaning lady who shows up weekly or biweekly in this household. We did actually recently trial one, but we soon realized it just wasn’t going to work out for us. So, for us, you’re looking at that cleaning lady. Therefore, to keep my sanity, I’ve implemented these daily strategies to ensure I have a hold on the house and the house isn’t taking control of me.
Let me just say that while these tips I’m about to share with you will hopefully help some of you, I fully support those of you that know your bandwidth and would rather just wait until the weekend to do all the cleaning in one fail swoop. Mental and physical exhaustion is a real thing and you have to take care of yourself first and foremost.
So, let’s get into these tips for keeping a tidy home.
Pre-work
Before you can utilize the daily strategies and the cleaning schedule I provide, it’s important you start with a good foundation, which includes two things:
- Deep Cleaning – It will be much easier to stay on top of the house work when you start with a clean home. So I encourage you to spend a day (or hire it out) doing the dirty work (mopping, cleaning bathrooms, dusting, wiping baseboards, etc.).
- Declutter – It’s time to get rid of all of that stuff you don’t use. While I’m far from a minimalist (you should see my basement storage…yikes!), it’s important to minimize the amount of items you have around your house on a daily basis. You all know I love me some home decor, so by no means am I saying get rid of everything, but rather do a review of those items to see if some areas can be trimmed down.
4 Tips To Do Daily
Alright, here are the 3 things that I do on a daily basis that I have found really work to keep my house in a clean and working order.
- Make the beds – This may seem like a small task, but this one sets the tone for the rest of the day. By spending the 3-5 minutes each morning, you will feel accomplished right out of the gate and that will lead you to feeling like you can do more. However, even if you don’t get this superhero power and go scrub the grout in the tile shower, it’s ok because making the bed creates a polished look and radiates to other areas of the home. The entire house can be clean, but if that bed isn’t made, it has me feeling like I need to sign off for the day and scrub my life away!
- Return “home” – It’s a known fact that every item in our house has a “home”, a place where it belongs (which for me means down to an exact location and I will scoot a coaster a half an inch over if it’s not in the correct spot…yep, I know, a little OCD there. ha). The rule is, when you get something out, it must return “home” when you’re done (and if it doesn’t, then refer to #4). I believe my newest name (courtesy of my family) is “Museum Curator”. I’ll admit that I do run a tight ship on keeping things in their “home” around here, but I also firmly believe that you need to live in your house. So, while the items in our house return “home” everyday, they are allowed to venture out on a daily basis! 🙂
- Kitchen cleanup – The kitchen can become one of the messiest places in the house, so allocating time after dinner for kitchen cleanup is so important! Encourage everyone in the house to assist with packaging up the leftovers, doing the dishes, and sanitizing the kitchen. You really want to make sure your kitchen cleanup includes wiping those countertops down, cleaning the appliances, and sweeping the floor. That 10-15 minutes of daily work will keep you from having a bigger job at the end of the week. Not to mention the kitchen is one of the rooms that is always on display, so if it stays tidy, then you’re less likely to feel like you’re drowning at the cleaning game.
- Finish the night strong – This one is the biggest game changer for me! When it’s time to hit the sack for the night, instead of just getting up and heading that direction, I will spend 5 minutes picking up everything left out from the day. The blankets get folded and put back on the couch, the shoes get taken to the closet, the empty cups get taken to the kitchen, kids toys get put in the bins, etc. You see what’s happening here? This is the nightly “return home” feature! Whatever has been left behind now gets put away. Being able to walk into that clean living room the next day will have you feeling like you are ready to tackle all of those other tasks you have on your list instead of feeling like “my house is a disaster and needs cleaned”.
By no means will these 4 daily strategies keep your entire house sparkling clean. Unfortunately, you still have to do that deep cleaning every so often….UGH! However, these will help you keep your sanity and feel like your house hasn’t overtaken your life, which for me has been SO important! To help you with that dreaded deep cleaning, I’ve created a cleaning schedule that you can download and use. Just fill out the form below and you’ll get instant access to the form.
BONUS TIP: There’s one more thing that I strongly encourage as a way to keep your house feeling tidy and clean. Set out a bouquet of fresh flowers and not only will they help to clean the air themselves, but they will brighten up the room and serve as a big mood booster!
Oh, and while you’re here and we’re talking about cleaning, don’t forget to check out my “Laundry Today or Naked Tomorrow” post where I share all of the laundry products I love and use daily!