How to Keep Your House Clean
Are you a busy parent trying to figure out how to keep your house clean when it seems like the small people are constantly working against you? I’ve got some tips for you!
So my house is pretty much always clean, or at least it’s cleaner and tidier than most. People always ask me how I do it, or I think people assume that I spend a ton of time cleaning and never relax, or maybe someone else does it for me. Well that is definitely not the case! I value my chill time and the last thing I want to do is spend hours a day cleaning my house. But I am also a person who gets overwhelmed with visual chaos and clutter, so I need to live in a clean and tidy environment. I can’t relax in the middle of a mess, therefore it’s important to me to have easy tricks for keeping the house clean.
With two sets of twins less than three years apart and living in a relatively small house for a family of 6, I had to figure out a lot of tricks and routines for keeping up with everyone and everything. We have a bigger house now and these strategies really help me keep on top of keeping a bigger space clean.
I’ve picked up a lot of ideas over the years and come up with some of my own, so read on for my top suggestions for how to keep your house clean with minimal work every day. Some of these are about organizing and general strategies for keeping it all under control, and some are about actual cleaning.
The real secret here is two big ideas:
1) There is no one single thing that is going to transform your house - it’s a lot of tiny habits that add up to making a big difference.
2) The keyword is “keeping” your house clean. If you are starting out with a big mess then you are going to have to put in some work to get it sorted out. You don’t have to do it all at once though, and some of my tips can help you chip away at it a little at a time. You may need to bring in outside help to get yourself to a manageable place. But once you’ve got it cleaned up is when you can really make a difference in your life - by doing all the little things to keep it clean and never let it get that messy again. I promise you this is doable, even with a house full of little kids. There’s nothing special about me, if I can do it so can you.
You don’t have to do all these things every day, but if you pick a few to do regularly I can guarantee you that your house will be in much better shape and you will be much happier for it.
So here we go, my favorite tips for keeping your house clean:
Small messes are easier to clean than big ones
A place for everything
Put away one thing before getting out another
The speed clean
A quick reset
Make the bed
The laundry basket trick
Robot vacuums
Daily sweeper vacuum
Wipes
Supplies in many places
Vacuuming is for more than just the floor
Air cleaners (or a fan with a filter), and furnace filters
Laundry every day
Get up a few minutes before the kids
Clean your cleaning supplies
Small messes are easier to clean than big ones.
I tell my kids this basically every day: the real secret to never having a big mess to clean is to never let the mess get big.
Sounds pretty simple right? Honestly I think it is. You can tidy a room for 5 minutes every day, or it will take you an hour if you wait and only do it every couple of weeks and everything has gotten piled up and feels totally overwhelming. I’d rather spend 5 minutes every day just resetting and putting things in their place so that it never turns into a big mess.
Declutter and minimize.
And then declutter and minimize some more.
Don’t keep stuff you don’t need! And you’d be surprised at how little you actually need. It is so much easier to keep a space clean and keep the stuff tidy and organized when there just isn’t too much stuff. I’ve been in so many houses where my first reaction is “there is just WAY too much stuff here”.
Clean out and clean out and clean out. Marie Kondo the shit out of that stuff. You don’t need 20 sweaters or 6 of the same size baking pan or multiple sets of dishes you never use or a dozen sets of sheets for each bed.
I give a long hard look at even so-called sentimental things. Because things are not memories. The memories live inside you, not inside the stuff. Don’t keep stuff that you have no use for, that just takes up space and collects dust and makes it harder to put other things away. You’re not going to forget a person or an experience just because you get rid of the thing.
There are dozens and dozens of websites and blogs and Instagram accounts dedicated to teaching you how to minimize your stuff so I won’t go on too much about this. But get rid of that stuff.
A place for everything.
One of my top favorite quotes ever is from Alton Brown, he said “Organization will set you free” and I 100% believe and agree with that. When everything has a place that’s easy to fit and makes sense, cleaning up is so much easier.
My kids toys all had a bin, box, or cubby they went in. Bins and tubs make it easy for kids to get out a set of something and put it away. Our homeschool and office supplies are all in simple plastic bins. I have dividers and containers in my kitchen drawers and cabinets. We have our clothes drawers organized with dividers and containers.
But you don’t have to buy expensive containers! Shoeboxes work just as well. In fact, when my kids were little, I always saved the boxes their shoes came in because little kid sized shoe boxes are a perfect size for organizing little kid sized clothes in their drawers.
If you make it easy to put things away, then they are much more likely to get put away.
There are also loads of people out there who can help you with organization. But I'll also refer back to the previous tip - there are no amount of organization hacks in the world that will solve the problem for you if you are just trying to put too much stuff into a space.
Make those kids help!
I know it’s often faster to just clean something up yourself than it is to take the time to coach little ones through it. But the sooner you start teaching them to clean up after themselves, and actually expecting and requiring them to do it, the easier it will be. They need to have learned those habits by repetition, day after day, year after year. If they leave a mess and walk away, don’t let them off the hook. Call them back and tell them to clean up, immediately. They will pitch a fit, or at least roll their eyes, and you and they both know you could have just as easily picked up the thing yourself. But if you do that then they don’t learn. It’s a pain in the ass to have to come back to a room to do a job once you’ve moved on, so if they know that you are going to make them come back every time, they’ll think twice before leaving a mess. But this takes consistency - every time.
The speed clean
Think you don’t have time to clean? Here’s my trick for cleaning with a limited amount of time. Set a timer for however much time you think you can dedicate every day. Maybe it’s 20 or 30 minutes, maybe it’s an hour. Or maybe you can manage 15 minutes on weekdays and an hour on weekend days. Whatever it is. Get ready, set your timer, and go. Clean as much as you can in that amount of time. Stop when the timer goes off. If you do this consistently, every day, you will be amazed at how much you get done and your house will feel pulled together and clean in no time. Even if all you have is 5-10 minutes for one room, you’ll be shocked at how much you can get done when you are racing against the clock. And the more you do it, the cleaner the room gets, and the more you will get done in less time.
A quick reset
Whether you do it first thing in the morning or last thing at night, a quick pass through the house to just reset the main rooms makes a big difference. I do the living room in the morning when I get up, I just go through and tidy up the books, straighten the sofa and blankets, pick up any dog toys and toss them in the basket, etc. It takes just a few moments and then we start the day with our main room clean. And people are less likely to leave a mess in a clean room. If the room is messy then they think nothing of leaving just a bit more mess, but if it’s clean then their new mess is more obvious.
Make the bed
This is another small one that I think makes a huge difference in how a room feels. Get your bed set up in a way that is quick and easy to straighten - we like the European style duvet covers, you basically just give them a shake and straighten, fluff the pillows, and the bed is made. When you get up in the morning, take a minute to straighten the bed. You’ll be surprised at how nice it feels to walk back into a room with the bed made
Put away one thing before getting out another
This is the most important thing I think you need to teach your kids, but it applies to us adults as well. Clean up from one project or activity before you move on to another. Kids need reminders about this, you can’t expect them to just do it. You need to be on them to pick up after themselves, all day every day, for many years, for this to become a habit. But if you’ve done some of the other things I suggest, if each toy or art supply has an obvious and easy place it goes, then this becomes very easy. And as I said above - if they walk away without doing it, make them come back and clean it up, every time.
The laundry basket trick
This works especially great in a house where you’ve got kids who tend to leave a trail. When you go into a room to clean it, take an empty laundry basket (or it could be a box or a bin or some kind of larger container, it really doesn’t matter what). Pick up every single thing that does’t belong in that room and put it in the laundry basket. Don’t distract yourself with putting those things away, just focus on the one room you are in. Set the basket by the door, fill it up as you go around that one room. This allows you to really clean one room without getting distracted. When you are finished in that room, walk around the house and deposit all the things into the rooms they go in. Then repeat with another room.
Daily vacuuming
The number one thing you can do to cut down on the amount of dust in your house is to vacuum every day. I have a sweeper vac that I love that lives in my laundry room. I run this thing around my house for 10-15 minutes every day and I am litterally never not shocked at how much dust and pet hair gets picked up.
Robot vacuums
The daily vacuuming is even easier if you can invest in a robot vacuum. You just turn it on and it does the work for you. It really feels like a little housekeeper running around my house cleaning for me. This of requires that your floors be picked up, but that’s easy if you’re taking all the rest of my advice and doing a quick pickup in each room every day and never letting the floor get cluttered. Also it’s a great motivator to get kids to pick up their little bits off the floor - tell them that if it’s not picked up the robot vacuum is going to eat it.
Use wipes
Whether they are sanitizing cleaning wipes or just plain baby wipes, using some kind of disposable wipes around your house is a great shortcut. I just grab a couple wipes and quickly go over any surfaces around the house. I keep cleaning wipes and baby wipes in every bathroom. A quick (we’re talking a minute or less) bathroom wipe down with a sanitizing wipe will make your weekly bathroom cleaning so much easier. Again, if you never let it get really dirty, then it’s never a big cleaning job. Also dusting and wiping with baby wipes is a great first chore for little kids. I will never stop buying baby wipes, they are great for so many things, I keep them in practically every room of my house and in my car. Yes we all want to reduce the amount of single use disposable things in our lives, but we also have to make compromises to keep our sanity. This is one that I think is worthwhile.
Supplies in many places
Like with wipes, if you keep basic cleaning supplies stocked in a few places around your house, then it makes just grabbing a bottle of cleaning spray or a few wipes even quicker. I especially like to do this when I have kids and teenagers doing some of these cleaning chores, anything to make the job a little easier for them means it is more likely they will do it. A container of wipes on the bathroom counter means it’s much more likely they will wipe down their sink and toilet every day.
Vacuuming is for more than just floors
My vacuums are my secret weapons. I use a vacuum to dust and clean all kinds of surfaces in my house, not just my floors. Baseboards, crown moulding, louvered closet doors, corners, ceiling fans, windowsills, curtains, even walls get dusty. A first pass with the vacuum gets the first layer of dust actually removed and locked away, rather than just moved around and letting it settle somewhere else, and then when you go back with a damp wipe or dusting cloth there is much less to be picked up.
Don’t leave kitchen messes
Empty that dishwasher as soon as it finishes so that any dishes that are used throughout the day can go straight in the dishwasher and don’t pile up in the sink. And you’re going to have to remind your family constantly. I can’t tell you how many times a day I say “put that in the dishwasher”, and call kids back to the kitchen to do it.
I know a lot of folks leave dinner dishes for the morning, because after dinner you are just done. But getting that kitchen cleaned up before you go to bed really does get your day off to a better start. If you can manage to just get it cleaned up as soon as the meal is finished, I promise you will be happier in the morning. In our house the dinner dishes are done by the husband and teenagers because I do the cooking. My husband and I agreed at the beginning of our marriage that this was a fair deal - whoever cooks the dinner does not have to do the dishes.
Empty that dishwasher as soon as it finishes! It is SO MUCH easier to keep your kitchen clean if you are able to put a dish right into the dishwasher as soon as you’re finished using it.
Air cleaners and filters
Air cleaners are another of my secret weapons for minimizing dust in a house. These can be expensive air cleaners with high end filters, but when it comes to picking up dust I’ve found that a cheap box fan and a square furnace filter works just as good. It’s amazing how much dust is on that filter after just a short time. I have these all around my house. If you have a forced air system in your home you also need to make sure you are cleaning or swapping out those filters regularly. They collect so much dust.
Get up a few minutes before your kids
Ok if we’re being honest this is my least favorite thing to do. I love sleeping in, and I hate getting out of my bed. But I still did get up before my kids for many years because I figured out that it really was a key to success. If I could get up even 15-20 minutes before them, I had time to get myself a cup of coffee, get the laundry cycle and empty the dishwasher. Getting those two chores done made a huge difference in my day.
Laundry every day
Laundry is my least favorite chore. I would honestly actually rather clean a toilet than fold laundry. As much as I hate laundry though, I still do it every day. Because if it piles up it becomes totally overwhelming and then I avoid it even more, and then it piles up even more and it’s just a bad deal. The only way laundry works for me is if I keep up with it every day. With six of us in the house, this usually means two loads a day. So, per my previous tip - start a load first thing in the morning before the kids are up, switch one to the dryer, take one out of the dryer and fold it. It’s the folding that’s most important for me. When my kids were little if I didn’t fold that load as soon as I took it out of the dryer, then it was basically never getting done. This is just another one of those things that is so much easier to manage when it’s a small job, so don’t let it get big.
Clean your cleaning supplies!
You can’t expect to get clean results if you are “cleaning” with a dirty tool.
Does it seem like your vacuum isn’t picking up stuff as well as it used to? When was the last time you cleaned it? All of these things have removable air filters and usually the rollers and brushes are removable too. They get all clogged up with dust and hair and they need to be cleaned. And I don’t care if you have one of those fancy kinds that claims to never lose suction. They all lose suction and they all can get clogged up. I take apart and clean my vacuums regularly, clean my mops, wash my rags and sponges.
Clean your dishwasher regularly and it will get your dishes much cleaner - run vinegar through it and take out and scrub the filter. Clean your sink and scrub your disposal if you have one. Clean your washing machine - run empty loads with vinegar, or oxi-clean, or bleach - most newer machines have a self clean cycle. I also spray down around the insides with vinegar, spray and wipe the outside. If you have a front loader you need to get in around that rubber gasket and clean, it gets really gross.
That’s it for now!
Ok, that’s a lot. But it’s all really small stuff, and if you do even a few of these things they add up to make a big difference. I’ll add to this post as I think of more tips for you, so check back!