Most people have a love/hate relationship with cleaning. No one enjoys cleaning, but everyone loves having a clean, tidy home.
However, cleaning doesn’t have to drive you mad. If you establish daily habits, having a clean home will be easy. We outlined seven simple cleaning tips that if implemented can make your cleaning schedule easier and having a spotless home that much more achievable.
1. Set a 15-minute timer everyday
The first cleaning tip is to dedicate 15 minutes to cleaning your home each day. Whether it’s morning or night, in this time run around the home and put items back where they belong, clear benches and neaten spaces. Having this time pressure will make you work harder and faster. You’ll be surprised how much you can achieve in 15 minutes. By keeping on top of it every day, you’ll have more incentive to keep it clean.
2. Don’t let it pile up
Everyone has their version of “the chair”. You know the place, it’s where you dump things when you can’t be bothered. Whether this place is your kitchen bench, your dining room or your bedside table the key to making your life easier is to break this habit and not let junk pile up. The bigger your junk pile the less motivated you are to clean it. Recognise your problem areas and make a rule that nothing is to be piled up in those spots.
3. Clean as you go
One way to make cleaning easier is to live by this rule: if you touch it, take care of it. This means if you put your hand on it you need to deal with it, instead of leaving it for another day. Tidying up while you’re not actively intending to clean does wonders and stops things from piling up for another day. If you try on clothes, don’t leave them on the floor. If you use a bowl, put it straight in the dishwasher. If you open junk mail, put straight in the bin. Don’t double handle things, deal with them properly and save time in the process.
4. Prioritise the living areas
Make the spots you use the most your priority. Put the kitchen, dining room and lounge room at the top of your to-do list. If you keep these areas tidy, it will give the illusion the rest of your home is clean. Hopefully if you keep these areas clean, your cleanliness will spread to other areas of the house.
5. Try and make it fun
While cleaning and fun aren't generally thought to belong in the same sentence; however, cleaning doesn’t have to be mundane and bland. Try and make it fun by using the time to catch up with your latest podcast. Pop on the television or blast some music, cleaning doesn’t need to be a chore and the time will fly if you distract yourself with multimedia. This cleaning tip will help change your tidying mindset. Now say it with me, cleaning is fun.
6. Take your shoes off at the door
A way to reduce your cleaning load is to stop dirt coming into the house in the first place. It’s time to slip off those shoes and place them at the front door. Enforcing a no shoes policy will mean dirt doesn’t get trekked through the home. If you've just been to the park, wearing your joggers inside will bring leaves, grass and dirt inside too. That’s just adding unnecessary cleaning to your already busy schedule. If you like wearing shoes inside, have some comfy indoor shoes you can wear around the house, then it’s a win/win situation.
7. Stop the clutter before it comes into your home
Just like dirt, you should try and stop the clutter before it comes into the home. A few ways to reduce extra stuff coming into your house is say no to junk mail, request online bank statements and buy produce with less packaging. These simple changes will reduce junk piling up on your kitchen bench.
These simple cleaning tips can be implemented with no trouble. The overall takeaway is having a clean home comes from habit. Establishing these daily habits will transform your home.
Cleaning becomes difficult when it becomes a mammoth task. However, it doesn’t have to be like that. The trick to cleaning is doing it in small doses. Dedicating just 15 minutes each day will make cleaning more manageable as cleaning up something small every day is far easier than cleaning up a week’s worth of muck. If you spend 15 minutes tidying up after yourself each day over a week that’s 1.5 hours of cleaning. Now, go set your timer and get cleaning.
