If you've ever wanted to know the secret to keeping a clean house, I'm here to share! Today I have the 5 Tasks I do Daily to Keep a (Mostly) Clean Home.
this post contains affiliate links
I love having a comfortable home and taking care of it! It seriously is one of my favorite things on earth! But like you, I only have so many hours in a day. When I devote a ton of time to taking care of my house, it leaves less time to be with my kids, work on my projects, and spend time with my family.
That means, in order to have a clean home, I have to work smarter not harder! So over the years, I have worked on a process to keep that clean home that I love in a shorter period of time.
I have found that the secret to keeping a (mostly) clean house is small daily tasks. Quick little habits make a much bigger impact in the over all tidiness of my house than hours and hours of cleaning does.
5 Simple Daily Tasks to Keep Your Home Clean
None of these things will be ground breaking because I'm sure you do them in your home too. I think the trick is to make sure you are doing them daily and not letting things pile up until the job of housekeeping is overwhelming.
Kitchen Counters
Keeping my counters clean is the number one way to keep my house feeling clean and tidy. Cleaning off and wiping our counters is the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do at night before bed. I also wipe them many times through out the day. I love using inexpensive white wash cloths because I can bleach them. I usually use warm soapy water, but sometimes use a disinfecting spray.
Dishes
I could write an entire blog post just on this alone. I feel very strongly that dishes DO NOT go in the sink at all - they go directly into the dishwasher after their use. This is something that I have suggested aka nagged my family about over and over again. It is now mostly a habit.
The idea of doing an entire sink full of dishes with dried crusted food grosses me out so bad, makes the job so much more overwhelming and takes so much longer than simply putting a used plate and fork directly into the dishwasher.
BTW- it is not mold on the door of the dishwasher, it is soil. I recently repotted some of my plants and some dirt got onto the door of the dishwasher. And right after I wrote this blog post I cleaned it up. I cannot do a blog post about cleaning without explaining this. haha.
Cleaning the Floor
We are a busy family and have a doggo that sheds like crazy, so daily sweeping is essential. I have gotten into such a good routine that it only takes about 5 minutes to do our hard floors. In addition to sweeping, I also vacuum the rugs and carpet upstairs in our home 2-3 times a week. And then at least once a weep I mop.
Pick Up
Pick up things when you see them. This seems like such a simple, no brainer task, but you'd be surprised how easy it is, NOT to pick up and how it makes things add up. Each time I leave a room, I try to pick up the things that don't belong and put them away. Of course it's important to not just move piles from room to room, and actually put the items away.
Mail
I'm using mail as this bullet point, but same principle applies for anything that you bring into your home. As soon as you get the mail, deal with it. Do not set it down. Weed out the junk mail and recycle it. Open bills, recycle the envelopes if you pay online and put the due dates on your calendar (or however you deal with bills). I have a spot for our bills and important papers, so I place everything there immediately and get rid of the rest.
This same thing applies for school papers, sports calendars, homework etc. Deal with it immediately. It takes SO much less time and brain power than having to remember where the paper is or clean up a pile of them later.
I'm sure you may be thinking, "ok Candice, you don't have small kids at home, it makes it so much easier for you." And it's true, my children are teens/adults now. But I did all of these same things when they were small to keep my house clean.
I promise, small and simple tasks are the way to keep your house clean. Start with these 5 Daily Tasks and you will notice how much easier it is to keep a Clean Home!
