This is Christine from i Dream of Clean and Spring Cleaning 365. I’m so excited to be joining Ask Anna today to talk about a few habits that will help keep our home clean! Ready? Me too!
Do you feel like you’re constantly cleaning your house? Picking up toys? Washing the dishes? I know cleaning can sometimes feel like a never ending battle!
Thankfully there are a few habits we can incorporate into our routine to keep the mess at a minimum and keep our home tidy.
6 Habits That Keep Your Home Clean
1. Go to sleep every night with a clean kitchen.
That last think you probably want to do after a long day is clean the kitchen. It’s tempting to just call it a night and wait until the sun rises.
But think about the last time you woke up from a good night’s sleep and walked into your disaster of a kitchen? Were you cheerful? Ready to cook a healthy breakfast for your kids? Or did it put a damper on your mood?
More than likely, you wished you had cleaned it the night before! Start your day off right by making it habit to clean your kitchen each night.
2. Make up the bed every morning.
You may think it’s silly to make up the bed every day. I mean, you’re just going get back in bed tonight so what’s the point?
I used to feel the exact same way. That is, until I actually tried it.
You know what I found? When I make up the bed every morning, it actually makes me more productive for the rest of the day. Maybe it’s because the day starts with crossing something off the do to list (even if it’s an imaginary one). Or maybe it’s the flat surface it provides for things like folding laundry. Who knows?
Either way, I bet you find that your productivity skyrockets if you implement this one tip at the start of every day.
3. When you leave a room, take something with you.
Do your kids leave toys in your bedroom? Do you have empty drinking glasses on your coffee table? What about dirty socks on the floor?
There doesn’t seem to be a way around it. Something is always out of place.
When you leave one room for another, take a quick look around to see what you can pick up and drop off on the way. It’s a great habit to implement and teach your children early.
4. Straighten on the go.
When you walk though the living room and pass the couch, fluff and straighten the cushins along the way. When you pass through the kitchen, put that dirty dish in the dishwasher. When you see that handprint on the fridge, just wipe it off as you clean your kitchen.
When you tidy on the go, it makes big cleaning jobs that much easier. The little things make a BIG difference when it comes to keeping your house clean.
5. Throw trash away.
This should go without saying, right? But how many times have you opened a package and put it on the counter instead of walking over to the trash can? Or cut a tag off of a new shirt only to leave the tag sitting on your dresser? Surely, I’m not the only one! Make it a habit to put trash where it belongs.Your house will automatically be cleaner.
6. Get your family involved in a 5 minute pick up.
Taking 5 minutes to clean any area of your home will do wonders for keeping your house neat and tidy. You can do it by yourself or get the family involved. I highly recommend the latter.
The entire family helps to make the mess, so it only seems fair that they help clean the mess. Right?
The best thing about a 5 minute pick up is that it’s a short! Setting a timer when you clean will make you and your family work FAST because there’s a hard and fast stopping point. It’s short. It ends. Now that’s a habit your kids can be happy about!
Of course there are other habits you could implement into your cleaning routine, but these six are a good starting point. I’d love to hear from you, though. What cleaning habits have you implemented into your routine?
Christine
Get more awesome tips from Christine at her blog iDream of Clean.
going to bed with a clean kitchen and freshly swept/mopped floors and making the beds in the morning are huge for me too. i am going to try and implement more of your tips. thanks so much!!
These are so obvious! And yet, they’re a good reminder. Thanks for sharing!
Most of the time we KNOW what to do…it’s just that pesky task of actually DOING it 🙂
Amen! I’m with you on that. 🙂
I wish we could go to bed with a clean kitchen so bad. My husband is in charge of washing the dishes that need to be done by hand every night and unfortunately he does not do it. Generally its more like every 3 or 4 nights. there usually isn’t a lot but he just wont do it. I refuse to do it for him because if I do it then I will be doing it all. So he has to do it. As a result the kitchen is messy all the time. He SAYS he will do it in the morning but generally I get up to a mess bigger then I went to bed with (he gets up before me).
If my kitchen is clean I feel MUCH more motivated to clean around the house but that never happens….. Any tips on how to get my husband to keep up his end of the bargain? Cattle Prod perhaps?
Take back the washing up and give him another chore.
Refuse to start cooking the next meal until washing up from previous is done (I had to do this with my dad and brother – it’s very effective).
Always love a great post from Christine!! Thanks for the continued inspiration and motivation to do what we know we need to do!! 🙂
Great tips and reminders. I’m a believer in starting the day off with a nice bed and ending it with a clean kitchen–but not always good at it. Having bedding that you love does help too! Thank you for sharing.
Julie at Simply Savvy
This is an awesome list! I need to make these all part of my routine. Thanks!
great way to keep it simple! & a great little trick i have for laundry is everyone has their own basket with their name on it {easy way to decorate it to have your kids use colored permanent markers & decorate it themselves) & once a week every one brings their dirty laundry to the laundry room. i get most the laundry finished and place back in their baskets, then they put all their clothes away at the end of the day. easy breezy!
I have started doing some of these things and it works wonders! I love getting my kitchen cleaned, at LEAST the sink, before bedtime. I am guilty of not making the bed every day. When I have to work, I find myself springing from the bed and getting ready to go.
Another thing I do, is each time I clean a room, I pick a “deep clean” project…like cleaning the dishwasher or the oven. That way, it’s not always one big daunting task…especially when you have last minute guests.
<3
fancyco.blogspot.com
Great tip!!!
I’m actually starting a top secret project soon (http://springcleaning365.com) to encourage people to deep clean one thing a day. Maybe you’ll be able to give some good insight when we get started 🙂
Awesome, thanks for stopping by! Can’t wait to “see” you around! 🙂
i read on this site how to clean a washing machine and now I can’t find it. Can you help me out? thank you……………
Here’s the link: https://askannamoseley.com/2011/02/how-to-clean-the-washing-machine/
I love makeover with my bed every day with different design ideas, it is nice to wake up every morning when your bed has new look.
so so true. It doesn’t have to be a whole day ordeal. Just make it a habit to do it along the way!
I find that I sleep so much better if the kitchen is clean before I go to bed. It’s also nice to walk into a nice clean kitchen in the morning!
Yes! I 100% agree, I’m the same way. 🙂