How to Have a Consistently Clean Home

By Realty Times Published Apr 19, 2022 03:47 pm

Whether your house is on the market and you’re preparing for showings, or you just like to have a home that feels clean and tidy, it’s a lot of work. Keeping a home consistently clean can feel like a full-time job, particularly when you have a family.

If you’ve ever been to someone’s house and felt like it’s always clean and you’ve wondered their secret, they probably have a few, including the following.

Stop the Marathon Cleaning Sessions
What a lot of us do that makes us feel like we’re never going to be able to keep up with household chores is putting them all off and trying to do everything at once. For example, maybe clutter piles up all week, and then Saturday, you tackle it.

That’s fine, but you could develop a negative relationship with cleaning because it’s always frustrating to tackle such a big project.

If you can make goals to clean your house a little at a time, it changes your habits and becomes a natural part of your routine rather than a once-in-a-while dreaded task.

Start to focus on things you can do at the moment that might be smaller but, over time, make a difference. Then, you won’t get overwhelmed. If you gradually add these small tasks into your day-to-day routine, you’ll stop thinking about them as cleaning. You’ll just think of them as something inherent to your day.

Try the 20/10 Rule
The 20/10 rule is an approach that can help you stop being a marathon cleaner.

You use a timer to train yourself to do brief cleaning periods throughout the week. For example, you can set a timer for 20 minutes. You focus on cleaning something during those 20 minutes. Then, you give yourself a 10-minute break to do whatever you want, and once that ends, return to cleaning.

Make the Beds Everyday
One of the best things you can do for yourself to feel mentally more in control of your home and your day is to make your bed every day. Make it even on the weekends or when you don’t feel like it.

Making your bed has an immediate impact. You can feel calmer knowing that at least one thing in your home is tidy, no matter what.

Put Things Away As Soon As You’re Done Using Them
It sounds simple, but think about how many things you use throughout the day without putting them back. We do it unconsciously all the time. For example, maybe instead of putting something back in the drawer, you leave it on the countertop for the time being.

Clothes are another example. Instead of hanging them up, you start throwing them on the floor or your bed, so try to change that habit.

These things add up.

If you consciously promise yourself you’ll put everything back after you’re done using it, you’ll notice a difference in your home.

Do One Room At a Time
When you do clean, focus on one room at a time. It gets overwhelming to tell yourself you have to clean the entire house.

When you focus on one room at a time, it can be encouraging and help keep you motivated because you can accomplish something.

Have a Schedule
One way that people often find success in having a consistently clean home is by having a schedule. You can come up with something that works for you, but one way to do it is to separate tasks by day and do the same ones on the same day every week.

For example, maybe Monday is for dusting and laundry, and Tuesday is for vacuuming and bathrooms. You can go from there, but as you’re doing more frequent cleaning, things have less of a chance to become big messes.

Finally, aim to do a load of laundry a day. That means washing it, folding it, and putting it away. Laundry can create piles and messes all over your home if it gets out of hand, so taking control of those before they become problematic will keep floors and other areas tidier.

Maybe you come up with a routine for the load you do every day. For example, you could put a load in in the morning before leaving for the day. You put it in the dryer as soon as you get home, and you put it away before bed.