Most people have a very hectic lifestyle and juggling everything can become quite overwhelming. From work to family, to relationships, hobbies, kids, and so many other things! With so many things on our plates, taking care of your own home can often become an ordeal.
However, procrastinating this will only lead to mess piling up, until you are left with an overwhelming amount of organization and cleaning to do on a weekend. Here you can find tips on how to keep a house clean and organized, which can really help lighten some of the everyday load.
Make your bed
Yes, the most dreaded line of our childhoods! Our parents scolding us for not making our beds! Well, believe it or not, this simple task, which takes less than 5 minutes of your morning, can actually play a big role in increasing your productivity. Coming back home after a long day of work to a well-made bed is a haven for most.
Making your bed regularly also ensures that dust and allergens do not settle into your sheets, thus giving you allergies, bad sleep, or making you more prone to sickness and infections.
Keep things back where they belong
Sounds pretty basic, right? Yet, when it comes to our everyday life, most people don’t actually follow this simple step. Whether it refers to throwing your soiled clothes into the washer and not on the bathroom floor, or keeping the toothpaste tube back in the right place, or even keeping your cups back in the drawer after your morning coffee.
This small step can not only help you keep your home clean and organized, but it also cuts down on the extra time and energy spent the next day in looking for these items, or keeping them all back in their original places after making the big mess.
Wash the dishes
Probably the last thing you want to do after a long, busy day is to wash your dishes or unload the dishwasher. However, if you really think about it, does this task take anything more than 10 minutes? Washing your dirty dishes every day just keeps your home clean, and also gives you clean plates to eat off of every single day, instead of hunting for new dishes and discovering they are all dirty!
Take some help from your family and let everyone wash their own dishes, decreasing the workload and teaching the kids a little bit of responsibility and organizational skills.
Wipe your counters daily
So you’ve taken this advice and washed your dishes. But now your counter is all wet. Most people just put off wiping down their counters arguing with themselves that it will dry anyway.
However, what about the nasty rings and spots left behind on the counter after it dries? You have to spend double the amount of effort to remove those spots off your beautiful counters. Instead, just wipe down your kitchen and bathroom counters instinctively after you are done using it.
This not only makes your house look neat and clean but also reduces the time and effort to remove any stains or marks off them later on.
Make a to-do list
A to-do list just sounds like a list you will keep at the back of your purse or wallet, or even on your phone, and forget about for the rest of the day, right? However, you will be surprised to see how many things you can actually get done with this one little list.
Note down anything you need to do during the day, whether it is picking up some items, dropping something, cleaning out your mail, or just planning your dinner.
Keep checking the items in your list as you are done with them. This will help you feel like you have accomplished a great lot during your day and also help you keep everything organized.
Clear the clutter
This is something you can do every once in a while, say every 15 days. De-clutter your room; get rid of anything that you don’t need anymore. Be it old pens which have stopped working, old shoe boxes, old wrappers under your bed, in your purse, old bills, and even mail! This will make your home look so much more organized.
Letting a small mess stay for a while will simply create an even larger mess and before you know it, your room is cluttered with useless items again! Perform a de-clutter routine regularly.
Fresh air and sunlight
Every morning, open your doors and windows, even if it is just for half an hour. The fresh air and sunlight can do your home a world of good. But how can it help clean your home? Well, fresh air, along with the sunlight, not only brings in positive energy and vibes but also helps in getting rid of settling the dust, brings to notice any dirt and untidy messes you might have otherwise missed out on.
Your home gets a chance to breathe freely, getting rid of any musty smells and making your home cleaner and healthier.
Buy hampers and organizers
This can be such a simple but effective tool for organizing your home. Buy a few laundry hampers, a shoe rack, and other organizational tools. Put your dirty socks, hankies sweat right into the hamper and teach your kids to do the same. This way, you will not come across a surprise stinky sock hiding under the bed during your vacuuming days.
A shoe rack is also a good way to keep all the shoes in one place, rather than all over the house. The house not only looks cleaner but is also more organized when it comes to looking for your shoes in one place instead of hunting around the whole house during emergencies.
Keep a designated day a week for vacuuming
Vacuuming every single day is not possible, and this is totally understandable. Instead, keep one designated day a week, be it a weekday evening, a morning, or a weekend. If you live with a spouse, you can even designate alternate weeks to each other for vacuuming.
This ensures that your home is vacuumed regularly, and each of you gets a well-deserved break per week. The load is shared, while also ensuring your home is spic and span.
Do just one load of laundry
For most people, doing the laundry seems like a herculean task. However, if you do just one small load of laundry every day, you will be surprised at how it doesn’t get piled up during the rest of the week, and your home is so much cleaner and more organized.
Most washing machines are automatic nowadays, so all you really need to do is put your clothes in the tub and run the machine! It’s that simple! At the end of the day, you will be so much more satisfied to have a few clean pairs of clothes instead of a pile of dirty ones.
