We all know that our life is made up of our daily habits. This is true whether those are positive habits, such as exercising, taking vitamins, or being nice to your mother-in-law, or negative habits, such as smoking, gossiping, or biting your fingernails. Cleaning your house is also a matter of habits. And, if you’re not in the habit of cleaning, then chances are, your house is not a very pleasant place to be.
But, time is usually short and doesn’t allow for cleaning. What if I could tell you that I could find some time when you probably weren’t even aware of that could help you get ahead of the cleaning curve? Well, it’s there in ways you might never imagine! And, if you can’t manage to squeeze in these few bits of cleaning, and continue to put it off, you’ll continue to dread being in your house.
Remember, every bit of cleaning that you put off will come back to haunt you later. That’s because cleaning, like math, is also exponential. When you don’t clean your house, the likelihood that it will take you ever longer to clean it grows with each day (or week!) that passes and it is not cleaned. In other words, the more you put it off, the longer it’s going to take you when you do try to clean.
So, how you do maintain a relatively organized home that won’t be condemned by your city’s Sanitation Department? In short, you develop some new habits. Remind yourself that if you think you don’t have the time, that time spent in a clean house (however short it is) is so much more pleasant than time spent in a dirty one. If that still doesn’t convince you, then just do it because it would make your mother happy to know you were keeping your home clean.
10 Habits to Make Cleaning Easier
1. Do something when something else is going on.
Waiting for the coffee to brew in the morning? That’s the perfect time to unload the dishwasher, take out the trash, or go through the junk mail. If you have something you wait on every day, such as kids getting books for school or waiting for coffee to brew, make that a time when you do some small activity, whether that is wiping down the microwave or picking up clutter.
2. Talk and clean.
Every time you are on the phone, there’s another opportunity to pick up the remnants of the toy bomb or sort through and pitch old magazines. Get a headset for your cordless phone so you are truly hands-free and you can move around the house talking and cleaning.
3. Do one thing before going to bed.
Just before you turn the lights out and lock all the doors for the evening, take a moment to straighten the living room, hang up all the coats and jackets strewn about, or put away that last pile of laundry. This nightly ritual will help you to be “one step ahead.”
4. Sweep the kitchen every day.
Yep, you heard it: every single day. When you do the nightly dishes, run a broom around the kitchen. It will only take about 60 seconds and will make a world of difference. Plus, you won’t have to walk on five nights’ worth of crumbs the next day.
5. Do it when you see it.
Did the dog jump on the glass door and leave muddy paw prints? Clean things the minute you see them and cleaning gets itself done!
6. Make the kids clean.
Ahh, the joys of children cleaning after themselves. Besides, if they make the mess, they can clean it up. Yep, if you can get your kids into the cleaning habit, you’ll make them into neat nicks before you know it! Have kids get into the habit of picking up after dinner, as soon as they get home from school, or first thing in the morning. Try to pick a time and stick to it every day. Even toddlers can get into the habit of cleaning up their mess before bath time (mine did, yours can, too!).
7. Do something every time you walk through the house.
Chances are there is something that needs to be put away, folded, thrown in the trash, or brought to another room – or all of these things – at any given moment during the day. Make it a habit to never walk through the house, or up the stairs, or past the garage, without picking something up and putting it where it belongs.
8. Don’t put it down, put it away.
Recite this to yourself every time you have something in your hand. Go ahead, say it with me: “Don’t put it down, put it away. Don’t put it down, put it away.” I can’t tell you what a great habit this is and how it will make your life a beacon for others! Just think if everyone in your household practiced this…. There’d be no more mess, would there?
9. Pick just one small thing to do and concentrate on making it your new habit.
Don’t make the bed? Then just resolve that you will make the bed as soon as you get out of it. That’s it, slide out in the morning and then just turn around and pull the covers back. There, you’re done, and doesn’t that feel better? Really, though, find something that really bugs you, like a dirty sink, or an unmade bed, and then resolve that you will do that one thing every day. That’s all. Then, after about a month, you have yourself a brand new habit. And, it was probably pretty painless to boot!
10. Straighten every room before you leave it.
This forces you to tidy up and makes you stay in your home office until you’ve picked up that empty coffee mug that you always forget to bring to the kitchen until every mug in the house is in your office all in various states of mold growth.
Resolve that you will not leave a room, whether that’s the kitchen, the living room, or the bathroom, until you have tidied up for at least 60 seconds! That’s all. One paltry minute isn’t going to kill you, is it? And, that’s usually all it takes, and most everyone can find a minute to spare throughout the day!
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Kathryn Weber is the publisher of the Everydayclean.com Calender -- the calendar that helps you end the power struggle with your house. Keeping a clean home is about knowing what to clean when. Virtually everything that needs to be cleaned is on this calendar in a year-round cleaning schedule that helps you keep your house clean easier and faster. Click here for more information.
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