Do you struggle to keep your house clean and tidy? Maintaining a clean home is more difficult than it seems. Everything gets dirty so quickly!
If you find yourself surrounded by clutter and overwhelmed by a dirty space, you know that it can cause a lot of anxiety. When you’re too anxious, the idea of cleaning gets even more stressful.
You need some house cleaning tips and advice to get started and keep your house looking acceptable.
We’re here to offer some help. Keep reading for a few of our favorite pieces of home cleaning advice so you can start tidying up.
Declutter First
Before you even think about applying any cleaning solution to your floors and counters, you need to declutter your home.
This is the part of the cleaning process in which people get stuck. Because it’s also the first part, many people never actually clean as well as they should. Remember, if an area has a lot of clutter, you can’t get it clean enough because the dirt will still be under the clutter.
Decluttering is hard. You’re going to go room-by-room so you don’t distract yourself.
Bring several boxes with you. You should bring:
- A trash box
- A donate box
- A “wrong room” box
- A keep box
- A fix box
This might seem like a lot, but it will keep you more organized. As you go through your items, determine which things are no longer useful in your home. If they’re in good condition, donate them. If not, throw them away.
The “wrong room” box keeps you from getting distracted. Instead of having to pick something up and move it elsewhere, disrupting your flow, put it in the box to put it back later.
Move Around
While you should stick to one room at a time while you’re decluttering, cleaning is a different story. If you struggle with cleaning your entire house when you focus on one room, try moving around.
It makes sense to clean everything in the home that requires the tools that you’re using at the moment. For example, when you vacuum the living room, continue vacuuming all of the carpets in your home.
This also applies to wet cleaners. If you have to mop the kitchen, are you going to sit around and wait for the floors to dry before you do everything else that you have to do? Instead, move to the next moppable floor and by the time you’re done, the first floor will be dry.
Vacuum Often
One of the best things that you can do to maintain a tidy home is to vacuum often.
“Often” will mean different things depending on your household and lifestyle. Someone who lives alone with no pets may need to vacuum once per week or every few days. Someone who has pets, children, or a large household may need to vacuum once per day.
When you vacuum often, it’s less overwhelming when you do your standard cleaning sessions. You won’t have to vacuum twice to get rid of all of that deep dirt and grime.
Clean as You Go
On the topic of keeping things clean to make cleaning easier, it’s popular advice to clean as you go.
This is easier said than done if you have a hectic lifestyle, but even doing small things is better than nothing. For example, if you don’t have time to do the dishes as soon as you use them, at least rinse them off so they’re easier to clean later.
Wipe off countertops as soon as you’re done cooking (or while you’re cooking), put laundry in the hamper when you see it on the floor, and don’t leave anything out where it doesn’t belong after you use it.
Do Regular Deep-Cleaning Sessions
While most cleaning days will be somewhat quick, you should make the time a few times per year for a serious deep-cleaning session. It’s helpful to recruit the entire household for this.
When you deep-clean, you’ll be doing everything that you’ve been putting off. You’ll steam clean the carpets, clean out the dark corners of the refrigerator, and start hunting for any signs of mold or mildew (here’s how to know the difference) so you can make everything shine and sparkle.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to do a deep-cleaning session as often if you keep your home clean year-round.
Everything Has a Place
Once your home is squeaky-clean and smelling fresh, you want to keep it that way. Cleaning is far easier if you don’t have too much of a mess to start with.
But how do you keep things clean?
Aside from the earlier advice (clean as you go and vacuum often), make sure that everything in your home has a place. This prevents clutter and helps you avoid and get rid of messes.
If everything has a place, you won’t have to leave it out. Make sure that you have enough storage in your home for all of your things, and that each storage area serves a specific purpose.
When you buy something new, make sure that you have somewhere to put it. If it’s replacing something else that’s broken or old, get rid of that object instead of adding to your clutter.
This is a tough system to adapt to, but it will make a huge difference and it’s one of our top tips to clean a house.
Home Cleaning Can Be Easy
Home cleaning doesn’t have to be a huge ordeal every time you do it. With these tips for the best way to clean a home, you’ll find yourself in a clean, comfortable, and tidy space in no time.
Go grab your gloves, a mop, and some cleaning solution and start your cleaning task today.
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