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I am all about saving time and energy and I have four 4 simple tips that make my house a lot easier to keep clean.
If you keep up with these little things every day, it is so much less overwhelming than letting things pile up and having a monstrous pile of cleaning to do once you actually have time.
Each one of these things takes about 10 minutes or less. Some days I can do all four in less than 10 minutes total and it brings so much peace of mind and helps keep my anxiety about having a messy house at bay.
Make your bed
This takes two minutes to do each day, yet it makes such a huge difference. It makes me feel like I have my life together. A made bed makes the whole room feel better, even if the rest is dirty.
Get rid of dishes
Every day I clean out my sink, but I don’t run my dishwasher until it is COMPLETELY full. I do this to save water and electricity. Since I only run it every few days, I rinse off my dishes before putting them into the dishwasher because they will sit in there for a little while and I don’t want it to smell or get moldy. This also means I only have to empty the dishwasher every few days as well.
So some days it takes two minutes to rinse dishes and put them in the dishwasher and sometimes it takes five to ten minutes when I have to empty it first. But regardless, having an empty, washed-out sink just brings a lot of peace of mind when you’re in the kitchen.
Wipe down and clear off counters in the bathroom and in the kitchen.
I always clear off my counters of any items that have piled up throughout the day. This might include any items from cooking, mail or beauty products. I try to put everything back where it belongs. If you leave things on the counters for too long it’s almost like that becomes its permanent place. Everything should have a designated spot and most of the time that shouldn’t be on the counter.
I think having a lot of items out makes the counters look extremely cluttered. The less clutter you have, the cleaner it looks and the easier it is to actually wipe down counters. If you constantly have to be moving things to clean around, you are less likely to actually clean. It takes just a few minutes to clear off the counters and then take a disinfectant wipe and clean off any crumbs or makeup or whatever and it just makes the room look better.
Do a 10 minute quick tidy up
Every day I TRY (I don’t always succeed) to set a timer for 10 minutes. In the ten minutes I just tidy up whatever I can in my house. I usually start in the living room and work my way through the house. I fold blankets, pick up anything from the floor and tables, like clothes, papers, dishes and just put things away where they belong. This time isn’t used for any really significant cleaning, only really basic tidying up. It’s amazing how much you can get put away in only ten minutes if you’re focused solely on that.
Now doing these things alone isn’t going to keep your house 100% clean. It’s just easy things that help me keep my house clean enough where it keeps my anxiety down and keeps my house clean enough, to a point where I wouldn’t mind an unexpected guest. I work a full-time job, so I save my deep cleaning projects for my days off, like mopping and vacuuming. Doing the more intensive cleaning projects on my days off is less overwhelming when I keep up with the small things during the week.
What’s your cleaning routine?