Some people make keeping a tidy home seem so simple, while others constantly seem to find themselves faced with a mountain of housework, dishes, laundry (i.e. small chores that have snowballed into mammoth tasks). If you’re firmly in the latter camp, there’s still time to develop new habits that will make keeping a tidy home a whole lot easier.
1. Make your bed every day
Set aside just three minutes every morning to make your bed. Regardless of the style or storage situation elsewhere in your bedroom, a freshly made bed makes you feel in control and on top of your day. Everything will follow from here.
2. Always load your dishwasher at the end of the day
Clearing away the dishes after a meal is one thing but loading your dishwasher and handwashing your pots and pans, knives and chopping boards will ensure you wake up to a spotless kitchen each morning.
Begin the next day by unloading it for an empty dishwasher ready to handle the meals to come.
3. Keep unavoidable clutter contained
Shoes, hats, dog leads and umbrellas all collect in your entrance hall – and not all are attractive. With daily use, they tend to look untidy if not given adequate storage.
4. Tidy bathroom vanity after use
Always put away your makeup and grooming products after use and wipe down your bathroom or ensuite vanity each morning. Keeping a stack of reusable microfibre cloths in the bathroom cabinet is handy for this task.
5. Put things away after you’ve used them
- Once dinner is over, put the olive oil, salt, pepper and other ingredients away
- Once you’ve finished scrubbing the house, put the caddy of cleaning products back into the laundry
- If you return home after a heavy gym session, don’t just kick your shoes off and leave them at the door – put them away!
6. Invest in a lightweight vacuum cleaner
7. Start a system to organise paperwork
A simple filing system for keeping and storing paperwork and receipts will not only save you time looking for papers, but it will also keep surfaces in your home clear of papers building up in piles.
A cheap file organiser or set of chic drawers works well for keeping receipts, school notes, invitations and invoices ordered and handy.
8. Keep a cleaning cloth in each room
Having a small sponge or cleaning cloth in each room will make incidental clean-ups easier and more likely to happen. Tuck a sponge behind your vanity or in the corner cupboard, keep one in your bathroom and laundry for daily wipe-downs and hide dusting cloths at the back of bookshelves or cupboards in your home office or rooms removed from the kitchen or laundry where you store cleaning equipment.
9. Empty your bin often
Rather than letting kitchen and household rubbish bins pile up into a groaning, bag-splitting mess, empty your kitchen tidy and recycling bin often. This is a great job for children learning to contribute to housekeeping if you make it fun.
Wiping down the inside of your bin each time you this will keep things clean and hygienic. Place small bins into each room in your home – bedrooms, bathrooms and home office to ensure litter doesn’t collect.
10. Add indoor plants to your home
Not only a beautiful addition visually, indoor plants purify your air and keep you healthy, offsetting chemicals thrown off by plastics and finishes found in your home.
