"Your home should be an oasis from your everyday hustle and grind. We dream of a day when every time you walk through the door, you’re greeted with a hygge-filled home where candles automatically light themselves, but until that technology comes to fruition, we hardworking ladies have to find a way to maintain our everyday staycation spots so they look good enough to appear on our Pinterest feeds. The trick? Cleaning our houses every single day. Scroll below for 12 cleaning tips you can follow to make sure your house is clean all the time.
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1. Make the bed when you first wake up
The minute you jump out of bed, the first thing you should do (besides drinking a large glass of water) is make your bed. It will take you less than a minute to do and will automatically make your room look put together.
2. Put away clean dishes from the night before while you make breakfast
Just because you’re waiting for your eggs to cook or coffee to brew doesn’t mean you should automatically go on your phone and scroll. Instead, put away the dishes you cleaned the night before so you have room on your drying rack or inside your dishwasher to complete another round.
3. Pick up any leftover loose items from the night before
Sometimes when you just had a long day at the office, the last thing you want to do is to pick up items around your house. When you have one of those off days, make it a priority to clean your living room/kitchen in the morning. Fold that blanket, throw away those used napkins, and put those empty dinner drinks in the sink. All you need is five minutes to make everything seem presentable again.
4. Hang up your clothes and put away your shoes when you get home from work
I know it can feel like a pain to hang up your clothes when you get home from work, but doing so will save you a lot of time. When you do, you’ll know exactly where everything is and you won’t panic trying to find that one specific item when you’re running late to work.
5. Clean food scraps while you cook
Cleaning while you cook is an easy and effective way to minimize the stress of making dinner. Throw away food scraps when you’re done cutting up the vegetables and do a few dishes while your food is cooking. By the time dinner is done, you’ll probably have already done the majority of the work.
6. Arrange couch pillows before you go to bed
After you’ve watched your latest binge, turn off the TV and fix the pillows on your couch. Neatly style them so they look like you never sat there in the first place and are presentable to look at first thing in the morning.
7. Wipe down the kitchen counters after you cook
Not only do you need to do the dishes and throw away the food scraps, but you also want to clean the kitchen counters when you’re done cooking. All you need is a cleansing wipe to easily get rid of bacteria and spills so you don’t have to scrub at them in the morning.
8. Wipe down your bathroom counter after you do your beauty routine
After completing your nighttime regime, take a sponge and clean around the sink to get rid of any hair, toothpaste, or makeup. And while you’re at it, clean your mirror so you won’t be distracted by dirt and dust when you’re trying to do your hair.
9. Do a load of laundry if you accumulate enough items
If you have kids or live with a S.O. who goes through clothes like it’s nothing, it might be a good idea to do a load of laundry at the end of each day. Doing so will save you time and prevent you from spending a full day washing and folding items.
10. Sanitize the remote controls and phone
Take five minutes and a sanitizer wipe to clean the remote controls and your phone. These two things can carry a lot of germs because we’re constantly touching them with our hands.
11. Give objects a permanent home
If you tend to easily lose things, you may want to start giving certain items a permanent home. Have a place by your door where you can hang your keys and put your shoes and your jacket, and have a basket on top of your coffee table where you can throw in your mail or your remotes. Creating multiple sections like these in your home will allow your house to look neat without having miscellaneous things everywhere.
12. Deal with spills right when they happen
When you’ve accidentally spilled your morning juice on your glass coffee table or have a glass of wine fall on your carpet, you don’t want to wait a day or two to clean up the spill; it will be 10 times harder to clean it up. Instead, clean it up right then and there so you don’t have to deal with it come morning.