Working from home sounds like a dream come true for some, but it can also lead to a messy house. Learn how to keep your home tidy throughout the week with these simple cleaning ideas.
Staying on track with daily chores is a great way to keep your home neat and tidy. Although having kids at home might make it difficult to do so, you can try various options to help.
From asking loved ones to pitch in, to outsourcing the work, there’s a solution to the madness. Living in a messy house is a choice, and there’s always something you can do about it.
Understanding why you’re living in a messy home is key to improving the current situation.
What Does It Mean To Keep Things Tidy?
Tidying your home means putting items where they belong after their use. By placing things where they belong, you’re making it easier to find when you need the items again.
Organizing your home will require time and effort — there are no shortcuts. Although you can outsource the cleaning, maintaining a tidy home means cleaning up after yourself as often as possible.
Why Is It Important To Keep Your House Tidy?
Having a tidy home not only helps you find things when you need them. An organized home can aid with keeping you sane.
Through cleanliness, you’re minimizing the spread of bacteria and viruses in the home. It’s said that maintaining your home improves health as well.
Homes that aren’t maintained often tend to age faster, causing issues with time. This is one of the main reasons why it’s important to keep your home organized.
Ways To Keep Your Home Tidy All The Time
There are various ways to deal with a super messy house — all you have to do is start! Regardless of what you decide to work on first, you’ll need to have a plan.
Think about what needs to get done right away. Here are some questions that can motivate you to clean.
- Is there laundry that needs to be washed?
- Are there toys on the ground?
- Can you throw most of the things out?
- Do you need to dust surfaces?
- Are there dishes in the sink?
- Is there anything you can donate?
If you’ve answered yes to any of the questions above, then that’s where you can start the cleaning process. Focusing on certain areas of your home will help improve the way you feel about your surroundings.
Getting control of an untidy house is important if you want to simplify the cleaning process. Below are 4 easy ideas on how to keep a tidy house and stop being a slob.
1. Bag it up.
It helps to put away items you no longer use and stack them up for when you have some time to head over to a local Goodwill. You can use this method to put away clothes you no longer use, as well as toys.
2. Find a place for it.
Finding the right place for something can make your home look a lot more organized. For instance, books on a bookshelf and shoes in the closet. You can place shoes on the stairs before the end of the day and you and the family can bring them up before heading to bed.
3. Stage useful items.
Making things accessible throughout the home can be an advantage — more so during the holidays. Family and guests will know where to find items without having to ask where the items might be.
Placing things eye-level makes it easier for everyone to feel welcomed as well.
4. Clean up as you go.
To help avoid large messes, clean up whatever you’re no longer using. This is something you can practice with the kids, too.
Organizing the house throughout the day will make a difference in how you tidy up before bed. You’ll have fewer tasks to complete at night.
How To Tidy A Messy Room
Removing unnecessary items from rooms will improve the look and feel of your living space. However, you’ll need to maintain cleanliness as well.
Learn how to keep your home tidy all the time by remembering to D.O.T. things:
- Donate
- Organize
- Trash
Donating the items you no longer use will free up space. This can always help you appreciate the things you have available.
Whether you’re overstocking your closet or looking to declutter, you’ll notice a change in how you view these four walls.
Organizing your things makes it easier to find, and you can place similar items together. For instance, having your toiletries in the bathroom gives you access to necessary items you’ll need after a shower.
Trashing the garbage keeps your home from clutter and removes unnecessary items as well. This helps with keeping your home tidy all the time because it makes room for things you use often.
The 15-Minute Cleaning Checklist
Having a 15-minute checklist will simplify the cleaning process. Within the allotted time, you’ll find yourself tackling the necessary tasks.
Although you won’t be able to do deep cleaning in those 15 minutes, you can get the most out of that time to organize your home.
How you spend those 15 minutes is up to you. If you’re starting with a super messy home, then you may need to give yourself grace over the next couple of days.
This 15-minute checklist is a great way to help you clean up fast when you’re pressed for time:
- Clear out unnecessary items
- Leave things that belong
- Eliminate dust on surfaces
- Arrange everything in there
- Never forget the process
Clearing out the unnecessary items cleans up space in your home. Leaving things that belong makes it easier to store the items you’ll want to keep.
Eliminating dust on surfaces can be helpful for you when trying to minimize allergens in your home. Once you’ve cleaned surfaces, you’ll be able to properly arrange your things.
As you continue to work on maintaining your home, never forget the value in this process. Staying on top of the cleanliness of your home will help you feel more relaxed.
Based on what the room needs the most, you can focus the energy on that. For instance, if the room has been cleaned recently but has become messy, then you can work on decluttering.
This makes it easy for you to decide on the necessary tasks to help you keep your home tidy all the time.
How To Declutter A Messy House
Learning how to tackle a messy house takes trial and error. You can begin testing different times of the day to clean your home.
The early morning hours are a great time to start. However, it depends on your daily schedule. As you begin to implement the D.O.T. method, you’ll want to focus on cleaning at the same time every day.
The more you do something, the faster you train your body to know what’s coming. This helps when you have kids at home.
Your family will know that at a given time during the day, you’ll be tidying up your space.
You can even include kids house chores for everyone to join in.
For most parents, kids’ things are always in the way. You can try these minimalist playroom organization ideas to help with cleaning up the mess.
Other places you can clean up fast are the kitchen, living and dining room, and bathrooms. Bedrooms can take time because of bedsheets, surfaces, cleaning under the bed, cleaning your mattress, etc.
You can get ideas on how to implement stress free cleaning techniques into your day. Use the simple house cleaning schedule from the post to help.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re getting your home ready for hurricane season or not, organizing your space is a lot easier than you think. All you need are two things: a reason and a vision.
If you can think of one good reason for you to clean up your home, then that alone is worth trying. Throw in your vision of a tidy space, and you’re ready for the challenge.
By putting the effort into organizing your space, you’re telling yourself that this is important. More so that your living space matters to you.
You might not be able to keep up at first, and that’s okay.
Simply knowing that you tried to keep your home tidy and continue to do so as often as possible means a lot.
Yes, the kids will continue to make a mess — and so do you! Give yourself grace and you’ll notice a change in how you view your home and those that live in it.
A tidy space brings you peace, but don’t lose your peace by trying to maintain it all the time. Find ways to make your cleaning schedule work for you, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
After all, you deserve the break from time to time. If there are extra hands in your home, then it’s time to get them working as well.
54 responses to “How To Keep Your Home Tidy All The Time”
I am the WORST at keeping my house clean! Great tips here!
I know the feeling. I’ve had to learn to find what works for me.
Making the habit of cleaning as the way of life is the best way to do. Just like the Japanese people, kids are in-charge to clean their classrooms.
Yes, it helps you concentrate and improves productivity.
Decluttering gives me that therapeutic feeling. Makes me feel good and motivating.
I need to start doing these! I do try to always clean as I go, but sometimes I do get behind. I’m also working on decluttering.
These are the great tips for keep our home tidy and well organized. Find the right place for every things is a best idea. This will make peoples also organized.
Great tips! We donated lots of toys at the end of the year. As far as shoes, we have a basket for our girls’ shoes in the entryway. In our entryway closet, I have a shoe rack for my husband’s and my shoes we use for the season. The rest of our shoes are in our bedroom closet.
I love these tips! Last year I created a “free basket” for when all of my friends/family visit. Whatever is left over I donate.
Good thinking on the basket.
Cleaning as you go is a great one. We try to do a 10 minute sweep before we go to bed each night so the house is clean when we wake up. It’s nice to wake up to a clean house.
Good thinking on the 10-minute sweep. I try to do it before the kids wake up.
This is so loaded and so much I read from this blog that will be of benefit to me. Thank you for this meaningful post ❤️
I also work from home, and homeschool my daughter. I thought it would be easier to keep things neat and clean while being here, boy was I wrong! These are tips that I use to keep my home semi tame!
Ugh. It always seems easier. It definitely isn’t.
I have not heard of putting the toys in a bag and giving them away. I have heard of rotatingredients the unused toys back into play. My kids have a lot of toys and don’t play with all of them and wouldn’t ask for them but when I bring stuff out from the bottom of the toy box they play with it eagerly.