With everything that goes on in our life, it’s hard to find time to clean. It is usually our homes that suffer the most, since we barely have the time or the energy to clean and tidy after a long day. Even daily housekeeping can be hard, especially if you are the only one doing it or if you have young children who are bent on being untidy; to keep your home organized can be the hardest task ever. 

On the other hand, cleaning up can be easy if you know the right tricks. When you know exactly what to do to keep your home tidy, you can do everything in a fraction of the time and effort needed before. With practice and a little expertise, keeping your home tidy will start to come automatically to you, and not feel like such a chore.

Here are some housekeeping tips and tricks that can help you finish your work before time, give less effort to unnecessary tasks, and even enjoy yourself in the process. 

  • Make your bed first thing in the morning. This should be the first thing you do every morning, right after you wake up. You might think that making your bed every morning might be a waste of time, especially after you’ll just make it untidy at night. On the contrary, if you start your day by making your bed, you would have accomplished the first task of the day even before you’ve left your bedroom. 

This can be the start of your housekeeping chores every day, and you’ll love returning home to a clean and tidy bed in the evening. It doesn’t have to be something elaborate; all you need to do is to straighten the bed sheet, return the pillows to their original location and fold your blanket. 

  • Don’t try to be a Perfectionist. If you are a perfectionist who won’t be satisfied until they have cleaned every speck of dust around the house, your job will never be finished. Instead, try and settle for “clean enough”. Dusting your furniture tops and vacuuming your floors a few times a week should be enough; if you want everything to be sparkling, you might have to end up cleaning your home twice a day. Be satisfied when your home is around 75% or 80% clean, instead of a 100% spotless. 
  • Create a 20-minute regime every night. Before you go to bed at night, spend 20 minutes around your home, tidying and cleaning. Your unwashed dishes should be the top priority during this time, or folding your laundry; you can also spend this 20 minute putting books back into their shelves, light dusting or sorting through your pantry, making a list of everything that you need to buy. This night time cleaning regime doesn’t require you to do anything serious, just a last-minute supervision of the house. 
  • Make Rounds of your Home Throughout the Day. All through theday, whenever you take a turn round the house, never leave a room empty-handed. Everywhere, you can find something that needs to be put back in their original location: unfolded laundry back to the wardrobe, dirty coffee mugs to the sink, dirty clothes to the hamper, children’s toys back to their rooms. This way, you won’t have to spend extra time tidying up your home; you will be doing so all through the day without even realizing what you are doing. 
  • Declutter your Home. The biggest mistake we can do at home is to clutter it up, by buying more than what we need and never throwing away anything. This is exactly how homes get cluttered up, when we refuse to throw away anything even after we have done using them or when we don’t need them anymore. 

There are some people who like to hoard all their belongings, even things that are considered to be trash, i.e. old newspapers, empty cartons, clothes that no longer fit them, etc. If this is something you do, housekeeping can be almost impossible. Learn to declutter your home, even when throwing away something pains you. Your old clothes that no longer fit you, baby clothes that you’ve saved for no one in particular, old text books you won’t ever need, toys your children no longer play with, or old jars, containers and boxes you won’t need in the future – everything has to go. 

Declutter your home before you start to organize or clean it; unless you only have what you need and use, and tidying would become easier. 

  • Don’t keep too many open Spaces. Wherever there is an empty wardrobe top, a chair or a table, there is the chance of you unwillingly filling up with things that never belong anywhere. Keep such open and inviting spaces to a minimum so that they don’t fill up; instead, keep lots of drawers and cupboards around, so that even if you fill them up, it doesn’t make a mess of things. 
  • Keep your Cleaning Supplies Handy. It is much more convenient if you can keep basic cleaning supplies spread around the house instead of in one particular place, especially wash clothes and detergent. This way, whenever you see something dirty – furniture top, a mirror or a picture frame – you can immediately clean it without having to wait for another time. 
  • Don’t dirty too much Dishes. Whether you are cooking yourself or ordering in, try not to dirty too many dishes. Eat out of the pan if you are baking something, or eat from the cartons if you have ordered food. Pile everything on a single plate instead of dirtying other dishes to set the table, even when you are with company. Wrap your plates with plastic before eating, and you won’t even have to wash your plates. The fewer dishes you dirty, the fewer dishes you have to wash. 

It doesn’t take much to keep your home tidy and clean, if you only know the tricks. What’s important is that you minimize your belongings to keep just what you need and use, and nothing more, and that you keep everything in its place. You won’t have to spend too much time on tidying up your house if you don’t leave anything for later, but do everything when the situation demands it.