Sometimes it feels like all you’re ever doing is cleaning something when you’re at home. And if you take a day off from cleaning, things can quickly pile up and it may seem like an impossible task to keep your house clean and tidy. These five house cleaning tips will help you keep your house clean. When there just aren’t enough hours in your day to do it all yourself, reach out to a trusted, locally-owned company to help you.

You don’t have to be a clean freak to want a tidy home but sometimes real life gets in the way. Tackling the mess with these simple and amazing tips will have you relaxing in a clean home in no time.

Gather Your Cleaning Supplies

When you’re ready to tackle cleaning, it’s important to have everything you’ll need to be able to get your house in tip top shape. There’s nothing worse than having to stop to run to the store to get supplies while you’re cleaning.

Here are some of the things you’ll need to keep on hand to clean:

Paper towels and rags to wipe down surfaces
Newspapers to wash the windows
Cleaners – having a window cleaner and multi-surface cleaner will take care of most of the surfaces in your home
Natural cleaners – baking soda, white vinegar, and dish detergent are all great options
Mop and bucket
Vacuum
Broom

Where to Find Cleaning Supplies

You can get cleaning supplies at local stores or even order them online and have them delivered right to your home to save you a trip to the store.

Based on your home and what you’re cleaning, you may need some additional supplies. Double-check the cleaning supplies you have on hand as well to make sure you don’t need to restock anything before you get started.

Make sure you have the right supplies the right way. There’s nothing worse than spending all day cleaning than seeing streaky windows or soap scum on your shower door after all of your hard work.

You might not have the right product for the job or you might not have taken the time to read the directions to be sure you’re using it correctly.

Tips for Storing Your Cleaning Supplies

Designate a spot in your house for your cleaning supplies. Some people keep theirs under the kitchen sink. Or in the laundry room. You can also keep your cleaning supplies in the rooms you’re going to use them in.

For example, you could keep your bathroom cleaners under the bathroom sink. Or stain removing products in the laundry room.

If you don’t want to keep cleaning products in multiple rooms, consider getting a plastic tote for them. Organize them by room and choose a tote that has a handle so you can easily grab it and take it where you need it.

Start Out with a Deep Clean

Deep cleaning - a young lady uses a vacuum cleaner

One of the best ways to keep your home clean is by starting out with a deep clean. Go room by room and do a deep clean of the whole house. While you’re cleaning, purge things too. Get rid of those clothes that don’t fit, puzzles and games with missing pieces, and junk mail on the counter.

When you’re cleaning, there are two things that can make it easier and faster: multitask when you can and work from the top down. An example of multitasking would be to strip your bed and wash the sheets while you’re cleaning the rest of the bedroom.

Working from the top of the room to the bottom will save you from having to clean things multiple times. If you start off by sweeping the floor, then dusting the surfaces, you will probably have dust bunnies on the floor and will need to sweep again.

Here are some things you’ll want to focus on during your deep cleaning:

Dusting surfaces – bookshelves, end tables, decor, picture frames, bedside table, coffee table, ceiling fans, window sills, light fixtures, etc.
Sheets and linens – wash your blankets, pillows, throw pillows, curtains, rugs, etc.
Floors – sweep, vacuum, mop family room, bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen floor, etc
Trash – empty trash cans in every room
Wipe down surfaces – walls, doorknobs, outlets, light switches, baseboards, etc
Table and chairs – tops, bottoms, and legs of a kitchen, dining table, etc. and chairs
Furniture – vacuum, flip cushions, clean underneath, etc
Closets – clean out, declutter
Laundry – wash dirty items, clean the laundry room including the washing machine and dryer, get rid of broken laundry baskets, etc
Dishes – wash dirty dishes, put away clean dishes, get rid of things that are broken
Windows and mirrors – wash inside and outside of windows, clean mirrors
Kitchen – fridge, oven, microwave, coffee maker, dishwasher, dining room table, etc
Bathrooms – clean showers, bathtubs, toilets, sinks, mirrors, grout, bathroom counters, hang fresh towels, empty the laundry hamper, etc
Entrances – sweep up dirt tracked in, wipe down door handles and door frames, wash windows in and around doors, etc
Bedrooms – change sheets, wash pillows, clean under the bed, flip mattresses, etc

If that all sounds like a lot to take on, consider having someone come in and do a deep cleaning for you. That will make keeping it up easier.

Get Organized During Your Deep Clean

During your deep cleaning, make sure that everything has a place. Move all the shoes you wear on a daily basis by the front door. This will make the shoes easy to find and keep your family from tracking dirt through the house. Find a home for all of the toys, games, and puzzles. It will be easier to clean up and put away because everyone will know where they belong.

Have you told yourself you don’t have enough storage space? It’s time to get creative as you’re deep cleaning and come up with some creative solutions. Use an over-the-door shoe holder for water bottles or rolls of paper towels. Get bins to store out-of-season things under your bed so they’re out of the way.

Come Up with a System to Keep Your House Clean

Now that you’ve gotten everything cleaned and put away, it’s time to keep up with it. Use our cleaning checklist to make sure you don’t miss anything during your daily housekeeping. Here are some great tips to help you:

Come up with a cleaning schedule that works for you. Spend 15 minutes a day picking up the house before you go to bed each night. Do a quick walk-through and a quick wipe down of surfaces.

Tackle things like the dishes and kitchen counter before you head to bed. That way when you wake up in the morning, you’re ready to start the day. No one likes waking up to a messy kitchen.

Take care of things right away. When you get up in the morning, make your bed. Or when the laundry is done, fold it and put it away instead of letting it sit in the basket. Similarly, make it a habit of putting things away where they sit after each use.

Designate a donate or sell pile. Make sure you’ve got a spot in your house where clothes that no longer fit can go so they’re not taking up space in your closet. The same thing goes for toys, books, and other things around your house. It might be a basket in the closet or a plastic tote in the garage, but everyone knows that this is where things go when your family no longer needs them.

Make it fun. Put together a special playlist that you only play when you’re cleaning and working on chores. Do a short one for those quick cleans and put together a longer one for the times you need to a longer or do a deep clean.

Some things don’t need to be done daily so be sure to have a weekly cleaning schedule too. Things like laundry or mopping the floor might be able to be done on a weekly basis instead of daily.

Before long, you’ll fall into a cleaning routine that works best for you and your family to keep your entire house clean. You’ll be surprised how just spending a few minutes in one room will help keep your home clean.

When you’ve got everything cleaned up, take a picture of the space. You can print the picture out so your family can have a reference of where everything goes. This works great for kids’ bedrooms or playrooms so clothes and books get put away where they belong.

Let Your Family Help Keep Your House Clean

To keep a clean and tidy home is a team effort. Take a look at what needs to be done and delegate some of the tasks to your family members to help with maintaining a clean house.

Before they get started, make sure everyone knows exactly what the goals are for the chores they’re being asked to help with.

Younger kids can get in on the cleaning fun by working on simple tasks like wiping down table tops, cupboard doors, or wiping down door handles. Give them a rag or paper towel with some warm water and let them loose.

Older kids can help with things like loading the dishwasher, sweeping and mopping floors, or changing sheets. Having the kids get involved will help develop good habits so cleaning won’t become a hassle, but just part of their normal routine.

To tackle bigger things like clearing clutter, it’s best if you or your significant other go through those things so nothing important gets accidentally thrown out.

What To Do When You Don’t Have Time to Keep Your House Clean

There just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. We all have to make decisions on how we spend our time.

Use the time you’ve got to tackle some of your cleaning projects. When you’re decorating for a holiday or celebration, that’s a good time to clean at least parts of your house.

Find some things that work for your pain points. Lots of families use things like a robot vacuum cleaner to help them keep up with cleaning the floors in their homes on a daily basis.

If your laundry basket is always overflowing with dirty clothes, look into finding a laundry service to help wash your clothes for you.

Hiring someone to do recurring housekeeping is a great way to keep your home looking great without taking time away from other things. This will make sure that everything gets taken care of in your home without you having to worry about anything.

Upstairs Downstairs Cleaning Services offers a variety of housekeeping services to the Northwest Chicago suburbs. From deep cleaning services to recurring household cleaning services, you’ll be able to find an option that meets your needs. Contact us today for a free estimate.

How to Keep Your House Clean: 5 Easy Tips