How To Keep A Clean House – 10 Tips That Work!

Learn my favorite tips and tricks for designing, decorating and maintaining a clean house effortlessly. The real secret of how to keep a clean house is practical design choices and implementing daily routines allowing you to keep your home clean with as little effort as possible!

Keeping up with the weekly cleaning schedule can often be a drag or feel overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to take up all your time.  The trick is, keeping a clean home is less about the time involved and more about design practicality and creating some good habits that will (eventually!) start to just become instinct.

If you can clean and not even really be thinking about it – that’s a win, right!

Before we get to all tips and tricks, let me say, “clean” is all relative. Our home isn’t perfect and if you were just to pop in for a visit, you should know that I share this house with two very big and messy doodles, two rambunctious (but very cute) boys, and very loving husband that means well. But man oh man, all of them can and do work against me.

And you should also know that I’m absolutely the worst about dusting! I hate it and I’m a little embarrassed to say, I often neglect it way too long. (I see you dust bunnies!)

Even though some days can get crazy and I’m not able to keep up with my daily cleaning routine, for the most part, these 10 tidy home tips really help me out. I’ve found it’s the best way for me to stay on top of the clutter and messes in the entire house while still being a busy mom!

So now let’s talk about how to keep a clean house! I’m sharing design strategies, what you should tidy first thing in the morning and a 2-minute task I do every night before bed.

In The Morning, Make The Bed

You may think making your bed is a waste of time, but it really it’s the little things that make a big difference in how tidy a bedroom looks. And it doesn’t take much time at all to do! 

I make this task as easy as possible and ditched the top sheet years ago. Best idea ever! It was always getting bunched at the bottom of the bed and drove me nuts. So now, it’s just a duvet in a washable cover!

Choose Neutral Indoor/Outdoor Rugs

Why do I love light, neutral colored rugs? Because it’s easier to see the dirt and they’re easy to clean. Weekly frequent vacuuming keeps dirt from embedding. And they almost always wipe clean with a wet cloth, but can even be deep cleaned with a hose or pressure washer!

Another reason why they’re a good idea – very pet friendly! You never know what the dogs might do in the middle of the night. (It’s never on the hardwood floors – always on the rugs!)

And speaking of flooring, wood floors are easy to clean and often hid the dirt.

Block Dirt Before It Enters Your Home

You may be thinking, great idea Laura – how do I do that? The best way to keep a clean house is to keep the dirt out.

Our whole family has a routine as soon as they enter, remove the shoes. We place them in ottomans by the front door or baskets under a bench by our garage door.

Another way to stop dirt is to use rugs and doormats both inside and outside of the door. Be sure to vacuum them every few days or shake them outside.

Pillow Covers Are Your Friends

My husband, the boys, heck – even the dogs are tough on my pillows. They’re tossed onto the floors, the dogs rub their bodies into them, they get dirt quick. So being able to remove the covers and give them a quick washing is life-saving!

If you are looking for some tips on how to mix and match pillows like the pros, I have some great tricks to achieve that professional look here.

Decluttering Eliminates Cleaning

This one may need to be implemented over a longer period of time, but taking the time to declutter and organize your home is a great way to drastically cut down on the amount of time you need to keep a clean house.  

Designating a spot for everything (that is both easily accessible and easy to put away) makes it so much easier to tidy up – for both you and the rest of your family.

And less stuff out on the counters and surface tops cuts down on dusting (YES!!!!) and makes cleaning a lot quicker.  If you are unsure of where to start, try my 4 Week Simple Declutter Challenge.

Select Furniture That Cleans Easily

Not long after our first son was born, we went couch furniture shopping. I knew I wanted something that I could easily clean and could take a beating from dogs and kids. So we went with a leather sectional. It’s been great! A quick wipe down with some disinfectant and paper towels – and I’m good to go!

If you’re not a fan of leather, try slipcovered furniture. Our Ektorp sofa slipcover has been washed many times and always come out clean. Wine, soda, mac and cheese, sidewalk chalk, you name it. It’s all came out in the wash!

Clean As You Go

I am continuously picking up items as I walk through the house. If I see something in the kitchen that belongs upstairs and I’m heading that direction, I drop it off and put it away. Random kid books or toys in the living room make their way to the stairs and when I go upstairs I drop them off in the boys bedroom.

Try to get in the habit of never leaving a room empty handed. Always try to do a quick scan to see if there is anything that you can take with you that belongs where you are going.

This tip doesn’t really require a lot of time, so once you make this a habit – it will be so helpful in the long run and reduce your cleaning time. Bonus points if you can get family members to do this as well!

Minimize The Dust

Believe me – this is one of my biggest goals in my home. Why? Cause I hate to deal with it!

One of my favorite ways to of eliminating dust in the kitchen was extending my cabinets all the way up to the ceiling. I said ‘goodbye’ to a common dust trap that occurs often in many homes.

Vacuuming regularly (thanks to my Roomba) and using an air-purifier has helped a ton! Also I’ve found that changing our furnace air filters once a month can make a big impact on the dust in our home.

Do One Load of Landry A Day

A daily laundry habit is life-changing! I like to pop a load in the washer after I get the boys off to school. But if you work outside the home, maybe start a load before heading to work. Or, if your washing machine has a delayed start cycle, set it to run right before you get home.

Then transfer damp clothes to the dryer before dinner, then fold them after dinner while catching a show on Netflix. Putting away one load of laundry takes almost no time. I grab mine out of the laundry room on my way to bed. One load a day is such an easy way for me to stay on top of the laundry in less time. And no one has to go naked! 😉

Last Thing, Kitchen Shut Down

Every night before I head upstairs for bed, I take a couple of minutes to straighten up the kitchen. I get my coffee maker all set up for my favorite morning cup of coffee.

I then make sure all dirty dishes are out of the kitchen sink and start the dish washer for the night. Then I quickly wipe down all the counters one last time and take out the trash.

Waking up to a clean, fresh kitchen always does my heart good. It’s helps me start the day in a calm and soothing way. So taking a few minutes of time at the end of the day is totally worth it to me!

MORE CLEANING HELP:

If you are looking for even more cleaning ideas, be sure to check out these popular posts as well:

• My Best Cleaning Tips
• What You Need To Get A Clean Kitchen – FAST!
• How To Clean & Organize The Fridge

I hope you enjoyed these tips on how to keep a clean house! I’d love to see yours in the comments!