Daily Cleaning Tasks

Having a clean house on a regular basis means more than just giving the house a good cleaning once a week (or however you break it down). There are things you can do on a daily basis that will make your house look clean everyday.

Here they are:

1) Make the beds - I know a lot of people think, "No one will even see my bedroom except my family, even if they come over for a visit." I used to think like that also. I can tell you from experience that making a bed takes only a couple of minutes, but makes a huge difference in the look and feel of your home. Plus, I believe it encourages you to keep those rooms picked-up more since mess begets mess. ;) I would also encourage you to teach your children to make their beds at a young age as you are teaching them a habit and habits are pretty hard to break whether good or bad.

2) Straighten up - There are many ways to keep your house straightened, but the number one way is to simply put things back when you are done with them. If you find that this isn't working, I recommend having a few times a day where you straighten up (before leaving the house in the morning so things are nice when you get home, before naptime, before dinner/spouse comes home, at night before bed). If you keep things picked-up your house will always give the appearance of being clean. Again, I encourage teaching children to straighten up and put things back when they are done using them. They can do this as young as 6 months with your help.

3) Take out the trash (as needed, not necessarily daily) - When your trash cans overflow it can be frustrating and look messy. I know that the trash can in the kitchen is a big one for me. I can't stand to go cook a meal and need to throw things away and the trash be full. Trash cans around the house can be emptied throughout the week into the big trash can. I know when my bathroom trash can would overflow, it would look so dirty in there even if I had cleaned it.

4) Wash dishes and/or load the dishwasher - Even if you just use one or two dishes for lunch, it makes life easier to just go ahead and rinse them off and put them in the dishwasher. It's easy to put a couple in the sink, but before you know it, a couple has turned into a whole day's worth of crusty, hard-to-clean dishes that force you to spend a lot of time washing. I recommend washing dishes as you cook dinner also. It is nice to be done cooking and only have to rinse off dinner dishes and put them in the dishwasher.

5) Wipe down the kitchen countertops and table and sweep after meals - When you wipe down everything after meals, it makes coming back for the next meal so much easier. You are going to have to do it at some point, so it's best to do it at the end of the meal rather than a few hours later when you are ready to cook and set the table.

I find that these 5 things really keep my house looking clean and make everything a lot less stressful. If you aren't currently doing them (or even some of them), I would recommend working on one at the time. You don't have to do it all at once. Gradual steps will get you there. I would start with making the bed first as it is the first thing you do in the morning and gets you off on the right foot.

I hope these tips have helped. :)