Cleaning and Maintaining

Cleaning a house is such a daunting task. You scrub and wipe and sweep and vacuum and it feels like in a few days you didn't even do it. I have learned that in order to have to spend less time cleaning, I need to spend a little more time maintaining. My goal is to hit each area of my home and get it really clean once a week. Then I strive to maintain the rest of the week. I thought that I would share what I do to keep things looking good between cleaning sessions.

Kitchen
Dishes – I have posted before about not letting dishes pile up. They get grosser each second they sit unwashed. They also clutter up the kitchen sink (counter, etc) as they sit. The best tip is to rinse them after each meal or snack and load them up in the dishwasher. When the dishwasher is done, unload ASAP. While the dishwasher is running or waiting to be unloaded at least rinse the dishes so they don't get crusty.
Counters/table – Wipe them down after meal prep and meals. Especially make sure you wipe down the kitchen after dinner.
Sweep – Sweep the floor after meals (or at least after dinner).
Trash – Empty trash before it is overflowing.
Refrigerator – Toss food when it isn't going to be eaten and/or has expired. That way you don't have a science project in your refrigerator when you go to clean it each week.
Microwave – If something splatters or spills quickly wipe it up so it doesn't get crusty.

Living Room
Straighten up – Have the kids clean up their toys (my goal is to do toy cleanup before we leave each room/leave the house/go to bed). Put things away when you are done with them (remotes, pillows, blankets).
Vacuum – Run a quick vacuum through the room every few days (or more often if you have crawlers).

Bathrooms
Wipe down – Keep a canister of cleaning wipes under the sink that you can use really quickly to wipe the sinks and toilet down every few days. I also like to keep glass cleaner and paper towels to clean the mirror and faucets.

Bedrooms
Make beds – A made bed makes a bedroom look clean.

These things will keep your house from looking messy and getting even messier. If you wipe stuff down every few days, you won't have a build-up of grossness to deep clean.

What do you do to keep things looking good between cleaning sessions?