Article: Inhabitant
Keep Your Home Clean By Developing Habits To Keep
Don’t put it down, put it away.
So much time is spent just putting things away or where they belong, that it makes sense to remind yourself to put things away instead of just putting them down. Make this a mantra that you repeat every time you or one of your family members have something in your hands that you’re tempted to put down, rather than put away. Print it on a piece of paper and hang it on the fridge to get everyone in on the “put it away” mode!
Clean As Needed
Why wait four more days to clean the toilet if it needs cleaning now? By cleaning on an as-needed basis, the house will stay cleaner longer, and will help you reduce those all-day marathon cleaning sessions.
Pick Up As You Go
When walking from one room to the next; don’t go empty-handed. Take that basket of laundry that’s been waiting to go to the bedrooms. Make every trip through the house worth something by carrying something from one room to the next. Leaving the living room for the evening? Straighten pillows, pick up toys, and fold sofa throws. A lot of cleaning can be done in just 60 seconds.
Spot Clean
Don’t keep walking by those finger smudges on the door trim or the cake splatters on the kitchen cabinets. Clean as you see the smudges and spots and you’ll be amazed at how clean your paint stays and how good your wood work looks. Keep a damp microfiber cloth that’s been lightly sprayed with an all-purpose cleaner in a plastic bag or a used baby-wipe container. Then, when there’s a spot somewhere, you’ve got an instant cleaner on hand.
Buy Good Cleaning Products
Most people use an old t-shirt for a dust rag and hang on to bath towels for odd jobs around the house. Dusting with an old, dirty undershirt wouldn’t make anyone feel like cleaning. But, quality cleaning products and tools, such as microfiber towels for cleaning, polishing, etc., will help keep you motivated to clean. Why microfiber? Because microfiber has a cleaning power second to none. Its fibers are made so that it can scrub away dirt, smudges, and spills more effectively than any rag or paper towel – and without cleaners. (Microfiber can effectively get rid of up to 96% of bacteria with water alone – important if someone in your home is chemically sensitive). Stock your home with microfiber towels for glass, bathrooms, general cleaning, polishing (brass, cars, etc.), and quality cleaning products, and you’ll clean more often… and cleaning more often makes every home a cleaner home.
Designate An Entry Area
If you enter the house through the garage or laundry room and don’t have an actual space to put shoes, purses, keys, jackets, bookbags, etc., then chances are you have that mess all over the house and have a hard time finding your keys when you’re ready to leave. Establish a point of entry for the family, where everyone leaves dirty shoes, books, purses, etc. Set up this area with hooks for keys, purses, jackets, etc., and shelves for mail. A simple area can be created inexpensively. This keeps everything together in one place so the clutter doesn’t go all over the house, and you can find your purse when you’re ready to leave.
Everyone Helps
Assign duties to everyone in the house. Or, assign rooms to everyone in the house, in addition to their bedrooms. If the children play in the living room with toys, then assign them the living room to keep clean. Everyone lives in the house, so everyone can help. Too often, household chores and tasks fall on one person. Make it everyone’s job and everything stays cleaner.
Use The Doormat
Keeping a doormat in front of every outdoor access point will help keep unwanted chemicals and bacteria, dust and dirt out of the house. A government study also confirmed this with a “Doormat Study” in the early 90’s that showed household dust and chemicals were greatly reduced just by the presence of a good mat at the door.
Leave Shoes At The Door
One of the quickest ways to prolong the life of your carpets and keep carpets and floors cleaner longer, is to adopt a no-shoes policy for your family in your household. However, when it comes to guests, do not extend this policy to them since it makes people with dress-sense conscious unnecessarily uncomfortable. Remember they are your guest, so treat them as such.
You Have A Schedule
Cleaning the bathrooms, changing the sheets, clearing out cobwebs, dusting baseboards, getting carpets steam cleaned, all these household activities are ones that should be on a regular schedule. Keep a schedule of all the activities you need to do and by sticking to the schedule, your house will stay cleaner easier and longer.
De-clutter
Yes, every home has junk and it’s got to go. You cannot keep a clean home if you have three years’ worth of magazines stacked up. Spend 15 minutes every day getting rid of junk and clutter and you will find that over time your house gets cleaner and cleaner and easier to keep.
