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How To Keep Your House Clean
87Keeping a clean and organized house is one of my specialties and since I have four kids from teen to toddler, I feel fairly qualified to share some tips on how I do it. I am not exactly sure if you are referring to clean as in free from dirt or free from clutter. Either way I will share my best tips.
De-Cluttering
There is nothing worse to the psyche than a really cluttered home. Did you know that physical clutter leads to visual clutter and that causes a person a great deal of stress? There are some really easy ways to tackle this problem but it takes a definite committment depending on how bad the situation is.
First, you need to tackle one room at a time. If the room is too big to handle in one day then break it up into smaller projects. The key is to not get discouraged. That can lead to inactivity. If you watch the show "Clean Room" you will get some helpful hints on how to sort through your clutter. The best way is to completely empty the space of everything from stuff to furniture to trash. It is preferable to move the stuff outside as opposed to another living space in the home. Once you clear the entire area, give the space a good cleaning because you don't want to return your stuff to a dirty area. Now comes the big job of tackling your stuff outside. Set up three different areas. One area is for stuff to keep, one area is for stuff to throw away, and the third area is for donation. You will need to go through your stuff one by one and start sorting EVERYTHING. You will need to be diligent in making sure that most of your stuff lands in the give away or discard pile since the object is to return to the space only the things that you absolutely need to live. You need to do this for each and every room in the house until you have a space that is clutter free.
But that is just the beginning. Now that you have rid your house of clutter the next big step is to keep it that way. You need to think in terms of an organized system. One main tip that I like to follow to keep on top of clutter is to handle things right away as soon as they present themselves. For example, dirty dishes get washed and put away right when they go to the sink. Mail gets sorted and put in its proper place as soon as I walk in the door. A system will help you gain control of your home thus making it a lot easier to keep clean. There are many good books that go into further explanation than I can provide on this hub but I also invite you to my blog because I am starting an "Organize Your Home" series that you might enjoy. You can reach my blog at http://terrysbook.blogspot.com
Past The Clutter
You are now past the clutter and ready to keep the area clean. The best way to keep on top of the cleanliness of your house is to always be cleaning it. Now that might seem like a tall task but it is not. What I mean by cleaning it all the time is that you do small, tiny jobs as you move along in the house. For example, when you are cooking you should not wait until later to clean the dishes or pots and pans. Another example is cleaning the bathrooms. Instead of waiting until a certain day of the week to tackle the bathroom, clean it whenever you are in that room. When I take a shower, I take a minute after my shower to scrub the shower down with a washcloth. I keep cleaner in the shower to make the job easier. If I do this every day the task doesn't become overwhelming. Same thing with cleaning the toilet. I keep cleaning wipes near the toilet so whenever I am finished with the toilet, I take a wipe and clean all around it. The same idea applies with the sink and countertops. If you keep cleaning wipes in all rooms of the house you will find that running a wipe along and around the room while you are in it will be a tremendous help in keeping your house clean and smelling nice all day long. Doing all of this every day frees up your time when you have to tackle the bigger jobs like floor mopping or vacumming.
Create Good Habits
It is important to maintain good habits in order to keep a clean and well organized house. It is not impossible but it does take a committment. If you set yourself up to make the chores as easy as possible you will see that cleaning your house can be easier than you thought and you will be happy with the results.
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Good info, time to clean!!
I have been trying to get a grip on this for .......well....... a long time..
Its that on again off again thing for me..
Very true! It can be hard to get into the habit of "always cleaning", but once you do, it becomes second nature. I work pretty hard to keep my house in order and with 3 kids I feel like I'm always picking something up. But it's worth it to do it in small steps...it's not so overwhelming that way. Thanks for the great read. =)
This hub has been so helpful. Thanks so much for writing it.
Thanks to everyone for providing your excellent feedback. I am going to be dedicating a lot on this subject on my blog and am in the process of writing an ebook. Thanks again.
I think I need to come in and read this every day to keep me motivated to get the place cleaned up. I have three boys and my place is always cluttered - and that's an understatement
I can get it clean, but with the clutter, it never looks clean. I need to truly get rid of half of what I own to be able to live comfortably in this house. Most of what is here is trash anyway.
Thanks for this read. I'm always interested in hearing cleaning tips! There was a lot of good information here. :)
Nice tips.Add some more if you are retaining there in mind.Thanks
Nice tips.Add some more if you are retaining there in mind.Thanks
Good tips! I would love to read more of your household tips and cooking tips.
thanks you really helped!!!even though im 13!!!!!!your the best!!!!
You've given me and my parents some really good tips.
Believe it or not, I'm a kid at the age of ten, and I like a clean room and house! So please keep on writing, this really helps!
Become a minimalist. throw/give away everyting unless it really means something. Beleive me I have a very bad habbit of cluttering. So bad my husband hired someone to help me keep the house. she's great but will be leaving us soon. I have promised myself to stay on top of things. I have four kids ranging from 18 to 1 month. Clutter creates too much stress.
when you said clean room' did you mean clean house?
I will try! : D
I agree clutter is stressful on top of handling a 3 yr son I am always stressed and you are probably right about the physical clutter leading to visible clutter I do have a lot of past issues and present issues. I have a lot of clutter and my house is also dirty on top of all that and it is very frustrating to try to deal with and my 3 yr. old is no help it seems I am always after him and trying to make him mind I imagine the clutter has a lot to do with it. I am trying out flylady.com but seems like I always get off track or am always dealing with my son. Any tips for someone in chaos.
nice article...very useful tips
Hi Ginger. If you are on facebook you should join my facebook group called "Organizing your Home and Life". If clutter is getting you down, you need to start small and work your way through it. You need to develop systems that work for you and make it easy for your son to pick up after himself. Follow my blog at http://homeorganizing.wordpress.com and you will find some really helpful tips.
One very important thing is the disposal of stuff when it is needed.De cluttering is another side of it.Thanks for the tips and guidance...keeping the house clean is a way to healthy life.
Great post. Thanks a lot to the author. Found this from search engine. ??????? ??????.
I just wanted to thank you for posting such helpful ideas on this page. I especially like the idea of sorting out your stuff onto 3 sections, I mean my dad is always bringing in furniture of all sort, really bugs me.
nice idea on putting it outside because you are less likely to bring it all back in. i have been wanting to get rid of some big funiter because it takes up to much room in my small living area, but wishfull thinking of getting a room added on has stopped me, however if i got it out the door i know i wouldnt bring it back in because it is so heavy and not realy needed. thanks for the tips
It took me a long time that a lot of modern stress is caused by clutter. It is so true that when we de-clutter our homes then our minds and lives feel less cluttered too. I would certainly agree with your tips on de-cluttering - thanks.
Great hub and good tips. I just wonder what to do with a husband and a son who don't mind clutter or dirt in the least, but will fight for every peace to stay and not participate at all in a daily clean-it-up routine... When I lived alone, I did what you recommended, and it was a piece of cake. But now... Big change... Can't clean up behind three in the few hours I'm home. Any tips for that? Thanks for the hub!
True enough having to clean always especially if you have school and work can be taken for granted. According to studies it takes at least 21 days to make a habit of something. This proves that daily cleaning will make it easy for people to make a habit of it. With the tips provided for in this post, it will make things easier for anyone.
Thanks for the information.
You are so right...decluttering is the foundation of being able to keep your house clean. Great hub voted up and useful.
Hi! I came across your page here about how to keep a clean house. I must say--I got rather emotional and had an ah ha! moment that someone can finally tell me something that makes sense! I'm a young mom of 4 and I have just moved from a larger house to a slightly smaller one and the clutter has taken over! My house looks so messy and it just feels dirty. After reading your post I went and picked a room and got to work. It's amazing how much stuff I hold on to that I don't ever use! I was able to finish one room in 4 hours and it is immaculate and I feel great! Thank you so much!
Hi, I am a mom of a soon to be 8 yr old girl and I am pregnant w/ our second girl who is due in less than 4 months, I have cried and I have busted butt trying to get this small house baby ready...I have thrown away so much and still there is so much to get rid of, it seems a never ending cycle...thanks for the tips! Hopefully I can get baby ready in time!
Clean different parts of the house during different days. The whole cleaning process cannot be completed on a single day. You can consider cleaning toilets on one day and furniture on the other. This way, you can split the burden of house cleaning and enjoy the process.
House cleaning is depend on lot of things. Normally we see the school children create paper past and other plastic wast waste item if we use that for recycle and earn money also.
You can use http://www.data-struction.com/ for document shredding...Thanks
wow thanks this did not help at all this sucked jkjkjk im bored thats why i did this hahah
Thanks for the tips! I always have cleaning wipes in my bathroom, but I don't have the habit to use them every day. Also, the mopping or vacuum time is not a fixed, and I think I need to have a routine for this. I have no excuses, because I have a irobot roomba for vacuum!
Thanks for your inspiration. I hope your tips work for me and I could share with my readers at my blog www.soyminimal.com (which is in Spanish).
Kat07 4 years ago
Oh yeah, clutter is the enemy! I am actually finding that right now I do not have the proper pieces of furniture to store away a lot of my clutter. It's no wonder I look around and see a mess everywhere!