Daily habits to keep your house clean and tidy

Last Updated on November 9, 2024

I don’t do well with clutter and mess, and since having kids, I’ve had to work extra hard at keeping my house clean and tidy, because kids come with a lot of things, and they can make a lot of mess, and for me excess clutter and mess makes me moody, irritated, and generally hard to be around.

In order to manage my feelings towards clutter and mess, I’ve implemented some daily habits to keep my house clean and tidy, which have helped to keep me sane, and keep my house at a level of tidy that I can deal with.

Of course there are always times during the day when clutter and mess builds up, and I can feel myself getting anxious and annoyed during these times, but by doing at least one of these daily habits when these feelings arise, I can feel better about it.

If you’d like some ways to keep your house clean and tidy, here are the daily habits that help me not only organise a home, but that keep my house at a level of clean and tidy that I can cope with.

Clean as you go

Cleaning or putting things away as you go doesn’t take a lot of time, but makes a big difference to keeping a house clean and tidy.

Some examples on how to clean or put things away as you go include:

• Cleaning dishes while dinner’s cooking
• Wiping kitchen counters as soon as a mess is made
• Investing in easy to clean surfaces in your kitchen, including products like coloured glass splashbacks, which make wiping away spills and stains easy and fast
• Putting dirty dishes into the dishwasher as soon as they’re used
• Putting your grocery shopping away as soon as you bring them home
• Dealing with mail as soon as it arrives
• Putting clothes away, or in a laundry hamper as soon as you take them off

Cleaning or putting things away as you go is something that can take time to get into the habit of, but once you do, it’s an easy way to keep your house clean and tidy without even thinking about it.

Dirty dishes tub

Having a dirty dishes tub is an easy daily habit to keep your house clean and tidy.

I have a black plastic tub in my kitchen that’s located next to the sink, and it’s where I put dirty dishes and cutlery before I wash them.

Doing this means dishes and cutlery are out of sight, so the kitchen counters aren’t cluttered with them.

Make the bed

One way to make a bedroom feel tidy is to make the bed every morning.

This can be done easily by keeping bedding to a minimum, for example, not having a top sheet, or not having a lot of pillows.

Speed cleans

I do two speed cleans every day to help me minimise the amount of clutter and mess I encounter as the day progresses.

My first daily speed clean is in the morning, where I clean the breakfast dishes, wipe the table, and sweep the floors.

My second daily speed clean is before I go to bed, where I tighten the blankets on the couch, put away toys, and remove anything from downstairs that shouldn’t be there.

Doing these speed cleans in the morning and at night means I start and end the day with a clean and tidy house.

Daily decluttering

I’m constantly decluttering, which really helps to keep a house tidy with kids, because the less you have, the less you have to put away.

To make decluttering a daily habit, you can declutter any items you find around the house that you don’t use, and place them in a donation pile, so once the pile is large enough you can donate them all at once.

You can also make decluttering a larger job that you may schedule once a month, or once a season, where you can do decluttering projects that allow you to declutter your home fast, or declutter smaller spaces at a time, such as a room, or even a drawer.

Don’t leave a room empty handed

A daily habit to keep your house clean and tidy that I love is to never leave a room empty handed.

This means whenever leaving a room you take whatever doesn’t belong there and put it where it does belong.

When I do this I keep the one touch rule in mind, which means whatever I’m carrying has to go exactly where it belongs, it can’t be moved somewhere closer, then moved again later.

I hope you’ve found some habits here that you’d like to implement in your home.

How do you keep you house clean and tidy?