How to Clean your House when not Cleaning

With two small kids, it is not possible to keep my house organized even for an hour and I don’t restrict my kids from playing around in the house. But still I try to keep the house in a certain shape. It is not easy; however, it is not laborious also. It has taken years of reading articles and watching videos to develop this habit of continuously decluttering and organizing. I give an hour or so every day to actively clean my house and after that one hour, I continue to clean and declutter as I go about my day. No, I don’t walk with a broom in my hand but I follow a few tips that do not consume time or energy but give excellent results.

You can keep your feet up and let your system work for you!

Here are the 10 tips that you can follow to keep your house clean even when you are not cleaning.

De-clutter 24/7 – You should not wait for a special day to take out the unnecessary items from your house. If you come across a thing which is broken, old, or not required anymore, immediately pick it up and dispose it off into the respective garbage bin or keep it in your de-clutter basket to be thrown away later.
Assign a place for Everything – When you assign a place for everything in the house, your house automatically becomes organized. Even if you are buying a new furniture piece, kitchen tool, or cosmetics, make sure you have an allotted place for it.

It becomes easy to clean the house when you and your family members know where a certain thing has to be kept.

3. Keep one Collecting Basket – Keep one collecting basket in the room your family lives in the most. Once or twice a day, scan the room and pick all the things that do not belong in that room and put those things in the basket. For example, if your family likes to sit in the living room most of the time, you will have many additional items like, socks, books, combs, toys, electronic items, etc. You can also educate your family to replace the items from the basket to their assigned place.

You can keep one storage basket in each room and educate your family members to dump everything that does not belong in their room.

4. Never Walk Empty-Handed – This point has been repeated many times by many bloggers and if done even 50% of the time, will greatly help you to keep your house organized. Whenever you are moving from one room to another, pick anything that is out of the place or to be thrown in the bin and take it along with you.

5. Keep Cleaning Clothes within Reach – Maintain a basket or a drawer of cleaning clothes like micro-fiber for dusting and some bigger old clothes to wipe accidental spills. I maintain a drawer of cleaning clothes which consists of – Kitchen towels, dusting micro-fiber clothes, Kitchen-counter cleaning sponges, bathroom wipes. Identify a place in your kitchen or bathroom to hang or keep one wipe handy, always.

6. Invest in Good Organizing Storage Boxes – For my kids’ toys and stationary items, I re-use the package boxes from my online orders. I also re-use these boxes in our clothes drawers to keep socks, caps, belts, scarves, sunglasses, etc. But to keep my cosmetics, kitchen pantry items, and important documents, I invest in good and sturdy specially-made storage boxes and folders.

Good points about the specially-made storage boxes are that they look good, are stackable, and are made for specific purposes.

7. Place Floor Mats near all Water Sources – Whether it is near the kitchen sink, bath tub, or bathroom sinks, place soft, absorbing floor mats to avoid footmarks in the entire house. Also, make use of old bed sheets or towels and place them near the balconies or doors during the rainy season.

8. Duster Slippers – Have you heard about duster slippers yet. These are one of the best cleaning tools that you use when you are not cleaning. You just have to wear them and your house will get clean as you move around.

The duster slippers will clean and polish your floors while you are walking around.

9. Swipe and Keep – Every time you pick something which may have gathered dust, remember to wipe it before replacing it. Apply the same rule to your kitchen containers and spice bottles. Each time you pick any container or spice bottle, wipe them before replacing them.

10. Educate, Assign, and Reward – Teach your family members about how to keep the house clean. Assign one area of the house to each family member and motivate them keep their area clean. Teach kids to keep their toys back in the boxes after playing and reward them appropriately.

Assigning house cleaning chores to your family members will not only make them responsible but will make you a smart homemaker.

I am sure, many of you are already following some of the points mentioned here. Based on your house environment, you may adjust a few points here and there. Putting these points in to practice will take some time and some very marginal expense towards buying the organization tools. But once you have put the system in process, you and your family members will start following it in no time.