Easy Tips for Maintaining a Clean House

Maintaining a spotless living space, especially when living with those who are less focused on keeping the place tidy, can be a real test of patience. It can take a lot of work to get a place back in order. But if you’re properly prepared, the business of keeping your home perfectly clean shouldn’t take more than a few hours each week. I’ve written about this a few times now, including closet/wardrobe de-cluttering and these laundry tips that you simply can’t live without.  Here in this post, I look at how to maintain a clean house overall:

Clean It Like You Want to Sell It

One approach to keeping your home spotless is to set yourself a goal. In this case, you want the house to look so good when you’re done that you could put it on the market the next day. This is called “staging” and it’s something that companies like Coral Homes, who use display homes as part of their marketing, do all the time. Ever been to a display home that was anything less than immaculate? Those homes are presented in their most idealised form – and that’s what you should be shooting for. But you don’t have to work yourself to the bone to achieve it as long as you follow the advice below.

Have a Plan

The easiest way to make sure everything gets done is to come up with a plan of attack. Typically, moving room to room and doing a two- or three-pass method is the most efficient. On your first pass, you should be doing a major wipe-down or dust of every surface. Your second pass should mainly focus on spot cleaning anything that didn’t come off on the first pass and getting into any hard-to-reach places. The third pass should be focused on tidying and rearranging any decorative items or furniture.

Take Your Time

If you rush, you’re going to miss something. That’s just a fact. Even if you have to stagger your cleaning over the course of a day or two, it’s important that you take your time and remain focused and methodical. If there’s anything you need to go back and tackle again at some point, make a note of it so you don’t forget.

The Little Things

The most common areas of neglect when it comes to household cleaning are areas that are tough to get into or places that are easy to overlook. These can include the dust-trap areas beside and behind the fridge, underneath couches and beds, and on top of cabinetry or bookcases. Being thorough is key to a spotless home.

Rinse, Repeat

Now that you’ve got a plan, you have to turn it into a routine. The good news is the more frequently you can run your cleaning routine, the less work you have to do overall. Some people like to do a big sweep once a week and get everything back in order. Others prefer to do smaller, faster sweeps as often as once a day. It’s entirely up to you but you must commit to a routine in order to maintain a spotless home.

This is just one way to approach the problem of creeping grubbiness. Anyone can clean their home up, but keeping it that way is an entirely different problem altogether. What are your favourite methods for maintaining a spotless house? Share your cleaning secrets in the comments below!