Let’s face it. Cleaning can be a real bitch.
That’s the thing they don’t teach you about adulthood. You will spend half your time making a mess, and the other half cleaning it up… Only to make the exact same mess five minutes later and replace the whole process.
While it may be an ordinary albeit unpleasant part of every adult life, cleaning can be a particularly difficult chore for many people. Whether it’s due to chronic illness, mental health, or just lack of time, doing a full cleaning of your home might be challenging.
3 Quick Ways To Keep Your Home Clean
Personally, I hate cleaning. I struggle with executive dysfunction which makes the entire process quite difficult for me. So, I’ve had to find ways around cleaning to make it more manageable on a day-to-day basis.
There are a few hacks that you can use to spruce up and freshen your space without having to put in hours of effort. Keep reading to find out what they are and how you can implement them!
1. Always put things back where they belong.
This first tip might seem obvious, but chances are, you probably aren’t doing it.
In a world that’s constantly moving, we often get caught up in rushing through tasks and cutting corners. Imagine you grab a pair of scissors to open a package that just arrived. When you finish opening the box, do you put the scissors back where you found them? Or do you leave them in the nearest spot available to you?
I won’t lie to you—I’m definitely guilty of doing #2 way too often. At the moment, it might not seem like a big deal. You swear to yourself that you’ll put them away when you get a free second to do so. What’s the harm in that?
The reality is that you will likely apply this rule to everything else you pick up. Not only will you have to put away a dozen discarded items when you do have a free moment, but until you do, your home will be covered in junk.
The next time that you pick up an item in your home, try to put it back where it belongs straight away. It’ll only take a second to do, but it will save you TONS of time and energy in the long run!
2. Put your dishes in the sink.
We all know that doing the dishes may very well be one of the worst cleaning tasks. For me personally, there is something about the process of doing the dishes that is mentally draining to me.
I would pretty much do anything to get out of doing this particular task (even though it is ironically one of the chores I volunteered to do for myself and my partner!)
Regardless of whether you hand-wash dishes or load them into a dishwasher, most people aren’t fans of doing the dishes. Unfortunately, piling up dirty dishes isn’t exactly the most sanitary or visually appealing thing you can do.
If you are really dreading doing the dishes, but you do want to take a stab at minimizing the disaster on your kitchen counter, there is one thing you can do.
First, make sure to scrape all food particles off the dishes and into the garbage, so that you don’t attract any nasty critters. Then, pile all your dishes into the sink. Give your dirty stack of dishes a thorough rinse—if you have a pull-out faucet, you can use this to really get in there!
Then, leave it.
That’s right. You don’t need to do the dishes straight away. Once they’re in the sink, you’ve accomplished the first step towards cleaning. You can come back to finish this when you’re ready (don’t wait too long, of course!) But for now, your counters will be cleared and your dishes will be free of rotting food until you have the energy to devote to this task.
3. Make your bed every single day.
I cannot tell you how much my life has been changed by implementing this super simple hack in my everyday routine.
As easy as it is to roll out of bed in the morning and leave your bed a mess behind you, i’s just as easy to tidy up your bed.
First thing in the morning, once you get out of bed, take a minute or two to make your bed. Tidy your sheets, tuck in your duvet and throw any decorative pillows you might have onto your bed.
This is a great way to keep your space tidy and clean, while also starting off your day on a positive note. Not to mention, there is probably no feeling greater in the world than jumping into a made bed at the end of a long day!
As an added bonus to this tip, I would recommend scheduling a specific day every week that you will wash your sheets. For reference, you should be washing your sheets once a week, while your duvets and pillows can be washed every few months.
For my partner and me, our sheet wash day happens every Sunday. Right after we get up in the morning, we strip our bed and toss our sheets as well as duvet cover into the washing machine. This ensures that everything will be clean and dry by the time we head up to bed!
Cleaning can be a super difficult task for a lot of people, for many different reasons. But having a tidy area might actually be a great way to improve your overall wellbeing and mental health.
By implementing these quick and easy habits in your day-to-day life, you will be able to keep things a bit tidier without spending a full day cleaning!
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