5 Ways I Keep Our Home Clean and Organized
My friends and family know that I am pretty picky about my house being clean. Yes, I tend to leave my clean laundry just sitting for a few days (or weeks) before I put it away but you don’t often find just ~ stuff ~ laying around or dirt and dust collecting.
Years ago, I realized that this was a huge portion of how I deal with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Keeping a clean and tidy space is something that I have full and complete control over. When there is less clutter around me, there is less clutter in my mind. And while I definitely am not minimalist, I did really start to say “no” to stuff once we bought a house.
I really enjoy and have comfort knowing that Michelle Obama or Ellen or literally anyone could show up at my house at any given time and I would never feel embarrassed or apologetic about our space.
So, I recently got asked… what is my cleaning routine?! How do I keep everything tidy?
The TLDR version of all of this is: It’s much easier to work a little tiny bit every single day to keep your home clean than it is to spend hours and hours undoing the mess. If you don’t let dirt or disorganization snowball into a mountainous task, it becomes much more manageable.
So, here are my top 5 tips for making cleaning and organizing manageable:
01. I don’t have a cleaning schedule.
I clean when something needs attention. If I see something dirty, I don’t ignore it. If I cannot clean it right that very second, I make it a high priority to take care of it as soon as possible. Each evening, I do a walkthrough of the downstairs and pick up or put away anything that is out of place. I vacuum about once per week and we do have a robot vacuum that keeps the main level fairly dust and debris free.
02. Everything has a place.
I don’t bring something into our home unless I know exactly where it is going to live. We don’t keep many things out on our kitchen counters and I’ve really limited my knick nacks to just one ladder shelf of family heirlooms or pieces we pick up while traveling (that I know will go away for a few years when we have babies and toddlers). Part of being able to pick up and clean up so quickly is that I know where everything is supposed to go and it has a designated, specific home.
03. I wipe down the kitchen counters (all of them) every single time that I prepare food.
By doing this, I know that they’re clean, ready for food prep the next time, safe to set things down on and never sticky (unless my husband makes a peanut butter and jelly). I also rarely let dishes sit in the sink. If dishes are sitting in the sink, the dishwasher is likely running and there wasn’t room or they are soaking. We probably run our dishwasher every 3 days right now (it’s just the two of us).
04. We have very clear roles for the care of our home.
I am responsible for the bulk of the cleaning and the laundry while my husband is responsible for the trash and recycling. We share the job of emptying the dishwasher. Neither one of us is ever waiting around wondering if the other is going to do something.
05. Most of our furniture doubles as storage or organization.
I’m always looking for pieces that have dual purpose and use their space very, very wisely. It helps with keeping things away and in their place!
Next to the door to our garage we have a place for hats, scarves, reusable bags, my purse and Kyle’s work bag.
Our keeping room doubles as a mudroom and we have large storage cabinets for shoes, everything that our dog needs (treats, poop bags, medicines, etc.) and then empty space again for eventual children. The ottoman in this room has more throw blankets tucked inside.
We keep a few seasonally appropriate coats right next to the garage door where they’re easy to grab. The rest go in a coat closet near our front door (or at our old house where we didn’t have a coat closet, we kept them in storage in tubs until the seasons changed).
In our living room we have a small ottoman with throw blankets and a large storage cabinet that is currently housing a collection of candles inside but I imagine that one day it will hopefully hold kid’s toys. 75% of it is empty right now which brings me so much peace.
I started keeping a basket on the breakfast table with salt and pepper, napkins, the TV remote, an extra phone charger and a candle. All of the things we reach for frequently.
Speaking of things we reach for frequently, I use a two tiered cake stand like this one on our kitchen counter for things like tissues, medicines and mail. Using the cake stand forces me to contain the stacks of stuff and address it if there’s ever too much stuff laying around. We do have a junk drawer but it has drawer organizers in it and only very specific things like batteries, a tape measure, coupons, extra keys and matches go in it.
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