How to Always Have a Clean House: One Simple Tip

I recently discovered the golden key to ensuring your house will stay clean. As busy moms, wives, or people in general, I feel that keeping the house clean is an ever-present goal for many of us, but how to reach that goal is often quite difficult to find.

I have shared in a previous post some tips of how to keep your home neat and tidy when you have kids, and those tips definitely fall under this one main tip I am going to share with you today.

The main tip on how to always have a clean house is to not have many things. Yes, minimalism!

What "things"?

Anything that does not serve a function in everyday life:

• trash

• knick knacks

• toys that are not toys: caps to bottles, broken or no longer used Tupperware, advertisements, paper, empty bottles, anything you give your kids that is trash but they find interesting so you give it to them to play with

• supplies: do you need five pliers that do the same thing? Or three different types of glass cleaner?

• too many decorations: disclaimer - I am all for having home decor and making your space cozy, but don't overdo it. I find that less is more when it comes to decor. Find items that you can hang on a wall that are not on the ground or take up counter space, that fit every season, and that you genuinely enjoy. Trying to make your house fit a "theme" can also cause excess clutter, if you overdo it. Have a clean theme :)

Why does this work?

When you do not have many things in your home, there is less to look at, and therefore you can easily spot where a mess has happened. When you are used to looking at a lot of things, it is easy for messes to get lost and easily overlooked, and before you know it your house is very messy.

When you have fewer things, it takes less time to clean up, therefore you have more time on your hands and no excuse to not have time to clean. The more things you have, the more time it takes to clean up those things, and therefore the less time you have to get important tasks done. We all have important, time-sensitive things to get done during the day, and cleaning can often be pushed to the wayside, but if you know that cleaning will only take you five minutes because you do not have a lot of things to put away, you are more likely to do it and therefore maintain a clean home.

How to start

1. Think about what you actually use everyday, and THROW OUT or STOW AWAY everything else. If you use it often, say every other day or every few days, it needs to be put away. Keeping things out that you use fewer than every day is how clutter piles form. You cannot tell me that an average sized home does not have enough storage space for all of the things you actually NEED every day. If you truly do not have space, you may need to get creative with organization, rent a storage unit, or perhaps purchase a small rent to own shed.

2. Pick one room at a time. The living room is a good place to start since it is used for relaxing. Your living room really only needs seating areas, end tables or coffee table for lamps and drinks, and a shelving unit for books or your tv. If you have kids, a small toy chest in the corner is probably needed as well. Nothing else really needs to be in that room. You can be decorative with wall pictures, curtains, rugs, pillows, or perhaps a small vase of flowers, but as for "things" that you use in the living room, it should be very minimal.

Once you see how refreshing and relaxing it is to be in a clutter-free space, and experience how good it feels for your eyes to rest because you do not have to look at a million things, you will want every room in your house to be this way.

3. Once a month, go through your home and sort out things that have been misplaced or added to your home. This is a good time to either throw away or stow away anything.

Do not be lazy

Not having many things works because it is easier to spot messes since you can see accumulation points better. When you spot a mess, clean it up right away. Remember, this should not take long because you do not have many things. Clean encourages clean, and messy encourages messy.

And that's it! This one simple tip can transform your home from messy to clean if you put it into practice. I am not saying to get rid of all of the things that you NEED but rather be picky about the things you allow in your home: they should have a purpose.

What is your biggest struggle in keeping a clean home? Let me know in the comments!

See you next Monday!

Mary