How To Clean Your House: 8 Unique & Extremely Helpful Ideas

How To Clean Your House Fast & Efficiently

OK, this is about everyone’s favorite topic.

How to clean your house. (just kidding, obviously)

Honestly, keeping our homes clean sounds simple enough but in reality it can cause quite a headache.

It can feel overwhelming, to say the least.

It can feel almost impossible. Especially if you have kiddos whose life mission is chaos and destruction.

But that’s kids. A clean home is not really on their radar. It’s not high on their priority list. They are busy being kids. As it should be.

But lucky for us, having a (somewhat) clean home is on our radar. (or maybe that’s unlucky for us)

The bottom line is that maintaining a home is something that we all have to deal with in some way. So, why not find ways to make the process a little smoother?

Why not gain some insight and develop some habits that can make the task of maintaining a home a bit more manageable?

With anything, take from this what serves you and leave the rest. Not every piece of advice that someone gives you will work for you. Your ears will not perk up with every idea you read.

On the flip side, I am all about trying new things that may differ from your usual way.

What’s that saying?

You never know until you try.

Here Are 8 Powerful Ideas About How To Clean Your House

1) Purge

Decluttering and getting rid of things is my love language. It gives me so much joy and satisfaction.

Now, maybe you are not a crazy person like me who has no problem at all donating almost everything I find under beds or in closets.

But purging is my biggest and best piece of advice for keeping a home clean (and also clutter-free).

Less stuff will equal less mess.

If you find yourself struggling when it comes to the appearance of your home, I highly suggest thinking if there are ways you could have less.

This is not at all to say you need to develop a minimalist lifestyle ASAP and your life will become exponentially better (and cleaner). Unless you want to start traveling down the minimalist road, of course.

However, there are so many benefits to learning to live with less. To build a mindset of acquiring less.

If you are constantly working from a place of excess, then keeping a home clean and organized can be quite the challenge. Check out these super helpful tips all about keeping your home clutter-free.

2) Expectations

Our homes will never be clean all the time. That is literally impossible.

We are living in these homes and it’s ok if they look lived in.

My goal is never to have a home worthy of a magazine spread. I am not holding my breath waiting for my home to earn the title of pristine or perfect.

My goal is to not want to rip my hair out in frustration every time I come down the stairs. Or every time I open my hall closet or pantry.

We do ourselves such a disservice when we look at our homes in terms of being super clean or a disaster. With most things, the reality of the appearance of your home will probably fall more into the middle ground.

Try your best to be realistic with the vision you have for your home. Be realistic about what you can truly accomplish.

Unrealistic expectations can easily play the villain in many aspects of our lives. They are out to get us.

Let’s outsmart those unrealistic expectations and practice not setting them in the first place. Not giving them the time of day.

Practice by naming things out loud that are not realistic. Saying things out loud can be such a powerful tool for gaining perspective.

3) Time Limit

Most of us don’t have the time to be cleaning for hours a day. (nor should we spend an excess amount of time)

Have you ever looked at your kitchen at the end of the day and thought WTF?! I do this most nights.

But if I set a timer for ten minutes and go hard until that timer goes off, I am always pleasantly surprised at how much I can accomplish. Especially without any interruptions.

If I have an hour to clean my kitchen and bathroom, then it will most likely take an hour. Mainly due to a little lolly-gagging and a lot of random dance parties. I am easily distracted by a good song.

But if I set a timer, the tables turn and I now hold myself accountable to the time limit set.

4) Dump Basket

Grab yourself a cheap laundry basket (pretty sure Dollar Tree will have some) and designate it the dump basket.

I know the words dump basket might not sound ideal when we are talking about a clean house but hear me out.

You don’t have to get everything put away all the time. If you do a sweep of your home at night and fill the dump basket, that’s great.

Set a timer for yourself the next day to empty it.

There are many nights when I look around and see so many random things strewn about. And I feel this sense of dread just thinking about putting it all where it goes.

There are hair clips and random pieces of paper. Crayons and play fruit. Anything you can think of.

I don’t want to spend my evening going from room to room putting everything in its proper place.

So I practice being realistic and grab my handy dandy dump basket.

5) Have a Loose Plan

It can help to have a list or set small goals for yourself. And I’m talking really small.

Don’t set yourself up for failure by putting 27 things on your list knowing dang well over half of those things won’t get accomplished. And then you’ll beat yourself up about it. (remember…realistic expectations)

Maybe today you want to clean out the pantry or the junk drawer. Great. Just stick with those things.

Life can be quite unpredictable. Things come up. You are not a piece of factory machinery that’s only job is to just do do do and produce results.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention something important. If you have the time, grab a pen and paper and go room to room and make a sort of master list of things that need to get done regularly around the house.

It might sound silly, but it really helps to physically go from room to room.

After you have a master list, you can create small daily plans based on this list.

For example, tomorrow I am going to vacuum the stair and clean the toilets. That’s my plan! And since it is not huge, it feels very doable and it makes it easier to view these things getting done as a non-negotiable.

Here are some simple tips on how to organize your home starting today.

6) 2o Minute Clean Ups

This is like a little power clean.

This relates directly to the idea of setting a timer.

You can either set a timer and focus on one specific area for 20 minutes or do a house sweep with the timer.

I promise you will be so pleasantly surprised by how much you can get done in that short amount of time.

I do a couple of these a day normally. That’s 40 minutes of cleaning. Now, does this amount of cleaning mean everything is always done? Nope.

But this does ensure that my home is clean enough for me and my family. Well, mainly me. My husband and kiddos are not normally phased by messes around the house.

Also, knowing that you are just going to go for 20 minutes and see what you get done is a lot less daunting than just going and not knowing when you are going to stop.

7) Ask For Help

Now, this doesn’t apply to everyone. If someone lives alone, the responsibility is going to fall on them.

But if you have others living in your home, then don’t shy away from asking for help.

You are not the only one capable of doing the dishes or throwing a load of laundry in.

And what can often happen when we take on the entire responsibility of keeping our homes clean is that resentment builds. If we don’t take action, it will build up until we explode and our partners might be hit with some not-so-friendly word vomit. (I know this is not just me)

Many of us grew up in homes where the women did the majority of house things. We witnessed women taking on the brunt of all the home tasks.

So it might feel strange to ask for help. But the discomfort that comes from asking will ease over time. And it’s a much better option than us holding onto massive amounts of resentment.

8) Relax

Wait. What?

Yep, you read that right. Take a load off.

You don’t have to earn rest. You don’t have to earn time to relax and do whatever you want to do.

I have a 2-year-old who takes a decent nap every afternoon. More often than not, I get a few things done during that time.

But sometimes I grab a book and a snack and plant myself on the couch for her entire nap. And the most important part is that I do it without an ounce of guilt.

My worth is not dependent on an empty sink or laundry basket. A clean house does not determine your self-worth. They do not go hand in hand.

My Grandma’s house was always spotless and she was always saying it was a mess. I was young and had a very different perception of things but she always made it look so easy.

I wish I would have told her to sit down and relax more. Told her not to worry so much about a couple of dishes in the sink or dirty windows or mirrors.

So now I’m telling you.

Most of our homes are never going to be these spotless sparkling masterpieces. At least not for more than a few minutes.

So while I understand fully the importance of a clean home, I also fully understand the idea of not leading ourselves to become burnt out by becoming a cleaning machine.

One thing I know is that the messes will never end. Not completely. There are things that will inevitably always need tending to. Things that always need to be taken care of.

I was going to use the word balance here but then I remembered that I don’t like that word too much.

I’m not anti-balance or anything but I think that work can send us spiraling at times. It can send us on this endless quest of searching.

The real key is to find a level of cleanliness that makes you feel good about your home.

Oh, I almost forgot the most important part.

Enjoy your home. Enjoy the people in it.

No one is going to look back and wish they would have cleaned more or better.

Have any tips on how to clean your house? Definitely share with the rest of us!

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