Ever feel like you can’t get your household cleaned or organized enough? Sometimes it takes a huge effort to get your home clean and organized. When you finally do, you’ll most likely find yourself doing multiple tasks simultaneously. One of those tasks is cleaning along the way. You may be dusting that bookshelf you rarely use, or moving furniture to vacuum the resident dust bunny in the living room corner. The secret to keeping any space organized and clean is planning a schedule, maintaining it, and being realistic about it. We lead busy lives making it difficult to manage a home. So here are a few tips to keep your household organized and clean.
5 Tips For A Clean & Organized Home
1) Devise a Simple Plan
Creating a plan just means you have to make a commitment. The overwhelming feeling of “there’s so much to do in so little time” can cause anxiety. Toss the anxiety aside and take it one step at a time. Keep in mind all you need to create a plan is three key points: tasks, due dates, and duration. It’s important to understand how long each task takes. Otherwise, you may be setting yourself up for disappointment if a task doesn’t get done according to plan. Keep in mind that tasks are solvable and adjustable. Don’t be afraid to adjust where needed for a realistic timeline.
2) Create a Supplies Checklist
The biggest mistake is not having a checklist of supplies. This takes a little time and planning ahead to make sure you have all the supplies on the checklist. Supplies that aren’t readily available make it difficult to complete your plan. It’s easy to get sidetracked if you go to the store and then try to clean and get organized. Always keep that reminder on your calendar for checklist review. Alternatively, make a shopping list and add your supplies for your next trip. This will help you keep supplies on hand and complete your plan on time.
3) Keep the Clutter To A Minimum
Minimizing clutter makes it easier to clean spaces. Less stuff means more available space to clean without moving it. Also, this allows you to maintain organization throughout the home. Creating organization doesn’t mean buying bins to store clutter. It means purging some of the items so that you have more space that’s easy to clean and ultimately saving time.
4) Assign Big Projects To The Pros
Sometimes a clean home means hiring someone else to do the big projects. Once in a while, the musty area rug needs to be steamed, or the grout in your bathroom looks black instead of beige. This is where the pros can get the best results. It also helps with taking the task off of your to-do list and sticking to the plan that you created. Check out our post for Home Maintenance: Is it Worth Hiring a Professional? for tips. Once you get the big tasks complete, decide how often you need them done. Add reminders to your calendar so that they don’t fall through the cracks.
5) Organize Your Home Inside & Outside
It’s important to maintain and organize outside areas like your shed, screened lanai, or garage. This is especially true if you live in a warm, humid climate that is conducive to unwanted bugs. With that said, maintain outdoor spaces with regular cleaning and keep them organized. The best way to organize awkward spaces is to have wall shelves, or wire shelves so you can see unwanted critters. This also helps with sweeping and decobbing in difficult areas so that your outdoor space doesn’t look like a haunted house.
Organization does help you keep up maintenance and save time cleaning your home. Keep in mind that buying storage bins for organization isn’t a problem solver. They just keep stuff out of sight and out of mind. This is why it’s important to minimize clutter so you can keep your indoor and outdoor spaces maintained, organized, and easy to clean. Still on the fence? Check out our blog 5 Questions That’ll Allow You To Hire The Right Cleaning Company. It might help you decide if a professional is needed if you can’t do it yourself.