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Your home is your haven, the place where you can let your hair down, relax, and be you. Of course, to keep it feeling good, you have to tidy up and maintain cleanliness at regular intervals, which can be especially challenging with a new baby. Cleaning can be a challenge: it’s time-consuming, requires energy, and is never ending. Fortunately, with some planning and by picking up a handful of simple cleaning habits, you can keep your home spick and span without breaking a sweat.
Toss the Stuff You Don’t Absolutely Need
Being a minimalist is arguably the best way to keep your home clean. After all, if you don’t have it, you don’t need to clean it, right? Decluttering is tough for many reasons – sentimentality among them. But it’s worth the initial hassle and tough decisions, as it will save you a great deal of cleaning time and energy in the long run. Sarah Ever After has a great decluttering guide for you to consult.
Some questions to ask yourself when deciding what to toss out:
- When was the last time I used this?
- Do I need this right now?
- Can I replace this quickly if I need it in the future?
Learning to part with things now will make things easier down the road, especially as the stuffies, drawings, and toys accumulate over the years.
When You Take it Out, Put it Back Afterward
Homes get cluttered when you pull stuff out from its usual place, use it, and forget it to put it back. You probably end up doing this more than you realize. Eventually, it all piles up and turns into a giant mess, which you end up cleaning in one go. Instead, why not put it back as soon as you’re done using it? It’s a good idea to enforce this principle among family members as well. It may be hard in the beginning, but as long as you implement it, the habit will stick in time.
Dedicate a Little Time Every Single Day
When you clean a little bit every day, you don’t have to spend hours and hours at it later. A light cleaning or dusting session every day—perhaps before bedtime or just after you wake up – will keep your house clean with little effort. This should be followed up by a more thorough cleaning session every week or month. Some suggestions to add to your daily list:
- Make the bed
- Empty the dishwasher or do the dishes
- Wipe down kitchen counters
- Sort the mail
- Empty the bins
- Sweep the kitchen floor
Get Professional Cleaning on Occasion
You can’t always clean everything alone effectively. When you’re struggling, consider delegating or hiring outside professional help. For example, when your furniture fabrics are stained or starting to smell, cleaning it yourself may make it worse. A cleaning service will do a better job of restoring them. Before you hire furniture cleaning services, it’s important to evaluate them properly to avoid disappointments down the road. You don’t want someone who uses subpar all-in-one cleaning tools. Use the time you save by having cleaning taken care of to focus on your family.
Be Organized
Keeping your home clean sustainably involves more than just tidying up on occasion. You need organization and planning. There are several effective ways to get organized. First, consider setting up a cleaning schedule—like having Monday as a vacuum day and Saturday for laundry. Second, have a cleaning checklist so you don’t miss something—you can download one at Molly Maid. Third, have a designated space for storing. Finally, arrange to make everything look pretty, so you remain motivated!
Use similar practices in your home office. Late night feedings and sticky little exploring fingers can make it harder to keep things where you need them, so make sure that you know – and keep – your organizational system by heart. And treat yourself to good lighting and an ergonomic chair to help you stay comfortable and awake during those work meetings.
In both the home and the office, having less “stuff” in your living and work areas will make it easier to keep everything tidy in the long run. As one decluttering idea, you can digitize your paper records and other documents that tend to pile up. When digitizing paper records, instead of using many files, a PDF merging tool can keep all your documents in one file, which will cut time on having to find a document. You can scan multiple pages into one PDF with these steps: prepare the documents; scan or save the files; and, lastly, export as a PDF. Once you combine PDF files, you can move PDF pages to get their records in the right order.
Consider a better design for your interiors
A makeover for your interiors can, surprisingly, also help keep your home tidy. When your interiors are laid out cleverly, they’re easier to maintain. The small things also matter—like having elevated furniture, an easy-clean paint finish, and a sofa with an easy to wipe off material. You can even build in storage options for toys, clothes, and nursing supplies. Further, if you love your home, it’s easier to convince yourself to keep it maintained.
