How to Keep Your House Clean and Organized: Our Top Tips

Are you trying to figure out how to keep your house clean and organized? If yes, you should check out some of our best tips here.

Understanding how to keep your house clean and organized is a tricky battle, especially if it’s not something you learned while growing up.

But it doesn’t have to be. There are a handful of common mistakes and simple tricks you can use to keep a cleaner home – tips that have nothing to do with chore lists or cleaning schedules.

Here are our favorite tips the internet has to offer.

Live by the Two-Minute Rule

What’s the two-minute rule? If it’s going to take you less than two minutes, just do it now.

A spill on the counter? Just wipe it up. Gathering dirty laundry? Quick job. Putting your peanut butter knife in the dishwasher after you make sandwiches? Easy peasy.

Doing a bunch of small quick jobs throughout the day will mean you have to do deep cleaning less often, and it’ll be easier when the time comes.

Get the Right Tools

The right tools can make a hard job easy and keep you from wasting your time and energy on a tedious chore. That may mean you need to upgrade your vacuum or switch to a new bathroom cleaner.

But it’ll save you time and energy down the line. Take time to read up on your household cleaners and learn some tips and tricks to clean more effectively.

If you’re working to keep a toxin-free home too, it’s worth learning about the different chemicals that exist in your cleaners. Then read reviews about the different cleaners out there.

Unfortunately, some products clean much better than any natural cleaner on the market. Even still, you may not necessarily want those toxins in your home. It has to be your call.

Automate as Much as Possible

We are finally in the era of the Jetsons, where robots can do our cleaning—just not quite all of it. But if you want to clean as little as possible, then it’s worth getting a robot or two to help you out around the house.

Of course, there’s the robot vacuum that everyone knows about. But there are other cleaning robots on the market, and more becoming invented every day.

Even still, most of them could do with some improvements. So keep your eyes on the reviews and do the research. When they’re ready to do their jobs right, it made be time to add them to your arsenal.

Then, of course, there are other cleaning machines like your dishwasher and washing machine. Use them to your advantage to keep your cleaning list as easy as possible.

Don’t forget about your air filter. Keeping clean air will help prevent dust buildup and ease allergies. Here’s how to clean the air in your home.

A Basket is Just Clutter in A Little Black Dress

Do you want to know the biggest secret to looking like you run an organized home? Pretty containers. That’s it.

Keys on the end table by the door, next to your pens and wallet, and that gas station receipt? Clutter. But when you put all that in a lovely decorative bowl, it becomes a catch-all, and you’re an organized person.

Same thing with shoes by the door. If they’re unmatched and scattered across the floor, it’s clutter. But when they’re in a pretty wicker basket, it’s organized.

You can use this trick with kids’ toys too.

Or cover your bathroom counter with little containers to rein in your lost earrings, miscellaneous bobby pins, and scattered hair ties.

Or fill your pantry with glass jars instead of tattered bags straight from the store.

Even if the clutter inside a container is unsightly, it’s easy to hide. Like maybe you have an unsightly pile of magazines in the living room you hope to get around to using in a project. You can put them in a wicker basket and cover it with a folded blanket. Out of site and pretty too!

It Has to be Practical

Most often the reason people’s organization falls apart shortly after it’s organized in the first place is it isn’t practical. Everything in your home has to have a place, but that place has to be practical and easily accessible.

Most often this happens with heavy kitchen cookware. There’s always that one cupboard where all your miscellaneous weirdly shaped pans and their odd lids live. You get it all stacked neatly, one inside the other, with the lids lined up.

But then there’s a potluck and you need that one weird pot way in the back corner, you’re in a hurry, so you shove everything back in place in a disorganized heap.

After the potluck, you’re tired and in no mood to reorganize. Thus, all your hard work is lost.

Getting things to “fit” all in a designated place isn’t the goal. The goal is to get things easily accessible and easily replaceable so you can keep things organized.

Get the Pretty Stuff

Finally, if you want a clean and organized home, go ahead and splurge on stuff you enjoy using.

If you’re still trying to use up the last of that old cleaning solution with the faded label and the weird sticky goo around the bottle cap, forget it. Get something new. It’s probably expired anyway.

Get some rags you like to use, come cute cleaning gloves, and a fun tote. Get an apron if it gets you in the mood.

Do what you can to make cleaning fun—maybe pair it with a favorite podcast, an audiobook, or a chat with your family, and you’re more likely to clean more often.

Now You Know How to Keep Your House Clean and Organized

Understanding how to keep your house clean and organized is half the battle. Doing so is the rest. Use these tips to help you create a cleaning style that works with you, and one you can follow through on.

Keeping a tidy home doesn’t have to be a herculean effort. With the right tools and a little bit every day, you can stay on top of the mess.

We’re here to help you design your perfect home. Keep exploring for more great advice!