Adopt these simple daily habits for a cleaner home and without expending too much effort
Entering a clean house is the best way to be greeted when we come home from work. But, with our hectic lives, it's not always easy to stay on top of our housekeeping chores.
Many of us use the weekends to carry out extensive cleaning of the home - leaving us exhausted by Monday morning. This habit is not sustainable in the long term, since we all need a little rest on our days off.
Is it possible to keep the home clean for a long time without undertaking these onerous weekend cleaning sessions? The answer is "yes" - you just need to adopt the following simple daily habits:
1. Daily and weekly bed care
Every morning, air your bedrooms out for at least 5 minutes and, before leaving the house, make the beds. It only takes 2 minutes (per bed), but this will be enough to instantly make your home look tidier and will help keep your sheets cleaner for longer.
The bed linen should be completely replaced weekly, to always guarantee maximum hygiene and cleanliness in the home.
2. Wash the floors
Floors are subject to all the foot traffic and, if you have kids, are surfaces they often play or even fall asleep on. For this reason, it is of fundamental importance to clean the floors daily, passing a broom or vacuum cleaner over them. This is an extremely simple task that any adult in the family can do. Alternatively, buy a programmable robot vacuum cleaner that will do all the work for you.
Washing your floors, however, must be carried out weekly to ensure that you eliminate any germs and bacteria that may have built up on them. That said, you can keep your floors cleaner for longer by enforcing a rule that everyone removes their shoes when entering the house.
3. Eliminate clutter
Any home is easier to keep clean if you eliminate any clutter. A tidy home will not only make you feel less stressed, but will also allow you to speed up your cleaning chores. And if you have a robot vacuum cleaner, clutter on the floor will stop its operation.
Every evening before going to bed, dedicate 5 or 10 minutes to doing a "general reset" of your home: dealing with clutter daily is much easier and faster than doing it just once or twice a year. Eliminate everything you don't need (or donate these items) and immediately get rid of all broken, malfunctioning objects. A clutter-free environment will also improve your overall well-being and mood.
4. Cleaning the kitchen
Keeping your kitchen clean can be a breeze if you know adopt a daily cleaning routine. Optimize free time, while cooking or waiting for water to boil for example, by emptying the dishwasher and refilling it with the the dirty dishes, washing anything that needs to be hand washed and removing food stains and spills from the worktops and kitchen units.
Weekly, deeper cleaning will also be much quicker if you keep the surfaces clean daily, preventing stains from hardening. And being greeted by an empty sink in the morning will be very satisfying.
5. Organize and manage documents
The mail and other documents we bring into the home can become a problem if they are not handled promptly and correctly. Adopt a routine for this task too: set up a basket or an area dedicated to mail and documents and establish a time of the day or week - depending on the quantity of documents you receive daily - to sorting these items out.
Adopt a quick and easy filing method so you can eliminate junk mail and unneeded documents in a jiffy.
6. Cleaning the bathroom
Finally, the bathroom also deserves proper attention and where good hygiene levels must be maintained. You can also adopt a maintenance system for the bathroom to:
- Keep surfaces as free from clutter as possible, in order to speed up cleaning chores;
- In the morning or in the evening, clean the countertops and bathroom fixtures to prevent limescale and soap residue from building up and getting caked-on (and becoming much more difficult to remove later);
- Keep a squeegee in your shower, so you can scrape down the walls and doors of the cubicle after each use;
- Change the towels at least twice a week, so as to prevent humidity from encouraging mold and bacteria to develop;
- Once a week, do a deep cleaning and sanitize the entire bathroom. This will be fast and easy if you have followed all the above advice.
Which of these habits have you already adopted in your daily life?