One important yet often overlooked aspect of home ownership is keeping the house clean. Not only does regular cleaning keep the living space tidy and make it feel more spacious, it is also important to the health of the home’s inhabitants. Chores left undone can pile up and turn into a major undertaking, and can also be a breeding ground for bacteria and mold. Say, for instance, you neglect to do your laundry regularly. Well, a small pile of dirty clothes can easily turn into a mountain that would require a herculean effort to eliminate. Meanwhile, your laundry heap becomes a dust magnet, as well as a possible source of mildew (if you’ve left damp clothes in the mix). Thus, it’s important to develop the following habits to keep your abode clean and tidy.
Always Make the Bed
If you’re looking for a place to start developing your tidy home habit, look no farther than your own bedroom. It’s important to make your bed right after you wake up. This is your first task of the day, and accomplishing it would already add something to your ‘done’ list of daily tasks. You don’t have to spend too much time doing this task; just fold your blanket, stack your pillows on top of each other, and tuck in the sides of your sheets. This three-minute routine gets your day started the right way, and by the time you return from a day at work on doing errands, you won’t be greeted by a messy bed.
Don’t Take on More Than You Can Clean
If you only have a couple of hours of free time, don’t start a task that you don’t think you can finish within that period. If you only have an hour to clean, don’t start dusting off all your decor or cleaning all your closets out. If you fail to finish within that period, you’d just be adding more mess instead of reducing it. You’d have cleaning materials lying around and things in disarray because you didn’t get to work on them. Plus, you’ll only end up with a sense of frustration rather than one of accomplishment. Take on chores that you can manage in that time frame, like, say, a smaller load of laundry (remember that nasty mountain?).
Also, if you don’t have the tools or skills to do a certain task, it’s better to just let the pros take care of those things. A good example would be cleaning your HVAC. Instead of trying to DIY, you can just hire a service provider who specializes in duct cleaning in your Manchester, New Hampshire home. This saves you time doing something you’re not good at, and ensures that the job is done right and there’s no risk damaging anything.
Spend A Few Minutes Tidying Up Before Going to Bed
Tidying up before you go to bed is a great habit to develop, especially if you don’t want to wake up to a messy place. You don’t have to spend a lot of time doing so; allot 10-15 minutes of clean-up time before you hit the sack. This may seem short, but you can get a lot of the small chores done within this period. Use it to tidy up your work desk, return books, fold some of your clean laundry, and other things. Again, just keep in mind that you shouldn’t start a task that you can’t finish within the period you specified.
In order to develop the above mentioned habits, you really have to do them repeatedly and make them a part of your routine. It can be a bit of a hassle at first, but once you get used to always making your bed, or doing a bit of tidying up before you sleep, you’ll appreciate living in clean and tidy surroundings.
