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08.11.21

Mike’s 5 Quick Tips to Keeping Your House Clean

If you follow us on Instagram Stories, you know Mike’s love for cleaning. I don’t even know if it’s love, it’s more of a way of life for him. We’ve been getting requests to have Mike talk about his cleaning ways for years and we’re finally getting around to sharing his insights. Mike truly feels, you’re either clean or you’re not. He can give you all the tips in the world, but if you’re not the type to keep things clean and tidy, you’re not going to do it, lol. With that being said, I do feel like today’s 5 tips to help keep your house clean are helpful in at least maintaining or finding some direction in how to keep your house clean and tidy. 

These 5 quick tips are all about maintenance. By doing something everyday, you’re preventing the need for a deep clean, aka,  those dreaded “cleaning” days more often than you’d like. Of course you’ll still have those days where you need to deep clean, but you’ll maintain a tidy house up until then. It also helps with your sanity on the daily, especially if a cluttered house drives you nuts. 

This post also does not cover the daily mess from kids or if you have a partner that doesn’t help with cleaning or doesn’t pick up after themselves. That’s a post for another day, lol. 

1.Use a Handheld Vacuum Everyday – We have the Dyson V8 Animal (new version) and Mike truly uses it everyday. The handheld part of the vacuum is everything for daily crumbs at the dining table if you have kids. One of the things I notice with houses with kids – their dining furniture is thrashed. I can 100% say, you would never even know we had a kid if you sat at our dining table. Mike also takes the vacuum throughout the house on the hardwood floors almost daily to collect dust. This really helps with the build up of grime. 

2. Wipe Counters After Use (kitchen, bathrooms) – This is something Mike taught me during the first couple of months of dating. I’ve done it ever since. Counters and faucets get so gross – water residue and build up. We wipe down our bathroom and kitchen sinks and faucets after every use. I’m sure you’re thinking, “wow, that’s a lot.” I can attest, as someone who never thought to do it my whole life, you can do it and it’s not hard AT ALL. This not only makes using your sinks and faucets more pleasant, but your bathroom and kitchen are presentable every single day for guests, etc. It also helps with wear and tear over the years. You can also go longer without a deep clean.

3. Have Set Days To Do Laundry – We have a set laundry day every week. If we don’t, laundry will pile up and everyone starts to get resentful. We all know how it feels to have loads and loads of laundry – things get left in the washer or dryer, there’s piles and piles to fold, and it’s just a hot mess. When you have laundry on the schedule it’s set and you’re likely to do it. Plus, they’re smaller loads, which is much more manageable. 

4. Pick Up After Yourself Right When You Get Home – This is one of the hardest things to change, especially if you have kids. But, this is an absolute game changer, I know because I’ve been known to do this and the crap just builds up and there’s clutter everywhere. When you come in from the garage or come in from wherever, you have all your things – backpacks, bags, jackets, groceries, crap from the car, packages, etc. – it all gets left at the door. You’re trying to get in and move on to the next thing and forget about everything you just brought in. That shit gets left there for days. I know you know what I’m talking about. If you take the time to take your jacket upstairs and put it away or put away all the toys you brought in from the car, it will make the biggest difference with the clutter and messiness of your house. Take off your shoes, go to the bathroom, do whatever you need to do when you get home and go back to the door and pick up after yourself. Make that conscious effort and you’ll see a world of difference.

5. No Shoes In the House – This is such a hot take – either you do it or you don’t and you have strong feelings about it. Shoes are absolutely filthy and whatever you collect out in the world, you bring into your house. One of the biggest contributions to our house being clean is because we don’t wear shoes in the house and we don’t have any issues setting that boundary for guests. The floors stay clean, rugs stay clean, furniture stay clean, and there’s less deep cleaning all around. This is such a simple thing you can change in your house if you’re looking to maintain a cleaner house