Do you know someone who watches cleaning videos on Youtube? Did you get caught up in the Konmari method, or just binge-watch Hoarders when your house is a mess? We’re always looking for some new motivation to keep a tidy home, or some new method to try. Keeping a tidy house seems to be a big issue for a lot of us, and it’s no wonder when we start talking about how busy we are with everything else these days! There’s always a new distraction, a lot of us feel forced to work every waking minute of the day just to survive in this economy, and parents tend to feel that they have to be everything to everyone all of the time. By the time we actually get a break, we hardly want to spend it cleaning the house.

Today I’m sharing my 6 favorite tidy-home hacks that help keep the house on track, save you time in the long run, and keep your house from feeling like exaggerated reality tv.

1. Do one load of laundry per day. This starts the night before. Fill the washer and get everything set for the laundry to start. Do you have a newer washer? Set a timer so that it starts about an hour before you even wake up in the morning. Have an older one? Get as far set up as you possibly can so that all you have to do is turn the washer on first thing in the morning. The easier you make it on yourself in the morning, the more likely you are to actually keep up with this habit. Then when you wake up, all you have to do is put the laundry in the dryer. During the day check to make sure the load is fully dried.
2. Only take care of laundry once a week. Most of us have too many clothes. If you are financially blessed enough to have a washer and dryer in your home, chances are pretty high that you and your family have enough clothes that you don’t need to take care of the laundry every single day. In the evening before you start the next morning’s laundry, fold that day’s load right out of the dryer. Get a basket for each person or for each bedroom and put each person’s folded clothes in the appropriate laundry basket. This task only takes around 5-10 minutes and you are done for the day. When the baskets start to fill up, or everyone is pulling clothes they need out of the baskets, its time to go ahead and take care of them. Boom, my least favorite daily chore is now only a weekly chore, I swear it doesn’t take that much longer to do this task just once a week instead of worrying about it daily. This also keeps my pets from sleeping in baskets of fresh clothes that I’ll get to, “in a few minutes.”
3. Figure out a morning and night time cleaning routine. What bothers you the MOST about a messy home? The toys? The dishes? Pick the few things that get under your skin the most, and make those your daily routines. I hate not having clean coffee cups, being way behind on laundry, and having fur and dirt on my floors (I like walking about the house barefoot, and I hate feeling like I’m stepping on stuff all the time). So, my night routine usually consists of getting tomorrow’s load of laundry ready to go, filling and starting the dishwasher, washing any other dishes, and vacuuming the floors. My morning routine is emptying the dishwasher (this is delegated to my 7-year-old, usually) putting the clean clothes in the dryer, and I usually have to vacuum once again if our dogs are shedding.
4. Have a weekly cleaning schedule. Do you work full-time? Then you probably don’t want to clean the house every single day. Stay at home? Then you probably get overwhelmed at what needs to be done and end up doing everything, or doing nothing. Can you divide your home into a few different areas depending on how much time you have to clean? I like to concentrate on one room a day. I tidy the house and keep my routines every day and then each day I actually clean only one room.  I will dust, wipe things down, get under furniture if needed, polish furniture, whatever needs to be done to get is nice and clean again.
   1. Monday: Bathroom
   2. Tuesday: Kitchen
   3. Wednesday: Living room
   4. Thursday: dining room
   5. Friday: office and car
   6. Saturday: Bedrooms
5. Have a home for everything! The big draw to the Konmari method is simple living and getting rid of feeling chaotic. By not having tons of clutter, we simply think and feel better. But at the same time, so many people don’t want to part with their clutter and will come up with any excuse whatsoever to not have to go through their crap. One way to get the best of both worlds is making sure everything has a home and that everything gets back to it’s home through the day. I know that with other family members living in the home it can feel nearly impossible to achieve this goal. Most of the tidying I do through the day is just putting things back in their homes. But actually having a home for things will help, and teaching kids from a young age to put things back where they go can be very helpful to your cause of keeping things in their homes. If you’re anything like me, this will also help keep peace in the home because I hate spending time looking for anything. It’s such a waste of time to me when I have to spend 5 minutes looking for the damn tape dispenser because it wasn’t put back where it goes! I still don’t understand how it ended up being behind the toilet… A bonus tip I have for this is to use velcro to help you keep remotes where they go. Wherever you like to keep the remotes, attach it to that spot with velcro. Extra points if you place the remote in such a way that your family doesn’t even have to pick it up to push buttons!
6. Let it go. Just let it go! A clean home is nice, it’s cozy, it calms the mind, but it’s not everything. Don’t let the mess get to you too much! Especially when the kids are home, messes happen! Your home is lived in and it’s going to look lived in! If you can somewhat stick to your schedule, and declutter to make tidying the home easier it won’t take too long to straighten everything back up. When the cleaning is easier to do, not only are you more likely to keep up with it, but it won’t be the end of the world during the times that you can’t keep up with it!

I hope these hacks are helpful to you or inspire you to figure out ways to help you keep your sanity when it comes to a clean home! What are your favorite hacks or tips that help you out at home?

Until next time friends!

–Ashley