Your home will always look and feel clean if you follow this simple house cleaning routine. You’ll love this handy list of quick & easy daily tasks.
Almost anyone can do a mad-dash and get their home into a state of mostly-cleanliness if they really need to, but having a home that actually stays clean, now that’s the holy grail of homekeeping, isn’t it? Of course, it’s impossible to have a home that actually stays clean, because that would mean that once you clean it, it never gets messy again, ever. Not a single crumb, or clump of pet fur can ever show its face in your home again. And that’s just not happening. The key is to find a routine that allows you to calmly keep the mess at bay, while still going about your daily life. This way you’ll at least have a home that looks like it always stays clean, and that’s really what we’re after here.
I thought I’d put together a little list today of a few things that I try to do every day that really help my home feel like it’s always clean. I try to stick to things that are quick and that give me strong visual results so I can really feel like I’m accomplishing something with these tasks everyday and not just spinning my wheels.
One thing to keep in mind here: I don’t do all of these things everyday religiously. That would be about as unrealistic as a house that never gets messy, so don’t feel like you’re not doing it right if you can’t get to all of these things. Some days, I do get to everything, and some days it’s only half of the list one day and half the next. The real point is that these things get done frequently and they get results.
Dusting
I love dusting. There. I said it. Dusting is one of those jobs that really makes your home sparkle and it takes so little effort! Even if you don’t think your home is super dusty, spending a minute or two buzzing around your home removing a bit of dust really freshens things up quickly. I love a good ol’ fashioned feather duster for a lot of my quick daily dusting, but e-cloth also makes this awesome High Performance Dusting and Cleaning Glove that makes fast work of cleaning things like blinds, computer keyboards, and delicate decorative items. I don’t go crazy on the dusting everyday, just a minute or so does it and I rotate through what tool I use each day, depending on what I’m dusting that day. So I’ll switch between the feather duster, the High Performance Dusting Glove, and the e-cloth High Performance Dusting Cloth as well.
Washroom Wipe-Down
I follow the same concept with the washroom as I do with the dusting. I don’t do the whole thing everyday, just a minute or two on certain areas and I switch it up everyday. So one day I might scrub the toilet, one day I’ll clean the tub, one day I’ll wipe down the tile around the room, etc. I love to take the hand towel and wipe down the sinks or the floor before I throw it into the laundry each day and put out a fresh towel, but I also usually grab either the e-cloth General Purpose Cloth or the e-cloth Bathroom Cloth and wipe a few things down as well. These cloths allow me to get a really nice shine on both the porcelain surfaces as well as the chrome and they really grab things like soap scum and pull them away without smearing them around. I also have a small obsession with the Glass and Polishing Cloth so I usually finish up with one of those on the mirrors and chrome here and there. It makes the room feel like I actually did a full cleaning instead of just a one minute quick-clean.
Dishes
I never leave my dishes to sit out on the counter overnight and that one habit gives me such peace of mind every morning when I wake up. I try to put dishes into the dishwasher right away and unload it as soon as it’s done running. I also hand wash anything I use that does better with hand washing right away after using it, like my favorite knife or my cutting board. I love this e-cloth Washing Up Pad for my dishes because it’s so small and compact and not messy-looking like a dishcloth can be and it really cuts through grease or anything stuck-on really easily. Unlike with my dish brush, I can just toss it in the wash so I know it’s always fresh and clean!
Wipe Kitchen Counters and Table
I try to wipe down my kitchen counters and table at least once a day, but it usually happens more often than that. It’s so nice to know that these surfaces are always freshly-cleaned when you go to prepare food or if you have your kids sitting down at the table for a snack. With pets, sometimes it’s not totally noticeable at first, but pet fur drifts around everywhere, and I really can see a big difference in how clean my kitchen looks when I remove just that little bit of dust and pet fur that have shown up on my table in the course of the day. The cloth that you can see me using in the photos below is the e-cloth Kitchen Cloth, which has this nifty little scrubby corner as well as the really effective microfiber everywhere else.
Laundry
Staying on top my laundry everyday is one of life’s little pleasures for me. It’s like the dusting thing. 🙂 It sounds crazy, but I love knowing that almost everything in the house is always clean and ready-to-go. If someone is looking for an item of clothing, even if they just wore it yesterday, it’s probably clean. Because I don’t use fabric softener, I can toss my e-cloths in daily along with my laundry and they’re always ready to go too!
Sweeping/Dust-Mopping The Floors
We have pets, so this is an absolute must for us. With 3 pets and 2 kids running around, plus Chris and I working from home everyday, you’d better believe that we get all kinds of dirt and dust happening! We love to vacuum as needed and as we see bits of fur or dust building up in certain areas of the house, which is pretty much everyday, but it’s also nice to give the floors a good dust-mopping throughout the day too. I love that dust mopping is quiet and it also allows us to trap bits of fur and dust that may have floated up and away during the vacuuming process.
Quick Mopping of Hard Floors
Having your floors freshly mopped is just an awesome feeling. I like to do what I call “spot mopping” on a daily basis to get rid of any little juice spills or entryway area dirt that I can see and if I do this daily, it really keeps the floors feeling pretty much shiny clean all the time. With a three-year-old boy in the house, a quick mop in the bathroom is always a good idea as well! Again, this is just a one or two minute commitment here. I don’t get down on my hands and knees and scrub my fingers to the bone. The e-cloth Deep Clean Mop is perfect for this kind of spot mopping because it doesn’t get the floors sopping wet, but the microfiber of the mop head really grabs any dirt and pulls it away with so little effort.
This list might look like a lot, but keep in mind that a few of these tasks only take 30 seconds or so. If tackling all of these things daily-ish seems overwhelming to you, try just adding in one at a time for a week or so. Once you see how much cleaner your home feels, you’ll be able to find the motivation to keep going with a few more!
If you’re looking to streamline your daily cleaning routine and get things done really well in less time, definitely check out e-cloth! These cloths have been proven to remove 99% of bacteria with just water and a cloth! I use my e-cloths daily and I find them to be so fun and satisfying to use. e-cloths are now available at Ace Hardware as well, so they’re super easy to pick up right in your own neighborhood! Visit the e-cloth store locator to find a store near you!
Thanks so much to e-cloth for sponsoring this post! I was compensated for my time putting this post together but all opinions, suggestions, and ideas are my own as always!
What kinds of things do you like to do daily to keep your home feeling like it’s always clean?
MORE HELPFUL IDEAS LIKE THIS
- The Five Finger Trick for Controlling Clutter
- How to Really Clean Your Gas Stove
- The Simplest, Most Straightforward Closet Organization Ideas that No One’s Using
- How to Deep Clean Your Home in Just Six Minutes a Day
- The Creek Line House Homekeeping Tips and Tricks Archives
This post contains affiliate links.
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.