Let’s talk about 4 super-fast and simple habits you need to adopt so you can begin keeping a clean and tidy home. If your home has gotten out of control, these will make a HUGE difference without a lot of time or effort.
Using these ideas along with my tips for how to clean your house will have your home looking spiffy really soon!
Plus, you can download a 30-day printable habit tracker to help make these habits part of your organized daily routine.
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When we have so much to do every day, it’s easy to let little things slide around the house.
We’re tired, our brain is a little unfocused, everything gets away from us. After a while, we don’t even want to look at what’s been happening around us in our own home.
All we know is that we would be mortified if anyone were to stop over.
Perhaps you used to be tidy and then life happened. Or maybe you’re just naturally messy.
Hey, whatever… no judgements here.
Let’s start from ground zero. It’s time to be tidy.
Decluttering and Tidiness
I’m a HUGE fan of the slow decluttering method. And I promise that clearing the clutter can’t help but improve everything around your house.
But you also need to develop the habits of a tidy person if you ever want to know the comfort of a clean and tidy home. And by ‘clean’ I mean clean enough that you won’t feel like you’ll die of shame if you have to let someone past the front door.
You’ll be amazed at how soon you’ll feel the difference in your home and your attitude. It takes most people 21 days to develop a habit. Give it a little longer, and you will well and truly feel like you’re actually a tidy person with a tidy home.
Don’t forget, there’s also a printable habit tracker to help you remember to actually DO these things every day — grab it here!
The 4 Simple Tidy Habits You Need NOW
1. Make your bed. Time commitment: 1 minute/day
I know, it seems a little silly. Who’s going to see your bed? Well… you!
I was never a bed-maker until a couple of years ago. But you know what? When I started making my bed every day, it prompted me to start taking on other tidy habits.
Full confession… I don’t make my husband’s side of the bed. I’m not a maid. Sometimes he makes his side, sometimes not. But my side is nice and neat, makes me smile, and starts my day off right. Whether or not you make the ENTIRE bed is up to you. But at least do your side.
2. Swish, spray, and swipe the bathroom. Time commitment: 3 minutes/day
In other words, keep the main bathroom ‘clean enough.’ It’s not like you have to douse it in Clorox every day. Swish the toilet with the cleaning brush, spray the shower with a daily leave-on cleaner, and swipe the mirror/sink/counter with the hand towel (or cleaning wipes) before replacing it for the day.
Save the deeper bathroom cleaning for once a week (grab my Essential Cleaning Planner with easy-to-follow checklists), but enjoy a tidy and clean-enough room in the meantime.
3. Do the dishes. Time commitment: 10 minutes/day
I hate doing dishes by hand. HATE IT. So if this is on the list, it’s IMPORTANT.
Unload the dishwasher every morning.
Load it up every evening. Some people load it as they dirty each dish. I let the dishes pile in the sink (below eye-level) and pop them into the dishwasher right as it’s time to begin dinner. It’s fast and I don’t have to rearrange much later for the dinner dishes.
Then, after dinner, hand-wash anything that’s left and wipe the counter down before you get out a clean towel/washcloth for the next day. Press the button to start the dishwasher, and you’re done! (I’m loving these dishwasher tabs right now.)
Seeing that empty sink in the morning is so very nice!
4. Tidy up every night. Time commitment: 10 minutes/day
Get the whole family on board with this. Set a timer and GO. Clean up any hot spots QUICKLY, and have everyone take their own stuff to put away in their rooms.
You COULD even put one person in charge of the dishes during this time. Just sayin’. 😉
Track Your New Habits
You can try doing all of these at the same time, or add one per month to your routine until they are truly habits you don’t have to think about. By then you’ll feel like a naturally tidy person! 🙂
While you’re practicing these new habits, you should track your progress. It’s great to be able to look back and see you’re actually doing the things and making the changes!
You and your home will of course reflect your new habits, but there’s something about checking things off on paper — or coloring in little tracking boxes — that just makes it almost FUN.
You can grab the printable 30-Day Tidy Home Habits Tracker and get started today. Just fill out the form below and your Habits Tracker will be on the way to you in just a few minutes.
More Help for Cleaning and Decluttering
How to Clean a Cluttered House Fast: The One-Hour Cheater Method
4 Action Tips for How To Declutter When Overwhelmed
How to Keep Your Kitchen Tidy – Easy Tips – Organizing Moms
Motivational Quotes For Cleaning: 20 Positive Clean Home Sayings
How To Stop Being Lazy and Clean My House
Maintaining Your Clean and Tidy Home
Practice these clean and tidy home habits every day:
- Make your bed.
- Swish, spray, and swipe the bathroom.
- Do the dishes.
- Do a 10-minute tidy-up every night.
Track your progress with the 30-day tidy home habit tracker, and you’ll be welcoming guests into your clean and tidy home before you know it!
You’ve got this!
Need more help for regular cleaning? My 27-page Essential Cleaning Planner has everything you need!
This cleaning planner was designed to take the stress out of cleaning. Create your personal scaled-down cleaning plan, or use the checklists as-is to stay on top of the exact cleaning and maintenance tasks that will keep your home clean and comfortable.
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Updated June 17, 2021
Going to give this a try starting today.
Hi Brit! Yay! Be sure to print out the habit tracker… it really helps me remember to actually DO the things. LOL
This is a great list of habits! If I were to add one, it would be to put things back where you got them from. If only I could get my husband to follow THAT one in the garage… oh well! LOL! Found you on The Blogger’s Pitstop.
Hi Denise! I’m so glad you stopped by! Oh, yes… I have another entire post planned for the habit of putting things back where they came from! And the garage? Let’s not even go there. It kind of makes me hyperventilate. LOL
Hi Julie, I’m always happy to get an email, even an older post that reminds me to be mindful of my habit. I put these habits in reminders on my phone as repeating. Each is a separate line but grouped under Do Daily.
Had to share about bed making. I’ve been really lazy lately – since my husband retired because my morning routine has changed in terms of the priorities. I used to make bed, take shower, do hair and makeup, get dressed and start a load of laundry. Then I’d go in the kitchen, unload the dishwasher and fix myself a smoothie. I had to alter the order of things because my husband gets up early and heads to the kitchen first thing and creates chaos fixing his own breakfast. And inevitably puts his dirty dishes in with the clean ones. So getting to the bedroom to make the bed comes last. And forgotten. He sleeps in his own bedroom with noisy CPAP machine and he always makes his bed. That came about after me declaring I’m not a maid!