3 House Cleaning Secrets For A New Year
The hecticness of the holiday season is finally over, and if you’re anything like us, you’re ready to pack away those decorations and get your home clean and organized for the new year.
But even if having a clean home is your 2020 resolution, you may find yourself feeling bogged down and unsure of how to start creating new habits.
Today, we’ve compiled three of our favorite house cleaning secrets that you can start implementing every day for a clean home in the new year.
1. Create A “Walk In The Door” Routine
After a long work day, most people tend to kick off their shoes in front of the door, throw coats and bags on the nearest piece of furniture, toss the mail on the counter, and immediately start thinking about dinner.
But by creating an organization station near your entryway, you can keep the mess of the work week from piling up. And it only takes a fast two minute routine.
Put a shoe rack or mat by the door, as well as some hooks for bags, coats, and keys. (If you already have hooks and shelves, it may be time to clean them out so you have plenty of room to store what you need daily.)
When you walk in the door take the one minute required to hang and shelve your belongings – you can even keep a small recycle bin by the door so you can quickly sort and dispose of your mail before it clutters your counters.
2. Set A Timer
Cleaning feels overwhelming – even simple chores like tidying up the living room can sound exhausting at the end of a hard day.
But one great, and very underutilized tool to help you tackle your chores is simple timer. You may feel like you don’t have time to clean your bedroom, but can you spare 10 minutes a few times a week?
Choose the amount of time you feel you can commit in one room only, and then clean consistently until that timer goes off.
Don’t check your phone, don’t get distracted by items you find, and don’t leave the room until your time is up.
You will be so amazed at what you can accomplish in ten minute increments, you’ll be trying it in every room!
3. Shine The Sink Every Night
Jolie Kerr of the New York Times says,
“The sink, especially the faucet, can be wiped free of bacteria and food particles with an all-purpose cleaner. And we all should probably clean the faucet more often, considering it’s something we touch with raw-chicken-covered hands.”
By creating an evening routine of loading the dishwasher and wiping out your sink, you’ll never have to wake up to a smelly, dirty kitchen again.
To make things easy, make it a practice to rinse your dishes while you’re cooking rather than letting them pile up.
This way you can quickly load and move on with your evening once dinner is done.