A Green Daily Cleaning Routine To Keep Your House Tidy

A daily cleaning routine normally wouldn’t be my cup of tea, but lately I’ve been trying to be a better, cleaner, more transparent person. When I say transparent, I don’t mean in a ‘tell the truth’ kind of way (I’ve got that down pretty well), but in a ‘stop trying to make everything seem so perfect—especially when it’s not’ kind of way. So, radical honesty time: old me hated cleaning and didn’t do it very often.

Or, like, ever if she could help it.

If you’ve ever been to my house and thought it looked clean, it’s only because the tumbleweeds blew past when you weren’t looking. And in case you thought tumbleweeds were only found in old western movies, I’m here to tell you, they’re real, they’re gnarly and they’re in my house.

After packing up our 3 bedroom rental house and moving into a home of our own, I saw firsthand how scary my cleaning habits really are. Dog fir, dust, old bits of kibble and an absurd number of chapsticks came out of the woodwork. Not only was I embarrassed for the poor movers who had to unearth most of it, but I was shocked to realize that, in trying to make everything look perfect, I was actually just sweeping some really gross things (literally) under the rug.

Maybe it’s better to just clean, really clean, and stop trying to pretend things are perfect?

And what better way to do that than with a daily cleaning routine. It takes so much of the pain out of cleaning if you do a little bit each day rather than try to tackle it all on the weekend. Weekends are made for recharging and spending time with family, not for catching up on housework you let slide during the week. So to get to your housework to-dos done as painlessly as possible, commit to cleaning for about 15 to 20 minutes a day, five days a week. Then when Friday comes around, kick your feet up and revel in the cleanliness of it all.

A Daily Cleaning Routine

Bedroom

Since my husband and I don’t really lounge in our bedroom, it’s easily the most neglected room in our house. But it’s also the easiest to keep tidy in just 5 minutes a day.

• Freshen your bedding with a wonderful-smelling linen spray
• Wipe down your nightstand and put odds and ends away
• Put clothes in dresser drawers or the laundry hamper to wash later

Bathroom

The good thing about the bathroom is that you can do a lot of the cleaning while you’re doing other things, like conditioning your hair, brushing your teeth or moisturizing your face.

• Give the shower a good spritz with shower cleaner to keep soap scum at bay
• Clean off countertops and stash away clutter
• Wipe down countertops and sink
• Wash dirty towels and refill low toiletries

Laundry Room

Laundry can pile up quickly and become a huge source of procrastination if you’re not careful. It’s best to keep loads of laundry running throughout the week so you don’t face a huge mountain of dirty clothes later.

• Set a laundry schedule that works for you
• Place a trash can in the laundry room and use it to collect lint and debris
• Use extra baskets to organize and transport clean laundry
• Wipe down the washing machine regularly to prevent mildew from sneaking up on you

Kitchen

The kitchen gets dirty the fastest and is often the hardest to clean once things have had a chance to dry. I always tackle the kitchen at night before bed if I’m not too tired or first thing in the morning when I’m feeling fresh.

• Clean pots and pans and dirty cooking utensils while you cook
• Put dirty dishes directly in the dishwasher rather than the kitchen sink
• Run the dishwasher at night before bed and unload it first thing in the morning
• Wipe down countertops and quickly sweep the floor