How to Clean Less and Still Have a Tidy Home

Having a tidy home is actually important to me. I’ve experienced that inner calm comes easier in a calm space. I want my kids to benefit from a clean home, as well as learn the skills to keep it clean. But, a clean house is not what’s most important to me. I don’t want to spend all day cleaning. I’d rather be hanging out with my five kids, growing my business, playing Scrabble with my husband, reading a good book, playing basketball, helping someone else, or the list could go on and on of things I’d rather do. And I’m sure you’re like me. You want a clean home, but you don’t want to spend all day cleaning either. So here are some of my best tips for how to clean less and still have a tidy home, so that you can keep your house clean in less time.

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The Only Two Things that Let You Do Less Housework

How do I keep my house clean in less time? Assuming you don’t want to just give up and live in a pig sty, that’s a question worth answering. And there are two main answers. One, find ways to prevent the need to clean in the first place. And two, find ways to do necessary cleaning more efficiently or effectively.

You can apply these two principles in your cleaning routine. Think about something that bothers you to clean or takes more time than you’d like. How could you prevent that from needing cleaning? And how could you do the cleaning more efficiently or effectively?

Brainstorm as many answers as you can to these two questions. Remember, no idea is a bad idea when you’re brainstorming. Sometimes bizarre or unreasonable ideas lead to really good ones. Ask your kids too. They can be amazing at thinking outside the box.

The ten tips for how to clean less give specific examples within each of these two main categories.

If you’re ready for a cleaning system that serves you instead of you feeling like a slave to your home, my Simple Systems Starter Guide is a great first step.

This free guide teaches three steps for creating time-saving home systems that work. Hope to see you on the inside!

But How Do You Clean When You Hate Cleaning?

As humans we’re wired to not want to do things that are hard or we don’t like. It’s one way our brains serve us by helping us conserve energy. However, you know and I know that just because we don’t want to do something, doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t.

So if you want to clean less often because you hate cleaning right now, the adult in us, the part of us that also wants to function well, can clean anyway. We can muscle through with self-discipline, and we can also do simple things to make cleaning a little more enjoyable. For example, turn on music or listen to a favorite podcast. Call a friend and chat while we work.

We can also track our cleaning tasks, as our brains feel like checkmarks are an accomplishment. The Simple System Starter Guide includes a system tracker.

You can reward yourself when you finish the cleaning you have planned. Even a simple ten minutes of intentional relaxation after a job well done will serve as encouragement and motivation to get the cleaning done.

Additionally, when you use these 10 ideas for how to clean less, you’ll be able to keep the house clean in less time. When cleaning takes less time, it’s less daunting. These kinds of tips will help you get the necessary jobs done, even if feel like you hate cleaning right now. So let’s get onto those ideas for cleaning less.

10 Ways to Clean Less (Without Being a Slob)

These ten ideas help us do less housework and still live in a tidy house, as we both prevent cleaning and clean more efficiently.

1. Get Rid of Stuff and Stop Accumulating More

The less we have the less time we spend cleaning. I experienced this in a drastic way when we lived overseas for a year and a half as a family of five. We were functionally minimalists (all we had would have fit in a couple suitcases each) although I never tried to be one. I discovered at least two big things: we really didn’t need as much stuff as we had, and I could keep my entire house clean in way less time.

Since moving back, we’re not minimalists. But the lesson stands. There’s a relationship between how much stuff we have and how much time we spend cleaning, moving that stuff around to get to counters, putting it away, reorganizing, and on.

So if you’re serious about spending less time cleaning, get rid of some stuff. One of the simplest ways to get started is to stop accumulating more stuff. Choose experiences for gifts. If you buy something new, donate something old. And over time, declutter like a champ.

2. Automate Cleaning Tasks

The best example of cleaning automation is the robotic vacuum. It actually works, and it actually saves time. If you haven’t seen one of these yet, with a click of a button (or at a set time) the robotic vacuum maneuvers through the house on its own, vacuuming as it goes.

Click image for purchasing information.

Another helpful type of automation is when cleaning tasks simply become automatic for us. For example, keep cleaning supplies in the bathroom and get in the habit of wiping down the counter while brushing your teeth in the morning. When tasks become automatic they get done faster and easier.

3. Designate Messy Things

Have a set “outside blanket” or “play sheet.” Keep a plastic table cloth and art smocks (simply old large t-shirts) with the art supplies. You can even have “messy clothes” for when kids want to go out in the mud.

When we have these types of items set aside as messy things, we don’t have to spend as much time scrubbing and cleaning all the things. It’s perfectly okay if the art smock has a paint stain on it.

4. Do Less Laundry

Some of us do way too much laundry. Here are a few ways to do less housework when it comes to laundry:

• Get color coded, anagrammed, or otherwise assigned bath towels.
  • When you get out of the bath or shower, you’re clean. So a towel can definitely be used more than once. Most people are still particular about using their own towel. 😉
• Have clothes storage that’s easy for kids to use, and teach them to put clean clothes away.
  • Clean stacks of clothes notoriously end up on the floor and back in the hamper. If children can’t get drawers open and closed on their own (because they’re sticky or too full), get different drawers or use open top bins (like these storage organizer cubes) in shelves.
• Have fewer clothes available.
  • If your child likes changing six times daily and leaves all those outfits on the floor (or pulls everything out to find one particular shirt), keep fewer outfits in arms reach. Rotate extra outfits through higher shelving in a closet.
• Stop ironing.
  • Buy wrinkle free clothes and pull clothes out of the dryer quickly to massively cut down or eliminate time ironing.
• Don’t wash clean clothes.
  • Not every clothing item needs to be washed every time it’s worn. Jeans (most pants) and dresses are good examples. Socks and underwear, yes. Wash every time.
• Fold socks together every time you take them off.
  • Stop the baffling sock hunt. When you take socks off, you have two matching socks in your hands. It’s the easiest time in the world to fold them together. Then they stay together sitting by the door or down in the basement or before they go in the hamper or for the rest of their little sock lives. Even kids can learn to do this.

5. Follow the One Touch Rule

How many times have you got the mail from the mailbox and set it down to take care of later. Then you move the stack of mail to wipe the counter. Later you open the mail and put the bill aside to take care of later, again. Then you can’t find the bill when it comes time to pay it. Instead, touch it once. Get the mail and immediately put it in the correct file or in the recycling.

When kids bring home papers from school, take care of them all at once. Talk about the great work done, hang the art, toss it, sign it, whatever it requires. Touch it once.

When something’s out of place, put it away. Don’t just move it to a different “out of the way” place that will need to get picked up later. Touch it once.

6. Clean Messy Messes Immediately

There are messes, and then there are messy messes. The messy messes are the kind that track and spread around the house. We’re talking spills, stains, mud on the shoes, and such. This type of mess should be cleaned immediately. You’ll spend way less time cleaning the mess once rather than waiting to clean it after it’s been kicked or tracked around the house.

With stains and spills, they also clean faster the fresher they are. So take care of it right when it happens. Keep a spray and wash in the kitchen. This is my favorite kind of spray for stains.

7. Create Zones for Messy Activities

We need to eat, but we don’t need to eat all over the house. Arts and crafts are fun, but we don’t need to create on the couch. Even kids toys can be kept in set spaces. Creating and following through with Zones in our home is a really helpful way to clean less.

One thing I love about Zones is that the focus is on where we DO things, rather than “no.”

Here are some of our family zones:

• Eating only happens in the kitchen.
  • Even the three-year-old knows the zones. He’ll often have his snack sitting right on the edge where the kitchen ends and the carpet begins. 🙂
  • If kids want a snack while watching a movie, they can sit on a play sheet. Even then, there’s no juice or other spilly things.
• Arts and crafts happen at the kitchen table.
  • Craft supplies are stored right by where they can be done to prevent the urge of just doing it somewhere else.
• Toys stay outside the bathroom.
• Shoes stay in the entry.
• We brush teeth in the bathroom.

Zones are about family guidelines. They’re not about yelling and battling. When family members are learning, a simple, calm reminder is usually all it takes. “We eat in the kitchen or not at all.”

If you feel like you’re policing too much during the day, choose the Zone that’s most important to you, that cuts down on the most cleaning time, and emphasize only one first until it becomes habit for the family. And remember, you can always send people outside to the Everything Goes Zone! 😉

8. Store Things Strategically

We can prevent a lot of cleaning and have to clean a lot less often when we store things strategically. In general, if people can’t clean up an activity (or its possible resulting mess) on their own, they shouldn’t be able to get it out on their own.

I learned this quickly when I found several multi-thousand piece puzzles all dumped together by one of my wonderful toddlers at my in-laws. Nail polish and permanent markers on walls also teach us the same lesson.

High shelves, child locks on cabinets, or a different room are helpful storage solutions. We even had a fridge lock for a while because it’s only fun to clean splattered yogurt off the kitchen floor so many times.

9. Hire Out (or Delegate)

The cleaning needs to get done, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it all. This might seem obvious and “If I could afford that I’d do it,” but I can’t write about how to clean less and not mention hiring out. Plus, there are many people who feel guilted into not hiring help.

If it fits your budget, go for it. Remember that you’re providing a good job for someone. Use the time saved in a way that feels uplifting or beneficial to you, your family, or others.

Along these lines (but not) delegate.

Kids and family members can all learn to share the work load. It’s good for us to work together as a team and all learn the importance of responsibility. There’s too much on this topic to go into here, (I have a whole program on Home Systems for Kids) but you can find a little more info here: The Five E’s of Teaching Kids to Work.

10. Use a Timer to Speed Clean

Our activities grow to fill the time we give them. So one really powerful way to clean less is to simply give it less time. Additionally, our brains and bodies kick into gear with a little time pressure, making our cleaning efforts more efficient. So turn on a timer, and work as fast as you can for that set time. Get as much done as you can, and then be done. Call it enough.

It is absolutely AMAZING what ten to twenty minutes of speed cleaning each night can do. You wake up each day to a clean home. A clean home is easier to keep clean because a pile of clutter simply invites more clutter, which will only take more time to clean later. But when a home feels clean and organized, there’s natural motivation to simply keep it clean and organized.

A habit of daily speed cleaning will definitely help you clean less and still live in a tidy house.

I hope these tips help you keep your house clean in less time! Remember…

Which of these ways to clean less sound most helpful for you? What house job is your least favorite and why? How do you clean less often? Share in the comments!

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