Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. In today's video, I'm going to be sharing with you 20
tips and habits on how to keep a clean and tidy home. Now, two years ago I made a similar
video to this, and it has been viewed well over four million times, so I'm guessing that
you guys like this type of content. If you do, give it a big thumbs up, and if you're
new to my channel, I would love you to consider subscribing if you like cleaning motivation,
because I am posting videos about it all the time, I would love to have you as a viewer.
So I'm back today with even better tips, and I hope you really enjoy it. I would say that
I'm actually not a natural lover of cleaning, but I do really love having a clean house,
so it is just the habits that I'm going to share with you today that keep my house nice
and clean and tidy. So yes, without further ado, let's get into my tips.
So my first tip is to be kind to your future yourself and to tidy as you go. Don't leave
it until later, if there's something that you can be tidying while you're also doing
something else, then definitely do it. So for instance, if I'm cooking, I make sure
that I have no dead time. If something is boiling or something's in the oven, I will
be washing dishes or wiping down surfaces so that I am cleaning as I go. Even when I
wash my face in the morning, you might have seen in my morning routine, I'll wash my face
with one side of the facecloth and then I will wipe over our sink with the other side
of the facecloth, and even when my kids are in the bath, I will quickly wash the bathroom
floor or organize the under the sink storage in that room. Because my boys are that bit
older and they can sit up on their own, it just makes sense for me to be cleaning while
they're happily playing. And on that note, follow the five minute rule
and the one touch method. The five minute rule is exactly as it sounds, if you see a
task in front of you and it will only take five minutes to do, just do it now. So for
instance, if you have a messy junk drawer and it would actually only take five minutes
to sort out, just go ahead and do it immediately, this is a good rule to apply to life in general.
And the one touch method is something I also try to live by, and that is just putting an
item away with one touch. So for instance if you're brushing your hair, and then you
put your hairbrush down somewhere, and then it eventually gets back to where it should
be, instead of doing that, just brush your hair and then put your brush back where it
belongs, and the same thing goes for when you walk in the door with your coat. Rather
than chucking your coat down on the couch and then eventually putting it away or putting
it on a coat, just take it off and with one touch put it away where it belongs.
My next tip is one that professional cleaners use, and that is to walk into a room and to
clean it clockwise, and from top to bottom. So rather than walk into a room and be overwhelmed
by how messy it is, run here, there and everywhere to try and clean it as best you can, walk
into a room, choose a starting point, and then work your way around clockwise, and always
clean from the highest point down to the floor. That's because dust will settle, so there's
no point in cleaning the floors if you still have to wipe the surfaces.
And when it comes to big tasks like laundry and decluttering, I really like to break those
up and do a little bit every day. So instead of having one huge laundry day, I will just
do a load every day of the week, so in the morning I'll put on a load of laundry as part
of my routine, I'll dry it in the afternoon, and I'll put it away every evening, and it
really does feel like less of a burden than a huge laundry day at the weekend.
And while we're talking about laundry, I also get so many questions about ironing and my
ironing routine, but the truth is, I rarely ever iron, and that is because I fold clothes
immediately out of the tumble dryer. As soon as I hear that buzzer go off, I am at the
tumble dryer and I am folding them, because I find when I do that, I get so many less
creases in our clothes. And my next tip is to read the labels on your
cleaning products, and the instructions as well. Now, I know that sounds really simple
and very obvious, but be honest, how often do you do that? And some cleaning products
require a dwell time, which means they need to sit on your surfaces for one to five minutes
to really disinfect properly, so check your cleaning products.
My next tip is to always be decluttering. Rather than just doing a huge declutter once
or twice a year, keep a basket in your car or in your garage where you can put items
that you no longer want or need, and then if you're passing by the charity shop, you
can donate them. This is a great way to stay on top of things, and if you ever have 10
minutes in the day, maybe you can find the time to declutter just one drawer. If you
do that often and it becomes a habit, it will really keep your house cleaner.
And once you have decluttered, have a place for everything, and have everything in its
place. And this is straight out of the Marie Kondo book, which I'm a huge fan of, but tidying
really is easier if everything has a place to live, so we have invested in some clever
storage solutions. We had this little shoe storage built underneath our stairs, because
there was just some dead space there. We also love to have gas lift beds, because we can
store all of our seasonal clothes and toys under them, we really do try to make the most
of the space that we have. My next tip is a great one, and one that I'm
really trying to instill in our children, and that is don't leave a room empty-handed,
and don't go upstairs empty-handed either. Often there are items that need to go back
to the kitchen, that need to go to the dishwasher, so for instance in the morning you're likely
to have cups upstairs that need to go back downstairs, and there are always little things
on our stairs that need to return up it. We actually invested in a little stair basket
as well, so that we can just grab the stair basket and take that up with us.
My next tip is to work smart and to get great equipment, you're more likely to clean if
you love the products that you're using, so recently I got a robot vacuum as well, and
it's been such a game-changer for me. I've got into the habit of when I take my children
up to the bath, I'll turn on my robot vacuum, and it can just be vacuuming away, and I feel
like it's a small win for me. I also love my spray mop, it's really fun to use, and
it's a really cool gadget. I know I've shown you it before, but I really love having it,
and I always had my favorite cleaning cloth that I knew worked really well, so I decided
to buy like five or six of them so that I always have the cloth that I really like to
use. And buying new cleaning products so that you clean more is a bit like buying new gym
wear so that you go to the gym more. My next tip is to create cleaning routines,
and if you don't know where to start, I've made so many videos about my cleaning routines,
I have a morning one and an evening one as well, but just look at your day and see if
there's anywhere where you can carve out time that you can actually tidy and clean, and
again by making it a habit, it won't feel so heavy, and it'll just fit into your life.
So for instance, every night when I go to bed, I put the dishwasher on, and then every
morning I just empty it, and I kind of don't even notice that I'm doing it, because it
is just one of my habits. My next tip is to keep cleaning products near
where you're going to use them, and I feel like this tip is a little bit controversial,
because a lot of people keep all their cleaning products in one place together, and I definitely
have one place where the bulk of mine are, and then if I do a big house clean, I'll take
them all with me, but I feel like by having a couple of cleaning products upstairs, like
a surface spray and a glass cleaner, I'm more likely to quickly clean our mirrors, or just
quickly wipe down our sink or our toilets, so for me that really works, having a few
of the products near where I'm actually going to use them.
My next tip is to set a timer and speed clean. Now, I've made so many speed cleaning videos
in the past on my channel, but it really does work, you will be amazed at how much you can
get done in just 10 or 15 minutes, so set a timer on your phone, decide to conquer one
room, and you'll be amazed how clean it is in just 15 minutes.
This next tip really does work for me, and that is don't sit down. So in the evening,
when all I want to do is crash, I make sure that all the tasks are done before I do that,
because I know as soon as I sit down on that couch, I will not be getting up and accomplishing
very much at all, so I try to do it all before I sit down.
Another thing that makes cleaning easier for me is that I treat it like me time, so whenever
I'm cleaning, I'm also multitasking, whether I am listening to an audiobook or a podcast,
sometimes I like to call my mom and my sister and catch up with them, because I can be cleaning
and chatting away at the same time. I also like to clean when I'm cooking, when the kids
are in the bath as I said, or if I ever need to book a doctor's appointment, or call the
bank and I'm going to be on hold for a long time, then I like to clean while I'm making
those kinds of phone calls, and I feel like when I'm cleaning, it's like a guilt-free
me time, so I can be listening to a book as I said, or music, or something that I enjoy,
and also being productive at the same time. My next tip is to involve the whole family
in cleaning, and to delegate chores. So even very small children could have a few chores,
that maybe is making their bed or putting their dishes into the dishwasher, or it's
worth you and your partner agreeing on tasks that you tend to own or do. For instance,
you won't feel like you're nagging all the time if it is your partner's job to always
put the trash out, and so on. My next tip is to fold your clothes in the
Marie Kondo way of folding. I really love having this, especially for my children's
drawers. It's basically like making these little parcels that all face upwards so that
when you open a drawer, you can see all of the items that you have. It's very space-saving
and it looks very neat and tidy, and when my children are choosing their own clothes,
they really don't mess it all up, so I really like organizing in this way.
And I also have three tasks that I do every single day, and I swear it makes our entire
house feel so much cleaner. The first one is to make your bed every single morning.
Wake up, just do it, you've already accomplished something and you feel good about it, but
it also makes your entire bedroom look clean instantly. The second task is to have clear
counters. Don't leave much out on your counters, we like to hide our big appliances, and try
to keep them as clear as possible, because it makes the entire room look so much cleaner.
And the third thing is to have clean sinks. Now, bear with me on this one, but when a
sink is messy or full of dishes, I swear it attracts so much more mess to the entire house,
so I always try to have clean sinks, and before I go to bed at night, my kitchen sink is always
nice and clean. And my final tip is if you have children,
discount everything that I just said, because it is very hard to keep a clean house if you
have children at home, so give yourself some grace. If I can wake up to a clean home and
I can go to bed with a clean home, then I am pretty much happy, but I've also come to
terms with the fact that it's going to be messy, we have very young children. So anyway,
that is all my tips for today, I hope you really enjoyed this video, and of course,
I would love you guys to add your tips to the comments below. Thank you so much as always
for watching, and I'll see you in my next one, bye guys.