If you search for cleaning hacks online, you’ll find massive lists that include hundreds of tips and tricks to help you clean quicker and more efficiently. While each tip has merit, battle-tested advice from regular people provides the most realistic help.
15 Realistic Cleaning Hacks You Need to Try ASAP
To find the best strategies for a tidier house, we scoured Reddit boards and compiled the top 15 cleaning hacks of all time —some of these ideas are very creative.
1. Set a 15 Minute Timer Daily
Spending just fifteen minutes a day on your home may seem like a small commitment, but it adds up to huge results.
If you’re aiming for a more organized home, set your timer for fifteen minutes daily and declutter. At the end of one month, you’ll have made significant progress. If you struggle with keeping your house clean, set a fifteen-minute timer in the evening and tidy up your kitchen as quickly as possible.
2. Fold the Towels First
Have you been dreading the large pile of clean laundry mounded on your kitchen table or bed? Fold the towels first.
Towels are bulky and take up a lot of physical space—they’re also easy to fold. When you start tidying up the towels, your laundry pile will look much smaller and much quicker, making it less of a mental battle.
3. Clean the Shower While You’re In It
Keep a refillable dish cleaning brush in the shower and fill it with vinegar, water, and a few drops of Dawn dish soap. After washing yourself, scrub the shower with your dish brush, rinse, and get out.
4. Use a Piece of Clothing to Dust, Then Drop it in the Washer
No need to break out a new towel every time you dust. Get your dusting done on laundry day by grabbing a dirty t-shirt and using it to wipe all flat surfaces in your home. Then throw it in the wash.
5. Invest in a Robovac and Set a Daily Schedule
Robovacs keep your home clean in two ways. First, they keep your floors spic and span by vacuuming and mopping. But according to one Redditor, they also force you to keep your floor picked up so the robovac can run.
6. Invite People Over for a Boost of Cleaning Motivation
When cleaning motivation has been waning, plan a dinner party. Some people (maybe you) get that spark of cleaning motivation by working on a tight deadline. If you constantly struggle with motivation, plan biweekly get-togethers.
7. Clean the Sink and Run the Dishwasher Every Night
Don’t go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink. Load up your dishwasher throughout the day as you use dishes, and run it every night. Unload it the following morning while you’re making breakfast.
Also, take the time to clean out your sink after doing the dishes.
8. If It Takes Less than 30 Seconds to Put it Back, Do It
No excuses—if something takes less than thirty seconds to put away or wipe down, do it. For example, this includes placing spices and cooking spray back in the cabinet after use, throwing dirty clothes in the hamper, and promptly throwing away trash.
9. Clean Ceiling Fans with a Pillowcase
When dust builds up on the ceiling fan blades, keep it contained with a pillowcase. Insert a fan blade into the pillowcase and use your hands to apply pressure as you wipe, removing dust from the top, bottom, and sides of the blade. Repeat.
10. Tidy Up Kitchen Every Time You Use It
When you’re cooking, clean as you go. While you might think you’ve only made a small mess and it will be easy to clean it up later, these types of messes tend to pile up, creating a disaster that’s overwhelming to deal with. Cleaning up after yourself in the kitchen takes less than five minutes, so do it immediately.
11. Nix Dedicated Cleaning Days
Dedicated cleaning days may be contributing to your messy house. It’s much easier to clean as you go. For example, doing a load of laundry per day and cleaning the dishes every night will keep most houses in good shape. However, if you let all the laundry pile up and try to do it once per week, the job becomes massive and overwhelming.
While it’s okay to schedule a deep cleaning session once every week or two, you should clean daily if you want to live in an organized home.
12. Use the 25-Item Decluttering Mantra
If you’re trying to declutter, follow the 25-item mantra until you’re satisfied with your space. This rule works just like it sounds—you find 25 things to eliminate every day. These can be small items like receipts, torn clothes, old knickknacks, etc.
13. Only Keep Essentials on the Counter
Unless you use it at least once per week, get it off your kitchen counter. Small appliances and decor can lead to a lot of visual clutter. If you’re after a functional, tidy kitchen, clear your countertops.
14. Use Your Washing Machine’s Timer Function
If your washing machine has a timer, set it for the same time every morning (ideally after everyone has finished showering.) Add clothes to the washer as they become dirty, and let your machine timer be the motivation to get the washer loaded.
15. Hire Help
An often repeated piece of cleaning advice on Reddit was to hire help. If you’re busy or overwhelmed, having someone clean your house every week or two can take care of the deep cleaning tasks so you don’t have to.
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