9 Powerful Habits of Working Women With Clean Homes

By Amy

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Work full-time? These 9 impactful habits are common among career women who always have a clean house. Start doing these things to keep your house clean in less time!

Trying to keep your house clean when you work full-time can feel like breathlessly running on a never-ending hamster wheel of overwhelm and frustration. But it doesn’t have to be that way!

Maintaining a clean home when you work full-time isn’t always easy. However, career women who DO successfully have a tidy house have a few things in common. Here are 9 habits of working women with clean homes. These powerful habits will help you keep your house clean while juggling a full-time job.

Remember priorities and have realistic expectations

Career women with clean homes don’t kid themselves about how much they can realistically get done.

You should regularly remind yourself that you only have so much time to keep the house clean and organized, and establish cleaning priorities accordingly. We clean the things that matter the most and that are important to US, and leave the rest for when we have some extra time and energy. We run a household according to what we’re capable of, and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks.

Find a cleaning routine that works, and stick to it

The last thing a busy, tired working woman needs is to try and decide what to clean on any given day. A simple calendar-based cleaning checklist instantly alleviates decision fatigue, makes it easy to delegate cleaning to family members when needed, and allows you to develop a consistent routine. Create a daily cleaning habit using a cleaning checklist calendar, and your house will stay clean much more easily.

Clean and tidy up as you go

Savvy working women know that they make things way easier on themselves when they clean and tidy up all day long.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that you should be wearing an apron all evening and using all of your free time to clean and put things away! Here are some examples of how it integrate cleaning into life as you go:

If you see a spot on the floor, clean it up
Notice dust on the coffee table next to you? Wipe it up with a facial tissue or dust cloth
Wipe down the kitchen sink and counters each time you use them
If you walk by something that needs to be put away, take care of it

By taking a few extra seconds here and there to clean and put things away as we go about our lives at home, we save ourselves TONS of time cleaning down the road.

Always put things away after use

Piggybacking on the habit above, it’s important that you (and your family) learn to put things away after you’re done using them. Items left out create clutter, mess, and more effort for you to keep your house clean. If you can get into the habit of putting away dishes, toiletries, clothes, etc after you’re done with them, your house will stay cleaner and be less cluttered – which means less work for you!

Declutter regularly

Just as you should get into the habit of cleaning and tidying up as you go about your time at home, you should also declutter on the regular.

For example, say you open your bathroom cabinet, and notice a bunch of hair care products that you half-used months ago. Take a few moments then and there to get rid of them! Or if your eyes land on a piece of decor that you loved a few years ago, but that now looks outdated, put it in a donation box and get it out of your house as soon as possible.

As you move through your home, keep an eye out for anything that you no longer use, need, or love. By regularly editing your belongings, you’ll have less clutter to deal with, less stuff to clean around, and a lighter, more relaxed atmosphere in your home. If you’re interested in doing focused decluttering sessions throughout your house, check out my whole-home decluttering checklist.

Keep hard-working, multitasking cleaning products on hand

It’s hard to keep your house clean if you don’t have the cleaning products you need! Running out of product is a great way to derail your cleaning schedule, but it’s totally avoidable. You should always keep a backup of each of your regular cleaning products on-hand in your home. A good rule of thumb is to order or pick up a fresh bottle of a product soon after you open the backup.

Did you know that you can cut down on the number of products you use by opting for multi-tasking products? Check out a list of my favorite multi-purpose cleaning products that I keep in my cleaning caddy.

Always make cleaning a fun event

Let’s be honest… few of us actually enjoy cleaning (yes, I’m one of those weirdos who likes to clean). But do you know why I don’t mind cleaning? Because I make sure I’m never JUST cleaning.

You can probably think of at lest 10 things you’d rather do than clean your house. Why not do some of those things WHILE you clean your house? Listen to music or a podcast, tote your tablet around and watch one of your favorite shows or movies, talk on the phone with a friend or family member.

There are so many fun things you can do while you clean. If you need more inspiration, check out my complete list of how to have fun while you clean your house.

Recruit others in your household to help clean

If you don’t live by yourself, then you’re not the only person making your house a mess. Why should you be the only one cleaning it up?

One of the reasons I don’t mind cleaning is because I’ve been doing it since I was 7 or 8 years old. My mom worked nights as a nurse, and even went back to school to get a master’s degree when I was in grade school. That meant there was no freaking way she’d be able to keep our house clean by herself! My parents expected my brothers and I to help with chores around the house, clean up after ourselves, and take initiative when it came to cleaning.

You can delegate cleaning tasks to each family member – such as doing their own laundry, cleaning their own room/bathroom, unloading the dishwasher, etc. Once your family is regularly helping with baseline cleaning tasks, you’ll be able to focus on other tasks that get your house looking REALLY good. You’ll also be able to relax a little, too!

Keep overwhelm in check with mindset maintenance

Everyone falls behind on cleaning sometimes, or feels overwhelmed, or has no energy. Those things are normal. Career women who always have a clean home regularly engage in self-coaching to manage their reaction to those feelings and situations.

If you’re exhausted, overwhelmed, or behind on cleaning, then remind yourself that:

You have the power to make your house look better
Cleaning is something you do for your own well-being
If your house is a little messy sometimes, that’s okay… you’re a career woman, and you’re busy kicking butt elsewhere in life

If you want to completely overhaul the way you think about cleaning, check out my post on a simple cleaning mindset shift that can have a big impact on your life.