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It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when faced with a busy schedule and a messy house. By focusing on a few key tasks, you can quickly make your house feel clean, until you have time for a more thorough cleaning.
My eyes shot around the kitchen, bewildered, unsure of where to land.
I was exhausted. But my house? It looked like a band of gypsies had rolled through and never looked back.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad.
But I was so overwhelmed by the mess and clutter, it FELT that bad.
As busy working women, we often don’t have time to get our homes as clean as we’d like them to be. (Pinterest envy, anyone?)
Maybe we have to skip a week due to sick kids or unexpected schedule changes, and your cleaning routine goes out the window for a week or so.
The clutter, mess, stress, and overwhelm start to pile up. You need to do SOMETHING to make it better, but you’re not sure where to start. You feel like you can’t keep your house clean.
I’ve got your back, dear friend. By focusing on 6 quick cleaning tasks, you can make your house feel clean again. Check out the video below, or scroll down to read on!
6 Quick Ways to Make Your House Feel Clean
This list of to-dos is the perfect way to tide a messy house over until you have time to do a more thorough clean. They’ll get your house looking and feeling clean, and hopefully relieve some stress and overwhelm for you, as well.
Take a deep breath and work your way down this list, one task at a time. Each task will take about 5 to 10 minutes.
Make Your Bed
It sounds too simple, right? But making your bed sends a signal to yourself that you care about the way your house looks. If your house is a mess, start here.
Why?
A made bed sets the tone for your room and ultimately for the rest of your house. It’ll make you feel competent and worthy of a clean, neat environment. As a result, you’ll be a smidge more motivated to clean up other areas of your home.
Plus, it looks nice.
Get Your Kitchen Sink Clean and Empty
Few things make a home feel more chaotic and stressful than a kitchen sink full of dirty dishes. My heart races faster just picturing it in my mind!
Load the dishwasher and give the kitchen sink and faucet a quick scrub. Your kitchen will look much better, which will make your house feel clean as a result.
Drive-By Declutter
Decluttering your whole house at once probably isn’t practical. But, a quick drive-by decluttering session will help make your house feel clean by getting some things back in order.
What the heck is drive-by decluttering, and how do you do it?
Drive-by decluttering is taking a quick trip through your home, gathering things that are out of place, and putting them away.
The goal of drive-by decluttering is to put away the stuff that you can quickly and easily get to. In other words, the surface clutter. The goal is NOT to declutter everything.
How to Do a Drive-By Decluttering
- Grab a box or laundry basket to bring along as you declutter.
- Take a spin around your house, stopping in each room to declutter.
- Put away items that belong in the room you found them in.
- Place items that belong in a different room in your box or basket.
- Put the items in the box or basket away when you arrive in the room where they belong.
Hit all the areas of your home you use on a regular basis. The kitchen, entry, living areas, bathrooms, and bedrooms. That sounds like a lot, but remember that we’re only going for surface clutter here. It usually takes me 5 to 10 minutes to take care of surface clutter in my home.
If your home is very cluttered, a drive-by decluttering session can still have an impact. Aim to put away clutter that was created within the last day or so. Even that little change will help your house feel clean. You’ll also be less overwhelmed when you have time for a deep decluttering session.
If clutter is an issue in your home, check out my post on how to keep your home clutter free!
Wipe Down Counters
Food and water stains on kitchen and bathroom counters make even a clean home look and feel messy.
Use a damp rag, Clorox wipe, or natural stone cleaner to get your counters looking clean and sparkly. This is usually easier after you’ve done a drive-by decluttering session.
If you’re feeling some cleaning momentum at this point, take a few extra minutes to wipe down the other flat surfaces in your home. Think tabletops, tops of wood furniture, etc. Eliminating that extra layer of dust will be quick, and soooo worth it!
Vacuum
There’s something about fresh vacuum lines on carpet that makes a house feel clean. To help your home environment feel better quickly, do a quick sweep in high-traffic areas.
At this point, don’t worry about vacuuming under the couch, vacuuming curtains or air vents. That’s deep cleaning stuff, and while it has its place, that’s not our goal today.
Vacuum the open areas and “traffic lanes” in your home where you walk the most, and your house will feel much cleaner.
If you have hard-surface flooring in your home, use a damp rag or floor cleaner to spot-clean floors.
Make It Smell Nice
Even the messiest house will seem more clean if it smells nice inside. Many of us associate pleasant fragrances with cleanliness, order, and people who have their sh** together.
It makes sense, then, that improving a home’s sensory atmosphere (Big words for “Making it smell good”) will add to its overall feeling of cleanliness and organization.
Unleash your favorite fragrance to enhance your home’s atmosphere, and give your mood a boost as well! Light a candle, heat some scented wax, diffuse essential oils, or whip out that big ole’ can of Glade fair freshener.
Recap: 6 Quick Ways to Make Your House Feel Clean
When you’re short on time, a few quick and easy cleaning tasks will get your home back on track until you have time for a full-fledged clean. Here are 6 quick things you can do to make your house feel clean:
- Make your bed
- Get your kitchen sink clean and empty
- Do a drive-by decluttering to get rid of surface clutter
- Wipe down counters
- Vacuum
- Make it smell nice
How do you make your house feel clean? Let me know in the comments below!
Amy, love all your tips! I try to stick to all of those pretty much daily. Since I get sidetracked very easily, I have also learned to set the timer on my phone for no more than an hour to keep me on task. I have to add sweeping the floors to my quick cleaning list, because I live with people who aspire to make our floors look like those of a barn!
Thanks so much, Karin! Limiting time is a great suggestion – it keeps you from going down a cleaning rabbit hole. Sweeping is a great suggestion, too… there’s nothing like fresh vacuum marks on carpet to make a house feel clean! Thanks for stopping by, friend! 🙂