Having a messy home is stressful. While we have met our fair share of people who aren’t overly concerned about messes, most of us like our homes to have at least a basic sense of organization and tidiness.

If you hate messes but struggle to keep your home clean, there are a few steps you can take to keep things under control. In this article, we will share twelve of our best professional cleaning hacks to tackle the mess and reduce stress.
1. Don’t let clutter build
Don’t let clutter creep up on you. Make a conscious effort to put everything away and toss things you don’t need. This will free up both space in your home and stress from your mind. For example, put dirty clothes in the laundry hamper instead of on your bedroom floor. Once you read the newspaper or go through the weekly flyers in the living room, put them directly into the recycle bin.
When you are in the kitchen, put your dishes in the dishwasher after each meal or wash them right away. This proactive approach deals with messes as they happen, so you never face several days of built-up clutter. The result? Minimal effort to clean at any given time.
2. Everything in its place
Make sure you have a place for everything. Being organized makes tip number one a lot easier. If you know where everything goes, whether it is a drawer, a magazine rack, hooks to hang things, or a closet, everything is put away easily, and your home stays nice and tidy.
If you have kids, label containers or baskets with their names or what the basket or bin is for, so they don’t contribute to the mess. They become part of the solution instead of the problem and will learn neat habits for life as a bonus.
3. Leverage wipes
Wipes are your cleaning best friend. If you keep wipes on the kitchen and bathroom counters, you can clean messes quickly every day.
After you brush your teeth or shave in the bathroom, give any mess left behind a quick swipe. If you spill some milk while making coffee in the kitchen, you can also do the same. When you do this, you will never create unmanageable messes. As a result, cleaning becomes a breeze.
4. Have a “You messed it, you clean it” policy
This applies to not only roommates and family members, but even people who live alone. A “you messed it, you clean it” policy is also essential in the toilet area. Everyone old enough to tackle those unbearable bathroom messes should clean them up right away.
Having a toilet brush and cleaner in the bathroom allows everyone to quickly remove those unthinkable messes. That way, the toilet is always sanitary and clean for the next person. The same goes for other messes around the home, whether it’s toys on the floor, snack packages on the coffee table, vinyl records out of their sleeves, or some kind of craft project you were working on.
5. Reduce paper
A paperless life is a far neater life. It reduces clutter and helps save the planet. Whether it is reading the newspaper online, subscribing to e-magazines, or avoiding printing things out, like homework, paperless means less mess.
6. Make your bed
It just takes a few minutes to make the bed. When you come home to a nicely made bed, it has a very calming effect. Every time you go into your room, it feels tidy and doesn’t add another item to your mental to-do list, thus reducing stress.
7. Clean in quick bursts
If you really hate cleaning, reduce the time you spend doing it. When binge-watching your favourite show, for example, in between episodes, choose something to clean for a few minutes. You can pick up papers and toss them in the recycle bin, rinse out some glasses in the sink, or even do a quick vacuum or sweep of the floor. It will feel like you’re barely doing any work and you will see real results.
8. See a load, clean a load
If you see that your laundry hamper has enough clothes to do a load, put it in the washing machine and carry on with whatever you were doing, like making dinner or watching TV. This reduces the burden of doing several loads that keep you home, and you will always have clean underwear!
9. Have a hidden mess
When tackling tips one and two, it’s okay to cheat a little. Designate a place where you can toss things to deal with later. Your hidden mess might be toys that your kids use often, but are too big to fit in their bins, or some newfangled exercise equipment you use often, but not every day.
Whatever it is, you can keep the mess hidden, so your main living space is always neater. You know where it is, so you can get to it when you either need to or have more time to do something about it.
10. Play fair
Tying in with tip number four, it’s very important that the burden of keeping the home clean never falls on one person’s shoulders. Tidying is a group effort, and everyone needs to do their part. Whether you create an actual rotating cleaning schedule or just make sure everyone is sticking to the “you messed it, you clean it” rule, you will all feel less stressed when everyone puts in an equal cleaning effort.
11. Have a cleaning routine
Get into the habit of cleaning regularly with a cleaning routine. Your routine is twofold. First, it applies to anything that creates a mess, such as putting ingredients away as you make dinner, washing the dishes each night, putting things away before bed, folding and putting laundry away as soon as you take it out of the dryer, etc.
Second, choose a day of the week to do your major cleaning and try to stick to it. If you’re using all of the other tips we provided, your cleaning day will take only minutes instead of hours, making it far less overwhelming and unpleasant.
12. Hire a cleaning service
The best way to take the stress out of tackling messes is to hire a cleaning service. Whether we come in weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, we take care of the nitty-gritty cleaning, so you only need to deal with basic tidying.
Click here to learn more about Maid4Condo’s Toronto cleaning service. For more information, you can contact us online or call us at 647-822-0601.
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