Today, I’m going to share how to simplify household chores, allowing you to maintain tidiness and clean your home in less time, so you can spend more time on your family and personal life. When you spend too much time cleaning and maintaining your belongings, you don’t have enough time to truly enjoy life. With unfinished tasks piling up on your to-do list, over time, it can make you feel like you’re not getting things done, leaving you feeling frustrated.
We all need to tidy up, clean our living environment, and maintain the belongings we own. Most people like to have a clean and organized home, but very few actually enjoy doing housework.
Today, I’ll share 14 tips to help you simplify your chores, saving you time and energy so you can enjoy life and focus on the things you love.
Tip 1:
Let go of perfection. Many people swing between two extremes: either doing nothing or trying to do everything perfectly. Overly striving for perfection can wear you out. For example, not allowing dust, fingerprints, or stains on surfaces can drive you crazy, and it can seriously set back your cleaning progress. Eventually, you may give up on your home because you can’t maintain or achieve perfection. Remember, your home is not an art piece; it’s meant to have a lived-in feel. As long as you meet a reasonable standard, that’s enough. Just keeping things a little cleaner than yesterday is already progress.
Tip 2:
Reduce your belongings. The most effective way to simplify housework is to reduce the number of items you own. Everything you have comes with a cost: you need to clean, maintain, store, organize, and take care of it. The fewer things you own, the less effort you’ll have to put in. Reducing items also means there will be fewer things to move and clean when doing housework, making the organizing tasks faster and easier. Removing unnecessary clutter will reduce visual chaos and make your home look cleaner and fresher.
Tip 3:
Keep countertops tidy. If you want your home to look neat, maintaining your countertops will be a hidden key. The dining table, desk, and kitchen counters are all workspaces where we eat, read, and cook. Don’t let these areas turn into storage zones by piling up too many items. A clean, flat surface has a magical power that attracts things to it. Clutter will also attract more clutter, causing items to pile up unknowingly. If you need to keep frequently used items on the table, keep them together in one spot rather than scattered across the surface. In my home, I place daily essentials on the bathroom counter, but they’re neatly stored upright in one place, making maintenance easy. After my morning routine, I simply wipe down the counter.
Tip 4:
Clear the floor of clutter. Clean floors not only make vacuuming, sweeping, and mopping easier, but they also reduce hiding spots for dirt and dust. In my home, the floor is reserved only for furniture and feet—everything else should stay off the floor. Packages, bags, and kids’ toys should be tidied up as soon as possible.
Tip 5:
Everything in its place. When each item has a designated spot, it’s much easier to find and return it. You won’t have to waste time thinking about where something should go when you’re cleaning. If there’s no space to store something, that’s a bigger headache.
Tip 6:
Make housework a regular routine. If you don’t clean regularly and let dirt, grime, and dust build up, cleaning will take more time and energy. Wipe down your countertops every couple of days—it only takes less than a minute. Don’t wait until spring cleaning to tackle it, or else it’ll become a big chore. Some areas not only get dirty, but they can also get damaged or moldy over time.
Tip 7:
Clean daily. This may sound like it’s going against the idea of simplifying housework, but doing a little cleaning every day means you don’t have to spend hours organizing or dedicate your entire weekend to cleaning. A little bit at a time reduces stress and fatigue. Integrate tidying into your daily life by wiping surfaces or picking things up as you go. It only takes seconds. Instead of dealing with a pile of small tasks later, deal with them immediately and keep your home clutter-free.
Tip 8:
Use a cleaning schedule. Creating a cleaning plan allows you to automate your chores. You won’t need to think about how many tasks there are or when to complete them—you’ll always be prepared in advance. Your schedule can include daily tasks like wiping down the dining table, weekly tasks like cleaning the fridge, monthly tasks like cleaning the bathroom, seasonal tasks like organizing the wardrobe, and semi-annual tasks like washing the carpets. You can tailor the schedule to fit your lifestyle, routine, and personal preferences, experimenting with different methods until you find the cleaning schedule that works best for you. Then, add it to your calendar to remind yourself.
Tip 9:
Daily basic tasks. Even with a set schedule, there will be days when you just can’t keep up or consistently follow through. Another approach is to focus on completing basic tasks every day. My daily basic tasks include making the bed, quickly wiping down surfaces, washing dishes right after meals, and putting away dried clothes immediately. Even if I don’t have specific organizing tasks planned, these few actions help keep my home in a tidy state at all times.
Tip 10:
Prepare your cleaning supplies. Keep your cleaning products where you’ll need them, or group them together in one place. For example, store cleaning products in the bathroom so you can quickly grab them and clean up small messes as you notice them. I keep all my cleaning supplies in one area, which prevents cluttering up living spaces with bottles and jars. It’s also easier to track the quantity and stock. When you need to shop for supplies, simply check the cleaning area to see if you need to buy more. This way, you avoid accumulating unnecessary products, or realizing you’re out of cleaner when you need it most. You can organize them by zone or store them together—it’s up to you. The key is being prepared with your tools so you can clean quickly and easily, making housework less of a chore.
Tip 11:
Simplify your laundry process. Laundry can be a huge pain for many families. If you feel overwhelmed by piles of clothes, try different methods to see if you can make it easier. You can find a laundry frequency that works for you, like setting a specific time each day to do laundry or dedicating one day a week. If you have a lot of clothes, you could wash different types of clothes on different days. For example, my husband has six dress shirts that get worn throughout the week and are washed on weekends. We do laundry for everyday clothes every two days since we have two bath towels, ensuring we always have clean towels for each shower. There are many ways to make laundry simpler—once you try a few, you’ll find a routine that works best for you. Also, when shopping for clothes, look for items that are machine-washable and easy to care for, which will make laundry even easier.
Tip 12:
Reduce the number of dishes. Another pain point for households is dirty dishes. To make washing dishes easier, reduce the number of plates and cups in your home. When you have a lot of dishes, it’s easy for you and your family to grab a clean plate or glass every time instead of cleaning or reusing them. When the number of dishes is reduced, the time spent searching for them also decreases. Assign each family member their own set of dishes to use, and encourage them to clean them after use. This way, you won’t have to face a sink full of dirty dishes and used cups on your own every night.
Tip 13:
Delegate tasks. If you live with others—whether it’s a spouse, children, elderly relatives, or roommates—share the housework responsibilities. Involving everyone in cleaning helps them understand how challenging it can be. This leads to greater appreciation of the effort it takes to maintain an organized home. Even young children can help by picking up toys, making their bed, or putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket. Remember, done is better than perfect. Even if family members clean differently than you, as long as they’re willing to help and maintain the order, it’s worth encouraging.
Tip 14:
Outsource housework if you’re really not good at it or simply don’t have the time. Hiring help can be a great option—nothing simplifies chores more than having someone else do them for you.
Make chores more enjoyable with little tricks. If outsourcing isn’t an option and you need to get the work done yourself, try to make the process more fun. Play your favorite music or a podcast while cleaning, and reward yourself afterward. If you manage to finish all your chores within the week, set aside time to relax or do something you enjoy over the weekend. You might never love cleaning, but you can definitely make it a bit more pleasant.
We hope today’s tips help you simplify housework and spend less time and energy tidying your home. There are a total of 14 tips—try starting with one or two and see how they work for you. Once you get used to them and they become part of your routine, you can move on to try the others.
Which tip are you most excited to try? Or do you have your own tricks for making chores easier? Feel free to share in the comments!
