So, you've started hiring professionals to regularly clean your living space.

Congrats! Hiring a cleaning service is a great investment! It allows you to focus your energy on more important things, and keeps your home looking great. Does hiring the professionals mean you never have to clean again, though? Not necessarily. Unfortunately, there's still some maintenance you might need to keep up with in between professional cleanings. But if you stick to these tips, your home will stay sparkling and organized all year round!

Here are some tips on how to keep your home clean between professional cleanings:

1. Develop A Simple Chore Schedule

Having a simple routine can help prevent cleaning tasks from building up. When you stick to your routine, you only need to dedicate a few minutes to cleaning at a time. What should your routine look like? That depends!

Each person's cleaning routine will look a little different depending on a few factors. How often if your home cleaned professionally? How big is your family? Do you have pets? How much do you hate cleaning?

To figure out the best schedule for you, determine the tasks that make the biggest difference. If you have pets that shed, maybe your biggest tasks involve removing hair from furniture and carpets. If you have a busy family, your major tasks could involve keeping the entryway clean and free of excess shoes and coats.

Our favorite method to stick with a routine is to set timers. So, if you really hate cleaning, set a 5 minute (or less) cleaning timer. When your timer goes off, finish what you're doing and leave it be. You can set as many timers through the day as you need, but make sure to stick to them. This creates a cycle of positive reinforcement connected to cleaning.

So, figure out what cleaning task or section of your home creates the most mess. Once you've got a short list, figure out how much time you'll need to make it look presentable. By setting small cleaning goals, you'll find that your home will start to feel cleaner little by little!

2. Declutter Once A Day

We know the house isn't actually dirty, but why does it feel like it is?

"I JUST cleaned!", you groan in frustration.

One of the biggest reasons our house feels messy is an accumulation of clutter. It happens before you know it, there's small piles of random objects on every surface. Maybe it's junk mail, dirty clothes, or pieces of an unfinished project. Clutter stands in the way of your home feeling clean and organized. So, how do you fix it?

We'll get into the benefits of investing in storage solutions later on, but you get where we're headed with this. Have a home for every item, big or small. If you find that you consistently don't have space for your clutter, it might be time to get rid of anything you don't use. Have dedicated spaces for items you need to access frequently. In the middle of a crochet project? Keep your patterns, yarn, and supplies in the same container where you typically like to work.

We're not afraid to say it again: start using a clutter basket! If you don't have the time or mental energy to put things away as soon as you're done with them, this will be your best friend. Dedicate a basket (preferably a cute one) to catching loose objects. At the end of the day, or whenever it's full, put all the items back in their respective homes. Trust us, this actually keeps clutter in one spot instead of scattered through the house.

3. Get Ahead Of The Little Messes

Most likely you're going to clean up a spill when it happens. There's more you can do to get ahead of the "messy home" feeling. Think of the small messes that add up over time. Could you keep wipes in the living room to clean crumbs off the coffee table? Could you clean your dishes as you use them?

These small changes do wonders in keeping your home feeling clean! When we shift the thought pattern away from "Ugh. If i start cleaning I'll have to clean the whole house", we end up with more energy. Remember, you're only doing a quick task, and nothing else is expected. You're expecting a visit from house cleaners, after all! Take the pressure off, and you'll find it gets much easier to stay on top of the smaller messes.

4. Concentrate On The Busiest Areas

Don't waste your energy! Earlier we talked about how you should base your cleaning schedule around the rooms that need the most attention. Now we can put that into practice. For most people, the kitchen is front and center in their home. More than that, it stays busy through the day. If you can't decide where to focus your cleaning energy, maybe start there.

Keeping up with dishes, wiping down counters, and sweeping often can make a huge difference. Invest in a broom that matches the colors of your kitchen. Keep it out in the open so you'll be reminded to pick it up and sweep at the end of the day! You can be in the habit of doing this before bed as a wind down activity. Play chill music, light a cozy candle, and go through your tasks. It might only take you 10 minutes, but it'll give your space a reset.

Do you go through 5 outfits before deciding on the one you're going to wear? Or do you dread putting away clean laundry? If so, your bedroom might be the space that needs the most attention. Go through the same routine of lighting a candle, and putting on music or a show you like. By the time you've put away all your clothes and laundry, your bedroom will feel like a retreat. This can help put you in a better headspace to get some much needed rest.

5. Get Yourself A Good Storage System

We can't stress it enough! Having a home for the items that can cause clutter is essential. When you keep your home organized, you'll find yourself cleaning less. Proffesional cleaners are going to take care of the scrubbing. So if you have a good storage system, putting things back in their place is the only cleaning you'll have to worry about!

What do we mean by storage systems, though? You don't need a big house with lots of built in storage to be organized. Storage systems make the most of the space you have. If you only have a small cleaning closet, use hooks and floating shelves to utilize every inch. For more closet organization tips, read our blog post all about it!

If your home is really lacking in built-in storage, get creative! Use bookshelves and baskets that you enjoy looking at to store things out in the open. Storage doesn't just have to look like those white closet shelves you get at Walmart or Ikea. The more storage you have, the less clutter you'll have (and the cleaner your home will feel). Here's a few examples of some storage solutions that spark joy:

Make your storage something you enjoy looking at. You'll be more likely to use it and feel happier in your space.

We hope these tips help you to clean smarter, not harder! When you hire a professional house cleaner, you don't want to spend any more time cleaning than you have to. Thats the whole point, right? By staying organized and keeping up with the smaller messes in busy areas, your home will stay gorgeous.

Hiring a professional cleaning service can make a huge difference in your daily life. If you're someone who hates cleaning or has limited free time, keeping your home clean can be exhausting. If you find yourself struggling to keep up with cleaning tasks or need deeper cleaning, give SuperMaids a try! With 40 years of house cleaning experience under our belt, we can keep your home spotless all year round.

Contact us or give us a call at (304) 902-4488 to schedule a cleaning service today!