This time of year, it’s easy for my house to get cluttered quickly. Between packages arriving for holiday gifting and lots of projects happening for work, I can find myself look around my house and wondering when the tornado came through. But I’ve learned that by following a few small tips, my house stays tidy without much effort and I feel much more put together and organized.

When it comes to keeping my house clean, I’m all about progress over perfection. When I think about cleaning my entire house, I notice I immediately get overwhelmed. But a few steps here and there seems manageable and actually makes a big difference.

Here are the things I do to make sure my house is (almost) always tidy.

1. Make My Bed

I haven’t always been great about making my bed every morning but once I bought my own place, I started taking pride in keeping things clean — and a made bed is a great start. I try to do this immediately after getting out of bed; otherwise, tasks get in the way and I will forget to make it. For something that takes me less than 2 minutes to do, it’s amazing how much of a mindset shift it creates for my entire day and it makes my room look much tidier.

2. Put Dishes in the Dishwasher

I do my best to keep dishes out of the sink whenever I’m done cooking. Otherwise, they tend to pile up and I’m even less likely to put them away. If I don’t have time the night before after dinner, I always make an effort to get them in the dishwasher while I’m making breakfast in the morning. It makes my whole kitchen feel cleaner and makes me actually want to keep it that way the entire day!

3. Put Things in their Home at the End of the Night

I used to have a horrible habit of turning off the TV or my computer or whatever I was doing at night before bed and heading straight into the bathroom to begin my nightly routine. When I’d wake up the next day, everything I’d been using was still laid out where I was using it and my morning would start off on a messy note. Now, I make an effort to put things back where they belong before I go to bed at night. This has become even more important now that Four’s toys are always out. It truly does not take much time but it starts the next day off the right way.

4. Purge What I No Longer Use/Want

I don’t consider myself a minimalist by any stretch of the imagination but I do like to keep the things I have out to a minimum. I love a good storage space so I’ve got plenty of stuff hidden away in drawers, dressers, etc., but when it comes to items on display in my home, I think less is more. That means at least once a month I take inventory of everything that’s visible in my home and get rid of the things I no longer want or use. Sometimes it’s a candle that’s no longer working or maybe it’s a pillow that I just replaced… but regularly monitoring what is in my home keeps it feeling fresh and tidy. I wrote a full blog post on how to detox your life a couple of years ago that may be helpful!

5. Focus on the High Traffic Areas

There are certain areas of the house that we frequent more than others like the kitchen, my office, and our bedroom. I try to do a light cleaning in those rooms at least twice a week. Typically, that looks like dusting over furniture, vacuuming, and wiping countertops. It takes me all of 5 minutes per room but makes a major difference in how the house looks and feels. When I don’t let dust and dirt pile up, I’m more motivated to keep it clean. Then I will go through and do a “deep clean” of my house about once a month where I dust, vacuum, and thoroughly sanitize the rest of the house. When you’re wanting to do a deep spring cleaning, be sure to check out my spring cleaning faves from Amazon.

6. Keep Baskets in Every Room

I remember reading somewhere that keeping a “catch-all” basket in each room of your house is a great way to keep things contained… and I’ve found it to be so true! From remotes to mail to random socks, whenever I find something in my house that’s out of place, I’ll throw it in the basket and then make sure to empty the basket out at the end of the day. This at least keeps my countertops from accumulating stacks of papers and various objects and forces me to deal with the items before they pile up too much.

Here are a few items that help me keep my house tidy. Hope they help you too!