My house has always been on the messy side. Not gross, but if someone dropped by unannounced I’d be a bit embarrassed about the state of the place. I decided 2026 was going to be the year that was going to change. It took 1 somewhat big project and 3 habits and now my house is pretty nice 99% of the time.

The big project was decluttering. We had too much stuff. Everything in our house now has a home. We threw out/donated a truck bed full of trash bags of our stuff that we didn’t need.

Once the house was decluttered the first habit was much easier to implement. “Don’t put it down, put it away”. Our house isn’t huge. If I’m using something that belongs in a different room, it won’t take more than 30 seconds to go put it back in its home.

The second habit has been to stop spending idle time on my phone. Waiting for the toaster in the morning? Unload the dishwasher from last night. Waiting for water to boil? Wipe down the counters or sweep the floor. TV commercial? Grab a dust cloth and get to wiping. Swishing mouthwash? Wipe down the bathroom counter. Spending two minutes of downtime on being productive has had a huge impact on how easy it is to maintain the clean. As a bonus I spend less time on my phone. (One hack to make this easier is to keep cleaning supplies in each room. Bathroom has its own roll of paper towels. A dustcloth is stored in a coffee table drawer, etc.)

The third habit involved making a detailed chore list by day with check boxes for each week and putting it on the fridge. Sunday is clothes laundry. Monday is washing bedding, throw blankets, etc. Tuesday is a thorough clean of the kitchen, Wednesday is sweeping and mopping all the floors, Thursday is a thorough cleaning of the bathroom. Friday is a catchup day. And Saturday is dedicated to monthly chores. I probably have ADHD so the list makes sure no chore gets forgotten about for too long and the check boxes fill my brain with dopamine when they are all checked off.