Keeping your apartment clean as a busy young person is difficult, but if you build good habits, it can be much easier. Small daily cleaning tasks can keep your apartment tidy so you don’t have to deep clean in a rush when you have friends or family over. Read on below for four daily apartment cleaning rituals that you can do in under 10 minutes.
Washing the dishes
The most obvious daily apartment cleaning ritual is washing the dishes. Especially if you live alone, it can be easy to let the dishes sit in the sink and build up over time, but doing so can cause bad smells and make it more difficult to clean your dishes when you get around to it. If you get in the habit of washing your dishes after each meal, you should be able to easily take care of dishes from even complicated meals in under 10 minutes.
Hang, fold, and wash clothes
Another apartment cleaning task that’s easy to do each day but can build up over time is washing and putting away your clothes. Get in the habit of putting everything where it belongs immediately when you change clothes.
Hang or fold anything you won’t be washing, and put anything dirty in your laundry basket. Doing so will keep your apartment cleaner and make it easier to find clothes when you’re looking for them – and you’ll be sure everything gets washed often enough.
Clean for 10-15 minutes before bed
To help keep your apartment tidy over time without having to spend hours cleaning every few weeks, practice cleaning for 10-15 minutes before bed every day. You’ll be surprised with how much you can get done in a short amount of time if you stay focused and work quickly.
In any given room in your apartment, everything that needs to be cleaned will fall into one of three categories: trash, things that don’t belong in the room, and things that belong in the room, but in a different place. Focus on each of these categories one at a time, and even if you don’t have much time to clean, you can make your apartment look much better.
Make your bed in the morning
Making your bed in the morning might not seem helpful, but it sets a standard of cleanliness that makes it easier for you to keep throughout the rest of your apartment. Your bedroom won’t look quite right if the bed is made and there’s stuff strewn all over the floor, so making your bed will help you naturally want to keep everything else straightened.
Throw out old food
Expired or moldy food is one of the grossest things to clean out, and it can lead to sickness if you accidentally eat something old. If you monitor what’s in your fridge and get used to throwing out old food before it goes bad, you can avoid moldy food. Only keep leftovers you’ll actually eat, and every time you look in the fridge, just throw away anything that’s been in there for too long.
