Housekeeping can be a drag, but it doesn’t have to consume your entire day. Maintaining a clean home is less about the time involved, and more about creating good habits that you eventually start following instinctively. Try to follow these habits to keep your house neat and tidy most of the time.

• Have a cleaning time:

Set aside about 15-20 minutes of your day specifically for cleaning the house. You’ll be surprised by how much this will help you in maintaining the organization of your home. It will also save you the stress of thinking about how much cleaning work you need to get done.

• Settle loads of laundry bit by bit:

When you wake up in the morning, toss a full load of laundry in the washing machine. Delay your machine [if you have that option] so that it’ll be ready for you to put in the dryer when you get home.

Once you get home, you’ll already feel ahead of schedule since you need only to fold, fluff, and dry. You can also put the load into the machine in the morning and just turn it on when you get home.

• Leave a room with something in hand:

It’s one habit that can make a significant difference to your home’s general tidiness. You should scan each room as you move [or as you get from one floor to another] to see if anything that belongs where you are going can be brought with you.

• Declutter:

Although this one takes longer to implement, decluttering and organizing your home will save you a great deal of time when you need to clean. Making sure that everything has a place that is both easily accessible and easy to put away makes cleaning up so much simpler – for you and your family.

Cleaning a home doesn’t happen by itself. However, these simple rules will make you think they do.