It takes 30 days to form a habit, so they say. But will it take you that long to start tidying up your home?

Surprisingly, many people think it will eat up most of their time to clean up. They tend to justify procrastination when they see just a few pieces of laundry in the hamper, a couple of dishes on the sink or a few items cluttered on the floor saying “I’ll do that tomorrow.”

But of course, that does not happen until “BOOM” – you start realising that the laundry and dishes are piling up, dust adding color contrast to your couch and tables, etc. You end up spending the rest of the weekend cleaning up until you just simply ignore it and promising yourself to do it when you have more spare time.

Here are some very practical and time-saving measures you can take to make tidying work with as little effort as possible.

Make your bed

Start your day by spending no more than two minutes to tidy up your bed. Prop the pillows, straighten the sheets and pull in the blankets. 

Schedule your laundry tasks regularly

For a family of four, chugging in your laundry into the washer daily will take only about 30 minutes maximum.  Also ask everyone in the house to put their clothes in the hamper so that you know that all the laundry that needs washing are all accounted for.

The 10-10-10 rule

Make decluttering fun for you and the kids by adopting the 10-10-10 rule, which involves making everyone find 10 things they can dispose of, 10 items they are willing to donate or give away, and 10 things that can be returned for recycling or repurposing. 

You can modify the items for fun and excitement, just as long as it is 10 of each category.

Wash your dishes after every meal

It would only eat up a few minutes of your time to clean up the dishes, especially when there’s only a few to deal with.

Delegate and rotate

Delegating tasks to each member of the family helps a lot in reducing the workload that needs to be done every day. Assigning one of your kids to wipe the dining table after meals or stacking books properly after your reading time, then rotating the tasks so it does not get boring over time. 

Clean as you go

This is a very popular reminder that sounds good, but never gets done. In fact, it is easier that you think. Simply wipe down every surface after each task or end your tasks by tidying up after. 

Vacuum regularly

Vacuuming at least 2 to 3 times a week would significantly reduce the time it would take than doing it only once a week. 

Put things back in their original places

This will take time off your hands from tidying up on things that could have been worked on in the first place, like putting a book back on the shelf after reading or neatly piling up your folded clothes after doing the laundry.

There’s no rocket science involved in keeping your home clean. All it takes is some discipline, time management and consistency in seeing that it gets done.