How to Make Your Home Manageable to Maintain
Keep reading this post to learn:
⋒ What it means to keep your home manageable
⋒ 5 routines and systems I have in place to help keep my home manageable
⋒ Specific examples of how you can implement these routines and systems into your own life
Every time I post a story with my house (and not just my office) in the background, people DM and ask how our home looks so tidy all the time.
Well let me tell you one thing straight up – we’ve got junk drawers and closets just like anyone else. But for the most part, our home really is tidy because clutter and messes and my anxiety don’t mix well and I know that about myself.
I also don’t want to spend the majority of my time and energy cleaning all day or thinking about what needs to be done around the house so I do a few things to help me manage our home with minimal effort.
So before we really get into it, let’s talk about what it means to have a home that is manageable to maintain:
I truly think it’s going to be different for everyone. Having a home that is manageable to maintain to me doesn't mean that my house is perfectly aesthetic or that it doesn’t look lived in. Yes, those houses are really pretty to look at on Instagram but a house like that isn’t conducive or realistic for my season of life and I’m okay with that!
A home that is manageable to maintain for me is a home that is mostly visually clutter-free – meaning nothing is random lying on the counters, there aren't dishes in the sink, or laundry laying around.
This is important to me because I want my home to feel cozy and inviting and promote a sense of peace.
I’m fine if we have some dust on the baseboards or a few milk spots on the floor sometimes. I don’t obsess over that kind of stuff because I’ve determined that in this season, I just don’t care. If I cared about every little spot on the floor with a baby and 2 dogs I’d be scrubbing all day, every day and that just isn’t how I want to spend my time right now.
So that’s the first thing I recommend you do – figure out what’s important to you in a manageable home.
Maybe you don’t mind if you have a laundry basket full of clothes sitting on your living room floor. Cool – love that for you! It’s important for us to know what matters to us, otherwise, we might accidentally be striving for someone else’s version of a manageable home, you know?
And now I’m gonna share 5 things that I do to help keep my home manageable to maintain:
01. Have an outgoing system in place
For me, this looks like doing a quarterly declutter. Once a quarter, usually in January, April, July, and October, I spend a day decluttering all of the closets and drawers in our home. This is just a routine that is built into my life at this point – since I do it once a quarter, it doesn’t ever feel too daunting or like too big of an undertaking.
I used to do this monthly but I switched to quarterly because it winds up aligning closely to the seasons shifting so I can put away stuff that we don’t need for a while – so like when I do this in April, I move all of our jackets to the back of our closets because we won’t need them for a while.
Plus when I was doing it monthly, I found myself skipping it sometimes because I didn’t think I was worth it since it felt like I’d just done it. The quarterly declutter just feels really good for me.
The reason I prioritize a quarterly declutter is to keep the amount of stuff in our home under control. It’s a lot easier to manage a home with less stuff in it – that just makes sense, right? No one can argue with that. There’s less to pick up when there’s less.
Plus, I start to feel claustrophobic if I know that my house is full of stuff we don’t actually need or use. I’ve been like that since I was a little girl – clutter really is a trigger for my anxiety so having a routine built into my life that keeps the amount of stuff in our home under control is a must for keeping our home manageable.
What I do, because I know y’all love a concrete example:
I have trash bags ready to go: one for actual trash and one for donations
I like to go room by room. I pick a room and start with the closet first. I create 3 piles. The first 2 are “donate” and “trash”. I like to put the stuff on the ground rather than in the bags because I can go faster. I don’t like having to pause to put stuff in the bags every time I’m getting rid of something.
The third pile is a “rehoming” pile – so stuff that I’m giving to family or friends. Whether it’s books people have asked to borrow or bowls that we brought home leftovers from a family dinner that I need to return. I’ll explain what I do with the stuff in this pile in tip 3 so just hang tight.
Then I do the same thing with the stuff in the drawers and stuff on shelves – putting stuff in one of the 3 piles that we’re not keeping.
Oh and I count our hallway closets as one “room” and do them all together. We have 3 hall closets – 2 smaller ones and a large one.
I’d say doing this usually takes me like 2-3 hours a quarter and it’s nice because not only am I getting rid of stuff we don’t use or need anymore, but it’s also an opportunity to reorganize our closets and drawers because they get a little messy as we use them.
So decide what type of regular outgoing system works well for you – whether it’s monthly, quaterly, or yearly declutter or something else and make it a priority to do it so you can manage the amount of stuff in your home. Because remember, less stuff = easier to maintain.
02. Have an incoming system in place
So we just talked about an outgoing system so obviously I’m going to mention an incoming system next!
To help keep our home manageable to maintain, I have an incoming system to audit and organize what’s coming into our home.
Now this system isn’t as concrete as the outgoing system because things come into our home in many different ways, right?
I have a few regular incoming stuff routines that I’m gonna share with you – but know that I’m always adding to this list as new types of things come in.
MAIL:
I’m usually the one to check the mail at our house so what I do is as soon as I walk in from checking it, I sort it. I toss the junk mail in the trash, put any packages that need to be opened in my office (because I’m really the only one who gets them – Adam isn’t much of an online shopper, lol), and then mail that needs to be dealt with (so like a bill or something) on this little round rattan placemat that is on the corner of our kitchen counter. That way it’s easy to see where our mail is that needs attention and nothing gets lost in the shuffle. About once a week, Adam sorts through this pile and makes any phone calls or anything required to take care of this pile.
CLOTHES:
I have a rule for myself when it comes to incoming clothes – because for me, this is an area that can get out of hand fairly quickly if I don’t stay on top of managing it – and by that I mean my closet gets really cluttered, really fast if I’m not intentional.
My rule is, if I bring something into my closet, I have to get rid of something. So if I buy a new workout top, I need to get rid of an old one. This really helps me to be more mindful when I’m buying stuff which is a bonus.
Oh and yes, I do this one-in/one-out thing outside of my quarterly declutter and in the next tip, I’ll be sharing how I do this.
Those are the 2 incoming systems that I use the most: mail and clothes, but like I said, this is always evolving. Like when Everly starts school, I’m sure I’ll create a system to manage her incoming school stuff, you know?
My advice is to make note of the types of things that frequently come into your home and create routines for them.
03. Have a home for everything
This isn’t rocket science – and I’m sure you’ve heard this before – it’s easier to keep your home tidy when everything has a spot to live. If it doesn’t, that’s when stuff starts sitting randomly on counters and towers of random stuff start piling up in corners. If something isn’t being used, know where it goes and have a routine in place to get it there.
I want to share 3 “homes” for stuff that I have in our house that might be helpful for you too:
~ Outgoing area
Earlier, when I was talking about decluttering and how I have a pile for stuff that needs to be rehomed, I told you I’d circle back and share how I do this. We have a bar area that’s near our front door and butts up to our kitchen counter. There’s a little corner that’s mostly hidden there and that is where I keep things that are being rehomed. I have a cute little bin there that holds the random stuff that needs to be given to someone. It’s out of direct sight but it’s easy for me to see when I’m going to the bar to get out my car keys/sunnies – which triggers me to grab anything out of the bin if I know I’m going to see the person who it’s going to as I’m leaving.
~ Mail area
I briefly mentioned this one earlier, too. On our kitchen counter, I have this little round rattan placemat thing where there’s a potted plant. Behind that plant is where I keep our mail that needs to be acted on. Before we’d just leave the mail sitting on the corner of the kitchen counter, kind of spread out, and it looked and felt cluttery. So I got that little placemat so that we knew that is where the mail lived – it’s a visual reminder for us to not scatter the mail. It’s a “home” for the mail. Looks way nicer than it did before!
~ Closet donation bin
And I also mentioned this earlier – when I told you about my rule for a piece of clothing in means a piece of clothing out. To keep this simple, I have an ongoing donation bin that lives in our closet so I can just toss stuff in there if I know I’m getting rid of it but it’s not time for our quarterly declutter yet.
Then when the quarterly declutter comes around, I take everything in that bin and put it in the donation bag.
So again, this tip is to make sure that everything in your home, has a home… and if it doesn’t, create one!
04. Use habit triggers + routines to make cleaning a part of your day instead of a separate event
This doesn’t work for everyone but it really works for me in this season so I had to include it. I don’t really have designated cleaning days anymore like I used to – instead, I use triggers and routines to weave cleaning into my day-to-day without thinking about
If y’all haven’t picked up on this – I am a routine lover because routines create so much space in my life. It drives me nuts when people argue that routines are rigid and strip you of creativity and spontaneity. NOT TRUE! If so, that just means your routine isn’t supporting your season.
When created in a supportive way, routines save us time, energy, and brain power – we’re not stressing out about when things are gonna get done because we have them getting done built into our lives without having to think about it.
Let’s talk about habit triggers real quick – I first heard about them from James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, and he defines them as an event that will kick off that automatic urge to do a habit. I’ll explain how I use them by sharing some specific home routines that I have in place to help me keep my home manageable:
~ Morning Spruce Routine:
This takes me like 5 minutes and I do it when I get home from the gym usually. I pick up the dog bowls from their breakfast, get our essential oils diffusers going, swiffer the floors (because the dogs slobber all over it when they eat, lol), and fluff our living room couch.
~ Evening Reset Routine:
I went over this one in detail a few weeks ago in a podcast episode where I shared 5 routines keeping me sane as a new mom. I’ll link that episode here if you want to hear in detail how this routine works but a quick overview:
👉🏼 The nights that Adam isn’t working, he gives Everly a bath – while he is doing that, I go into her room and wipe down her play mat and her changing table. I restock her wipes and diapers if they need to be and take out the diaper pail if it’s full. I also get her diffuser going for the night – I diffuse Seedlings Calm by Young Living in her room at bedtime. If Adam is working and I am doing bath time, I just have Everly in her bouncer in her room while I do these things then I give her a bath.
Now that she sleeps in her own room, I like that stuff to be done before she gets out of the bath because we are VERY BIG on her bedtime routine (I really think it’s why she’s been sleeping through the night since she was 8 weeks old) and I want her room to be peaceful and good to go when we bring her in there to put on her PJs, eat her last bottle, and read a bedtime story.
👉🏼 After we or I get Everly to sleep (usually between 7:15/7:30), I go into the kitchen and reset her bottle area.
I clean all the bottles from the day (we have a little container that sits in one side of our sink where we put used bottles throughout the day). Then I refill the Baby Breeza’s (it’s basically like a Keurig for bottles) water reservoir, add in more formula, and clean the little spout thing.
👉🏼 Lastly, I go into her bathroom and just wipe down the tub and put her bath stuff under the sink.
It takes me around 10 minutes to do all of this stuff (maybe 12 if I have to do the diaper pail) but it saves me SO much mental stress the next morning. I am always so grateful to wake up with everything ready to go for the day and it really does make my mornings more peaceful!
~ Weekly Home Reset Routine:
I do this on Fridays – and I have an entire podcast episode that explains this routine in detail (and teaches you how to create your own weekly home reset routine) but a quick overview – here are the tasks that I do for my weekly home reset routine:
Water plants
Tidy all rooms
Wash all bedding
Empty all trash bins
Plan meals + order groceries
~ Laundry system
My system for laundry, which I shared in the episode I already mentioned - 5 Routines Keeping Me Sane As A New Mom – is doing a small load every day. I started this routine when I became a mom because having a baby created way more laundry than when it was just me and Adam, lol.
A load of laundry every single day can sound intense but I promise it’s not – at least not to me. I’d way rather spend 10 minutes a day doing a load of laundry than an entire day working my way through a mountain of it.
Here’s how I use triggers within my laundry system:
When I get home from the gym in the morning (trigger), I gather all the dirty clothes and put them in the washer. I go take my shower and get ready for the day. By the time I’m done getting ready (trigger), the clothes are ready to be moved over to the dryer. Then when Adam is cooking dinner (trigger), I usually fold the laundry. Or sometimes, if work isn’t super full, I’ll do it when I pause to eat lunch.
It never feels like a big deal or a burden because as I said, it takes me 10 minutes or less to do it since the loads are so small. It feels manageable whereas having one big laundry day just doesn’t.
The key with using triggers is to attach what needs to be done with something that’s already engrained in you as a habit…so like I get home from the gym every day (God willing, lol) without having to think about it or plan for it.
~ Dishes system
The way we manage dishes in our home is by doing them as we use them so that nothing gets backed up. If we use a pot or pan to make something, we clean it when we’re done, and then rinse everything else and pop it in the dishwasher. Takes like 5 minutes or less (unless we have a big dinner then maybe it takes 10) and we don’t ever have to worry about having a mountain of dishes in the sink.
Any night that the dishwasher is full I run it after cleaning up from dinner (trigger). Then when I wake up in the morning, I’ll unload the dishwasher first thing — like before I make my coffee — so that it’s done. It takes like 5-7 minutes so it’s not a big deal at all. And if you're curious, I’d say we probably run the dishwasher 2-3 times a week.
~ Monthly deep clean:
This is a routine that I’ve outsourced since having a baby. We have someone come in once a month to do a deep clean – she wipes down the baseboards and doorframes, scrubs our tub and shower, cleans out the oven – you know – deep cleaning things, lol. Having someone come once a month keeps these areas from getting really nasty and it also means that I don’t have to worry about them during my daily tidy for 15.
05. Use daily HS5 tidy for 15
If you’re new around here, HS5 stands for Hustle Sanely 5. HS5 is a list of 5 intentional habits that the Hustle Sanely community does every day and one of these 5 habits is “Tidy for 15.”
This is how I don’t have a designated cleaning day anymore – I pick an area of our house each day and spend 15 minutes tidying and cleaning that area.
I’ve said this before but you would be shocked at how much you can get done if you set a timer for 15 minutes and just get to it.
Here’s what my Tidy for 15 schedule looks like in this season:
Monday: Bedroom + Bathroom
Tuesday: Guest Bath + Laundry Room
Wednesday: Kitchen
Thursday: Office + Nursery
Friday: Home Reset Routine
Saturday: Living + Dining Room
I practice Sabbath, or a day of rest, on Sundays!
Before adopting HS5 Tidy for 15, I had a cleaning day every week, where I’d spend like 2-3 hours cleaning the whole house at one time, usually on the weekend. I prefer the daily tidy for 15 SO much more.
I do have an older episode from last February that walks you through my cleaning routine, including how I use Tidy for 15 in more detail – I’ll link that here if you want to relisten!
Some things have shifted since I’m a mom now, but the gist is the same!
And that is what I’ve got for y’all today – how I make my home manageable to maintain! As I’m sure you noticed, I’m a big fan of weaving habits and routines into my life to keep my home tidy and manageable so that I hardly ever have to dedicate a big chunk of time tackling anything. It works really well for me and I can truthfully say that I don’t spend brain power wondering how or when things are gonna get done. Cleaning and tidying doesn’t stress me out thanks to that. I don’t feel like I’m constantly cleaning or picking up all day because I have these routines just built into how I live my life. And our home is never a big mess because these routines just keep things flowing!
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