Forming Cleaning Habits that Stick: The Ultimate Guide

Forming cleaning habits takes more than a cookie-cutter chore checklist.

Good habits are probably why it’s so common for people to struggle with housework. To establish good habits, you need to understand how they work. That’s why we’ll be using science-backed research on habits to show you how easy keeping a clean house should be.

As I’ll cover later on, having a custom schedule can be a game-changer for forming cleaning habits. If that’s something you’re interested in, check out our system, Home, Clean Home.

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How to Form Better Cleaning Habits

It’s so easy to try and fail to form habits because most people don’t understand them. The key to having habits that stick is learning the science behind them. Here are the 4 science-backed methods backing up everything in this article.

This information comes from James Clear’s amazing book, Atomic Habits. If you’re trying to establish better habits, trust me, you need this book. Consider buying a copy (or getting it for free with a trial of Audible)!

The 4 Laws of Habits

As Clear outlines, there are 4 steps to forming a habit. They go as follows:

Cue – Make it Obvious
Craving – Make it Attractive
Response – Make it Easy
Reward – Make it Satisfying

By following these 4 steps, forming habits will become a breeze.

Make it Obvious

Following the first step, give yourself recognizable cues for starting a cleaning task.

Start by keeping a list of the habits you want to form. Setting reminders on your phone for certain tasks can be helpful too. Or, give yourself physical reminders, like having cleaning supplies where you need them.

You can also set intentions for when and where you’ll begin certain habits. Habit stacking is also a great way to combine cues, but we’ll cover that more in-depth shortly.

The end goal is to make these habits automatic, but having cues to start is a necessary step.

Make it Attractive

If you feel resistance before beginning a task, try to combine it with something you enjoy.

This can be as simple as putting on a cleaning playlist, taking a moment to relax, or having a quick snack. One of the best ways to do this is to invest in some new, nice appliances that you want to use.

This is what Clear calls “temptation bundling”. It’s the act of doing something you want alongside a new habit.

Make it Easy

A lot of the tips we’ll be outlining below should make completing cleaning tasks easier. Believe it or not, this makes sticking to habits… easier!

We’ll be focussing a lot on what Clear calls priming your environment. This means setting yourself up for success by establishing effective systems.

You could also opt for automating certain tasks. Think investing in a dishwasher if you don’t have one. Or getting a robot-vacuum if you’re not a fan of cleaning floors. Always having cleaning supplies in stock helps too!

Starting slow can also be a huge help here. Try doing a 2-minute task everyday, and add on more once that habit’s established.

Make it Satisfying

Finally, you want to make the habit of cleaning enjoyable for yourself. Looking around and seeing a clean space will be rewarding enough for some. Still, there’s some other things you can do instead.

Give yourself a treat that your brain will associate with the completed habit. Have a favorite snack, or light a favorite candle.

If you’re someone who likes keeping track of things, you can also use a habit tracker. This will let you tick off a box every time you finish a task, giving you that sweet, sweet rush of dopamine.

BONUS: Habit Stack

One of the most powerful tools for establishing concrete habits is “Habit Stacking”. This is the act of pairing new habits with existing ones to create a seamless flow.

Begin associating things you already do with new habits. Make the bed when you get up in the morning. Wipe down the sink after you brush your teeth. Clean the shower before you get out.

The great thing is that when you form a new habit, it gives you a new platform to stack off of! A lot of the daily tasks outlined below can stack to give you a quick foundation for a daily routine.

Tools and Systems for Easier Cleaning Habits

Before getting into the habits you can form for yourself, set yourself up for success first. By doing a few of these 1 time tasks, you can make new habits more obvious, attractive, easy, and enjoyable.

Have Dedicated Deep Cleaning Days

While it’s common to only have 5 minutes to clean, a great cue for the bigger tasks on your list can be having a day dedicated to cleaning. This doesn’t have to take up your day, nor should it! If you form good daily habits, your deep cleaning shouldn’t take more than an hour or 2.

By having a day every week where you can take care of more in-depth tasks, you’ll begin forming a routine you can stick to.

Invest in Great Tools

One of the best ways to make cleaning more attractive is to have appliances you’re excited to use. Whether it’s as big as a brand new high-end vacuum, or as small as a scrub daddy. Whatever it is, getting some new toys can make cleaning that much more fun.

This is also where you could invest some money to automate certain tasks. I’ve split these tools into 2 categories. Tools that automate tasks, and tools that make tasks more enjoyable.

Investing some money into establishing your habits is also a great way to commit. While this step isn’t necessary if it’s not in the budget, here are some suggestions if you want to get yourself a treat. Check out our list of 17 great cleaning products for even more ideas!

Tools to Automate Tasks

Countertop Dishwasher
Robot Vacuum
Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaners
Window Cleaning Robot (Yes, this exists)
Self-Changing Trash Can (Yes, this exists too)

Tools to Make Tasks Enjoyable

Make Cleaning Kits for Different Rooms

This is one of my favorite tips for making cleaning easier to follow through on. So much so we made a full guide for making your own cleaning kits!

By keeping all your cleaning supplies stocked in one place, there’s no need to gather supplies. You can take this a step further and have many kits for different parts of your house. For most people, one for the kitchen, and one for the bathroom should be enough!

Get Rid of Clutter

The less you have around the house, the less there is to clean. Another great way to make cleaning easier on yourself is by having less things around the house.

It can be so much easier to keep a clean house once you clear everything out. To do this, you can follow Marie Kondo’s advice from The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

Along with Atomic Habits, I recommend buying a copy of this book (or getting it for free with an Audible trial).

Kondo recommends clearing out clutter in this order:

Clothes
Books
Papers
Miscellany
Sentimental Items

This “tidying festival” as Kondo calls it may take a while. But, it will make your house feel so much cleaner right off the bat.

Create Organization Systems

Once your house is free of clutter, carry on that momentum by setting up organization systems. You can do this for every area of your home, or just the especially messy parts.

By assigning a specific place to everything in your house, you can keep clutter away for good. Here are a few ideas for setting up systems to keep things organized:

Mail Organizer + Key Mount
Keeping the Fridge and Pantry in order
Keeping your Closet in a Certain Order
Having Toy Chests for Your Kids

Once you have some systems like this in place, you can spot when something’s out of place and fix it right away. You don’t have to go overboard, but having a few systems can keep your house tidier than ever.

Get a Cleaning Schedule

Finally, one of the best ways to stay on top of everything that needs to get done is to invest in a cleaning schedule.

While there’s plenty of cookie-cutter checklists out there, these can be hard to follow if they don’t apply to you. Creating your own schedule can be even harder if you don’t know what chores to do, or how often to do them.

That’s why we created Home, Clean Home. It’s a customized system designed to adapt to your needs. It also comes with 2 e-books which follow up on the lessons in this article to help you form long-lasting habits.

If you’re interested, you can learn more here. Or, download for free below to try it out yourself.

13 Cleaning Habits to Establish

I broke these up into 9 daily habits to begin establishing, as well as 4 weekly habits for 10 total.

The daily habits were all chosen for their easy “stackability” with each other. Each one should take no more than 5-10 minutes to do. You can do some in as little as 2 minutes!

I recommend picking 1 or 2 that seem achievable to start with, and adding on more as you go. If any don’t apply to you, or don’t feel like daily tasks – feel free to skip them or move them to the weekly list!

The daily tasks should keep the house as tidy as possible every day, but there will always be bigger jobs. The weekly habits will take care of those areas missed in your daily cleaning.

They will work best if you assign them to a specific day of the week to take care of them all at once. Again, some of the tasks might not apply to you, or you may need to do them more often, so adjust accordingly.

9 Daily Cleaning Habits

Make the Bed

It makes sense to start here, doesn’t it?

Even though you could argue this isn’t “cleaning”, it’s still a valuable habit to form. By starting off your day like this, you’re giving yourself momentum to do the rest of the tasks on your list. This is why I recommend making this the first habit you put in place.

If you want some more reasons for making your bed, here’s an excerpt from a speech given by Admiral William H. McRaven.

He wrote an entire book inspired by this speech called Make your Bed, which I recommend as well!

Keep a Clear Sink and Counter

By forming the habit of washing any dishes you use, you can avoid that big pileup at the end of the day. This is more of a behavior switch than a single habit, but it takes so much of the “chore” out of dishwashing.

Pop any dishes you use into the dishwasher, or give them a quick wash and dry. Easy peasy.

It will also feel so good to be able to look at an empty countertop every time you use the kitchen.

If you hate washing dishes, this guide might give you some good ideas;)

To follow through with this even more, start cleaning the dishes as you cook. Whenever you’re waiting for something to come out of the oven, wash up the dishes before eating. This will let you enjoy your meal more, and leave less dishes for you to clean when you’re finished.

Wipe out/Scrub the Sink

When you’re done with those dishes, be sure to scrub out the sink. This will help avoid pile up over time, and keep your sink looking sparkly and new. Consider buying a brush for this specific purpose, and give the sink a once over before walking away.

This also goes for the bathroom sink. If you give the sink area a wipe down once a day after using the bathroom, it will never get that dirty. Make sure you have a cleaning kit handy for this!

Take out the Garbage

While this may not be a daily task for most people, those of you with bigger families will need to do this every day.

With waste often appearing while cooking, this is a perfect habit stack opportunity. After doing the dishes and scrubbing out the sink, check to see if your garbage needs changing.

While you’re at it, bring out any recycling or compost that may have piled up as well.

Wipe/Clear Surfaces

Like doing the dishes when they pop up, always wiping surfaces in your house is more of a behavioral shift. Don’t wait for surfaces to get dirty before wiping them. Instead, do this to always keep them sparkly clean.

After doing the dishes, you can add on a quick wipe down to kitchen counters. Especially after eating, you can pair this with going over your dining room table as well.

This is another area where having a cleaning kit handy with disinfectant spray or wipes is so useful!

Starting to see how easily these habits stack with eachother?

Run a Load of Laundry

Here’s another great daily habit for avoiding big pile ups. Instead of doing one marathon laundry session every week, break it up into one small load each day. Like the dishes, this will make it feel like so much less of a chore.

Every day, you can choose one of the following:

Lights
Darks
Socks & Underwear
Towels and Shower Curtains
Bed Sheets

Of course, if you have a big family, this might not work for you. Even then, you could adjust to 2 loads a day, or figure out a system that works better for you.

Consider stacking this habit with winding down for bed, or finishing supper. You’ll be ready to put away your clothes when you wake up. This way you can habit stack putting away your laundry on top of making your bed!

Clean the Shower after Every Use

This is a clever little habit stack for avoiding any buildup in the shower. Like wiping down the sink after doing the dishes, this will keep your shower clean at all times.

If you have a glass shower, keep a squeegee handy for clearing off excess moisture. Having a capsule kit for this purpose can also help you wipe down the walls when you’re finished.

Put things Back in their Place

This is a follow-up on the organization systems I mentioned earlier. When you have a place for everything, it’ll become second nature to keep everything in its place.

Whenever you use something, put it back where it belongs instead of leaving it out. Whenever you see something in the wrong spot, put it back where it belongs. Simple as that.

Starting at a baseline of cleanliness will make keeping things tidy so easy you won’t even notice it half the time. That’s why decluttering is such a valuable step in forming good cleaning habits.

Nightly Reset

Finally, every night before bed consider spending 5 minutes doing a daily reset. This can be any combo of the little things you may have missed.

Give the counters one more wipe down. Do the last few dishes. Put a few things away. By doing this, you’ll be setting yourself up for a fresh start again tomorrow. It will also encourage consistency, which is a huge part of habit formation.

With these daily habits you’ll keep things clean so you never have to do that much cleaning at once. A daily reset is a great way to make sure you’re caught up before bed.

4 Weekly Cleaning Habits

Deep Clean the Bathroom

The sink and shower should be clean if you’re using the daily habits, but don’t forget about the floors and toilet!

If the sink and shower seem more like weekly tasks to you, you can do those here too.

This is where a capsule kit will come in handy, allowing you to clean the whole bathroom in a matter of minutes.

Clean the Floors

Doing a deep clean of all your floors every week is a good idea, whether you’re vacuuming, mopping, or sweeping.

I considered putting this in the daily category, but it makes more sense for most people to do weekly. If you notice your floors get dirty quicker, then feel free to do this more often!

Check the Ceilings and Walls

Most people remember to clean their floors, but forget their ceilings and walls.

The reason I say to check these is that you most likely don’t need to clean them every week. But, if you notice some cobwebs, or a laye of dust, then it’s time.

The easiest way to do this is to attach a towel to your broom, or get a duster with a long enough handle to reach your ceiling.

Reset your Organization Systems and Cleaning Kits

Check on your systems and capsule kits to close off your dedicated cleaning day.

For your systems:

Rearrange things that got messed up over the week
Declutter a little bit
Readjust if they’re not working for you.

For your cleaning kits:

Restock anything you need to top up
Add something new if it’s missing
Edit the things you aren’t using.

This quick bit of admin will help you stay on track, and make sure your systems are working well for you!

Conclusion

By understanding how habits work, you can form cleaning habits that will stick. Keeping a clean house will improve every other area of your life, so I hope this article is able to help.

If you’re interested in trying out our custom cleaning system, you can learn more about Home, Clean Home here. Or, download it for free below:

Forming Cleaning Habits that Stick: The Ultimate Guide