Want to minimize your housekeeping time? These are the chores to do every day to make that happen!
Keeping up with your house while also living your life can be a challenge. You’re working, taxiing children here, there, and everywhere, taking care of aging parents, and trying to keep your sanity intact. No one I know has a huge chunk of time available to them every week to clean the house. That means housekeeping in small chunks is the way to go.
But what chores should you do every day to get the biggest bang for your buck? Surely you’re not organizing the cabinets every day or cleaning the baseboards. Instead, the chores to do every day are the things that need done every day or else they pile up and become unmanageable. Doing these chores every day keeps the house from falling down around me.
You know the chores to do every day, but in case you forgot, let’s go through them. There are only eight of them. We can do this!
Chores to Do Every Day
Laundry
One load of laundry per day is the secret to my success. Am I super successful at homemaking? The jury’s out, but I’m more successful doing a load of laundry each day than I would be letting the laundry pile up.
How do I make one load of laundry per day work? I start a load of laundry every morning before I wake up the kids. It washes while they get up, get dressed, and eat breakfast so I can transfer the load to the dryer and then fold before I sit down to work for the day.
If you want to dip your toe into doing daily chores, I think laundry is where you should start with chores to do every day. Once you get into your laundry rhythm, you’ll feel confident adding more!
Vacuum
Speaking of adding more chores to do every day, the second chore I think you should add to your daily routine is vacuuming. But don’t freak out, I’m not suggesting you vacuum your entire house every day. That’s what serial killers do. All you need to focus on is the high traffic areas. For me, that’s the kitchen and the dining area (which is in my kitchen). Don’t make it more complicated than it has to be. Just get the crumbs and the dog hair off the floor. I love my simple, affordable Eureka RapidClean Pro for this purpose.
Counters
Your kitchen will get gross fast if you don’t keep up with it. At a bare minimum, you should be wiping down your counters every day. This takes approximately one minute every day after you eat dinner. It’s so worth it the minute.
Dishes
Staying in the kitchen for another minute, the dishes should also be added to your list of chores to do every day. I hand wash dishes multiple times a day, but you should at least do them once each day. You should also run the dishwasher every day. It’s amazing how much more relaxed you’ll feel when your sink is clear!
Sinks
The kitchen sink isn’t the only sink in your house that is worthy of your daily attention. Don’t let your bathroom sinks get yucky either. To prevent sink yuckiness, all you need to do is add wiping them down to get all the toothpaste, soap residue, and tiny hairs off to your list of chores to do every day. It will take you less than one minute. Just do it.
Pick up floors
Picking up crap off your floors is likely only to be relevant to you if you have children who live at home. OK, some of you may have husbands who leave stuff all over the floors too, so maybe this one is more broadly applicable. I pick up the floors as part of the chores I do every day for two main reasons: toys and clothes.
Toys
My kids are like tornadoes that spit out toys everywhere they walk. Even though I try to get them to clean up before bed every night, I still find tons of toys on the floor after they go to bed. So, before I get ready for bed, I pick up the rest of the toys on the floor in the common areas. I don’t always put them where they’re supposed to go, but I get them off the floor.
Clothes
Who else doesn’t know why they buy laundry hampers? We have one in each bedroom, one in the laundry room, and one under the kitchen sink. Basically, there is a hamper anywhere anyone would need a hamper. Yet, there are still clothes all over the place all the time. Many of them in a pile directly next to one of the many hampers that are easily accessible. (Does anyone else’s family pile up their laundry directly next to a hamper?) I can’t go to bed at night until I go around and move the scattered clothing items into the hampers. Please tell me why I need to do this every single night!
Beds
A classic on the chores to do every day list is to make your bed. Some of you might think that making your bed every day is overrated, but I disagree. This is the first chore that I do every day, and it gets me into the right mind frame. If I don’t make my bed, my day goes off the rails. Fast. I don’t make my bed look beautiful every day, but I pull the sheets and the comforter up for a nice flat, clean surface. It takes 30 seconds of my morning and makes a huge difference in how I start my day.
Table
My kitchen table collects stuff. It’s a magnet for detritus. But it’s hard to eat at a table that’s filled with junk. I mean, it’s doable, which is why clearing off the table is at the end of this list of chores to do every day. But if you find yourself with a few extra minutes in your day, I highly recommend clearing off your table. Your meals will be much more peaceful, even if you’re sharing them with fighting kids and a begging dog.
Other posts
Looking for more homemaking tips? When I figure out an easier way to get things done around the house, I love to share. Here are a few of the tips I’m most excited about:
Have I convinced you that you need a list of chores to do every day? Which ones are you adopting and which are you skipping? Share down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason!