5 Small Cleaning Habits That Revolutionize Your Space and Mindset

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When life gets stressful, I look for small cleaning habits to keep me on track.

Clutter around the house creates mental weight that is hard to shed. But I promise you, small habits will make a bigger impact on your home than big cleaning days.

Cleaning can feel overwhelming when you have a long list of items to complete. Instead of being stressed and overwhelmed when cleaning. Taking it one day at a time and knowing it will get done can be a game-changer.

This post is all about small cleaning habits!

Why Your Space Affects Your Mindset

I don’t know about you, but when I have a clean space, I feel so much more productive and calm. Your environment influences your mindset as much as your mindset influences your environment.

Switching from cleaning as a source of mental strain to cleaning for your mental health is a huge mindset shift with a huge impact. Visual clutter leads to mental clutter, so taking the time to clean is actually time spent clearing your mind.

Constantly having a visually cluttered space causes immense decision fatigue. That’s why tidying can feel emotional. Having to constantly decide to clean and tidy up will force you to think about your space.

I have gone so far as to remove labels from my everyday products to make my visual space look tidy and calm. This has made my mind so much clearer.

Why Big Cleaning Days Don’t Stick

How long does your house or room stay clean after a big cleaning day? A day? A few days? A week or two?

Does it ever really stick? Probably not.

The biggest reason for this is burnout. After your all-or-nothing cleaning, you are too burnt out to keep it up because it seems like such a big task. If you believe that every time you clean it needs to be perfection, you will put it off.

Habits work better than motivation because the motivation will eventually wear off. That is something society has taught us is a huge no-no, but motivation will not always be with us. It is not your fault, you are not lazy or a failure, it’s just the truth.

You need realistic cleaning routines because those stick. Habits and routines work 100x better than motivation (that isn’t a real statistic, but you know what I mean!)

Setting some small cleaning habits will take away your need to make a decision of what to clean or figuring out what to prioritize. Your routines or cleaning schedule will tell you exactly what to do every day.

Small Cleaning Habits That Make a Big Difference

Make Your Bed (Even Imperfectly)

I know, I know. This is so cliché, but I promise you, having a smoothed-out bed will give you extra space to work with.

When you’re doing laundry, picking up your floors, dusting surfaces, or need a place to hold miscellaneous items, your bed is a great option.

You’d be surprised how much of a difference it makes to have one clean place to lie down or to hold things.

Reset One Surface a Day (It’s Easier Than You Think)

Make a list somewhere visible of a bunch of different surfaces around your home, then just cycle through them one by one. Every night, just do the next surface.

Decrease your decision fatigue by taking the decision out of it. Having a list of what you want to get done and then going straight down becomes a routine.

Now you might be saying, “Caroline, what do you mean by reset one surface?” And I’d say, clean off any trash, put away any clutter, and wipe it down.

You’ll start to notice your space becoming cleaner and cleaner every day. It is amazing how that one little habit can slowly transform your space.

My 15 Minute Closing Shift That Has Kept Me Sane

If you have ever closed at a restaurant or a retail store, you know about the closing shift. This might be a controversial opinion, but as someone who has been an opener and closer at multiple jobs, I think the closing shift is harder 10 times out of 10.

Closing down a business for the night involves resetting everything so that it runs smoothly the next day.

Does closing suck? Yes. Can you adapt this so that it doesn’t? Absolutely.

My closing shift involves dishes, counters, one step of laundry, and either mopping or vacuuming. This might seem like a lot, but I have gotten so fast at it that it now takes 15 minutes at most.

You can also adapt this to incorporate a weekly cleaning schedule. I love my routine because it builds in a day to catch up on missed tasks.

Here’s a photo of my favorite cleaning routine that I use. I have it written down in my Dailee Planner (which I LOVE!) This isn’t an affiliate link, but I do think you’d all love this planner… I have the daily version, but I also love the weekly one. I have used both!

Clean as a Transition and Not a Chore

As you move from one task to another, pick up. Ugh, I know. Now, this might not work for everyone because for some, it might feel like you are constantly cleaning.

As someone with ADHD, it has actually helped me feel really productive and powerful. While I am cleaning, my head gets clearer and helps me transition from one task to another.

Do I love cleaning? No! But… do I love the feeling it gives me? Yes!

Put Things Back Where You Found Them

Simple cleaning habits and mantras have changed the game for me. My favorite mantra is, “Don’t put it down, put it away.”

I constantly say this to myself throughout my day because it helps me notice when I just set things down.

You will see a huge difference in your space if you implement just this one cleaning habit.

How These Habits Change Your Mindset

If you pay attention, you’ll see that when your emotions get out of whack, so does your space. Your cleaning and your emotions are so interconnected.

When your space is clean, you feel capable, you feel in control of chaos, and you’re so much calmer.

A calm space is way better than a perfect space. A perfect space might actually do some damage if you feel you have to keep up with the perfection.

Cleaning will reduce your stress. I promise you. As long as you don’t take this to extremes, a clean space means a calm mind.

Developing cleaning habits as a mindfulness practice allows your mind to settle and relax as you tidy your space. 

Final Thoughts

I want to encourage you to be imperfect. Done is better than perfect. You dont need to deep clean your whole home every day. That isn’t sustainable.

Do a little research as to what needs to be cleaned throughout the year, and schedule it. Be consistent. Trust yourself.

You can do it!

What are some of your favorite daily cleaning habits? Let me know in the comments below!