You deep cleaned your space only last Sunday. However, it’s been just a few days and your living space is back to its messy appearance already. You feel exasperated with yourself and your living habits. More than that, you feel demotivated. You wonder, what’s the use of cleaning ever, if all of it has to get back to its untidy state anyways? 

If the above resonates with you, then you are not alone. Your living space consists of the place where you sleep, eat, work, study, and freshen up. And the desire for constantly maintaining a clean living space is shared by many — students, working professionals, homemakers, laboratory assistants, parents to toddlers, hostellers, shopkeepers, so on and so forth.

However, having a living space that always appears clean is not as complicated a task as it seems. While there are a lot of extra activities that can be done, constantly maintaining cleanliness boils down to some simple habits that integrate smoothly into your daily routine and make all the difference. Out of the various routines, there are 3 essentials that summarize the whole process. These essentials are as given below : 

Keep What You Need

Human beings are no less than magpies or crows. We have an inherent fondness for collecting trinkets, often as a way to express personal interests, preserve memories, or simply for the pleasure of acquiring and arranging objects pleasurable to us. 

However, there is a sad downside to this beautiful human trait, now being exploited by the current marketing landscape. People are now bombarded with advertisements that offer products with an emphasis on immediate gratification, thus leading to self-indulgent consumerism in the form of impulse buying. The long-term effect of this is a focus on material possessions and a general dissatisfaction among people with what they have. 

A possible antidote to this is the lifestyle philosophy of minimalism.   

But how will this help you in maintaining a clean living space?

Minimalism promotes mindful consumption. It encourages us to prioritize quality over quantity, to make thoughtful purchasing decisions, and bring fewer items into our living spaces. This promotes a simplified and clutter-free environment. When you have less to clean and organize, it is easier to maintain a tidy space. Overall, minimalism not only results in a cleaner and more organized living space but also promotes mental clarity and a sense of peace by reducing stress and anxiety associated with clutter.

Clean As You Go

As a child, you must have heard it enough from your mom to put back your toys in their respective places after you are done playing with them. Now it's your turn to apply this same logic to your living habits. 

The first step is to ensure that everything being used in your living space has a home to be returned to as soon as its work is done. This “home” can be a shelf, a cupboard, some drawers, or even a hook on the wall. Places articles of daily use in convenient locations. If you are packing rarely-used articles in opaque boxes or cloth sacks or containers, then make a list of all the items within that specific container and paste it on the lid or on the box or cloth itself. This will make it quite easier for you to look for those articles later on without having to upset all other containers.

Now that our foundations are ready, given below are some more steps that can be carried out under the “clean as you go” mantra.

Make your bed as soon as you wake up. It takes barely 2 minutes and kick starts your day with a dose of positivity, productivity and organization. 

Put your shower and skin care products back in their respective drawers or shelves after use. Throw used clothes in the correct laundry pile instead of throwing them on the floor or the bed. 

Clean up right after breakfast, put the bottles back in their shelves, put the washed dishes back in their stands, and throw all trash in the bin instead of leaving anything on the counter.

Declutter your workspace ASAP after a day’s work. Put everything back where it belongs. Plug in your devices to be charged. Keep a to-do list for the next day’s work ready. To read more about workspace optimization, read this article.

After work outs, place your yoga mat and workout equipment back in their designated place. Handle your workout clothes as you see fit, the point being that you don’t leave them at any random place in your room.

At night, make sure that every article that you used throughout the day is back in its “home” (not considering special conditions, of course). Tuck yourself in bed with the satisfaction of knowing that your living space is a blissful and clean abode for you right now.

As a beginner, the above might seem quite a tedious list of tasks for you. However, I recommend you to stick to it consistently for a few weeks. Practice this mantra of putting things back where they belong once every three days initially. With time, transition to once every alternate day. From there, it won’t be long before cleaning as you go comes naturally to you. That’s all you need to form a new life-changing habit that will help you maintain a constantly clean living space. 

A Must-Have Mindset

You have been hearing this since your childhood that your environment has a profound impact on your well-being and quality of life — not just your physical health but your mental and emotional well-being too. 

A clean and organized space reduces the presence of allergens, dust and germs. It reduces stress, improves focus, and promotes a sense of calm and productivity. It teaches us how to take responsibility for our living spaces, and how to be mindful with our consumption and waste. It also reflects our sense of respect for those sharing our living spaces with us.   

As such, cleanliness is not just a matter of aesthetics, but of health and dignity too. By valuing cleanliness, you affirm your self-worth and respect for yourself and others, creating a positive and nurturing environment in which to live.

And this is why you should view cleanliness as a privilege, rather than a chore. 

You will certainly enjoy a clean living space. And you will reap many physical, mental, and emotional benefits from it too. Once a fortnight deep cleaning sessions are good, but not if it means that you will spend the rest of the days in a disorderly and demotivated state. 

So why not go ahead and make cleanliness an intentional part of your everyday routine? Start slow. Gradually, you will find yourself enjoying a consistently clean living space. All the best!