A House We Built

Custom House Designed by Husband & Wife Team | Modern Farmhouse Inspired

Cleaning Sources & Routines

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One of the most common questions that I’m asked on our Instagram page @ahousewebuilt is how we keep our house clean. We do it all ourselves (no cleaning service) so here are some of our cleaning routines and habits we’ve developed that help us keep a clean, clutter-free home!

GENERAL CLEANING SOURCES RECAP

I’ve provided details on all these sources and how we use them below:

CLEANING MINDSET

We consciously choose to not own a lot of “stuff” and everything we own has a specifically designated spot it lives in. Our house rule (which was my parents’ rule while I grew up and that worked really well so I’ve continued it in our house) is that “anything you take out must be returned to where you found it, in the same condition you found it in, as soon as you’re finished with it”. It takes a while to make that into a habit (especially if you didn’t grow up with this rule) but once you get into this habit, it eliminates a pile up of “random stuff” around the house because you’ve put everything away when you’re done with it.

So a combination of not owning a lot of stuff, having designated homes where all your stuff lives, and a developing an instinctive habit of putting away anything you take out helps to keep your home tidy.

CLEANING HABITS

  1. Clean as you go as much as possible. The purpose of this is to keep everything mostly tidy throughout the day so that when you go to actually properly clean, you’re more “topping off” the clean, rather than starting from scratch. In my opinion, this is the most important thing you can do.
  2. Set small timers for cleaning tasks. It’s amazing how much you can get done in sixty seconds, or as much as five whole minutes. Instead of dedicating massive chunks of time (or *shudder* whole days) to cleaning, I’ll just pick a room, set a timer for 1-2 mins and seriously you can get so much done in that time. I find that setting that little timer helps me mentally not get overwhelmed with the idea of “cleaning” as this huge impossible task. This way feels more manageable and achievable when you’re only having to find an extra two minutes in your day instead of two hours.
  3. Multitask. Anytime I go from A to B in our house, I just quickly ask myself if there’s anything else I could do at the same time. For example, if I’m on the main floor but I need something from an upper floor, I’ll see if there’s maybe a load of laundry I can carry up at the same time or whatever else is needed. I’m already needing to make the trip from point A to point B in our house, but doing two things at once doubles my productivity and saves me time/energy in the long run.
  4. End-of-day tidy-up. This is strongly linked to the clean-as-you-go habit because if you’ve been mostly cleaning as you go throughout the day, then you shouldn’t have too much left to tidy up at the end of the day. But right before bed, just do a quick walkthrough and put away anything still left out of place so that when you start your day the next morning, you’re waking up to a tidy house. If this sounds like a lot, then start with doing this in just one room (I recommend the kitchen) and once you’ve formed that habit, expand this habit to the rest of your house too.

One more thing is that if you’re married, living with someone (even a roommate) or have a family, then it can’t just be you cleaning up after everyone. Get them on board with the same habits as you and/or designate certain tasks between you. And also teach your kids to follow suite both by teaching them, and by leading by example. Everyone old enough to participate should be involved in keeping your communal living environment (your home) tidy. Most of my own cleaning habits were ones I learned as a kid from my parents – not only through practice, but also by observing my own parents keeping a tidy house and watching their habits, so it’s never too early to start and habits formed early on are the easiest ones to make and to continue. But whether these habits are something you grew up with or something you’re just starting now, it is possible to form these habits if you put your mind to it and make it a priority.

CLEANING TOOLS

  • Robot vacuums: We have 2 different styles of these for different parts of our house. First is this: Walmart | Amazon (regular vacuum, manual disposal). Second is this: Walmart | Amazon (automatic disposal). We specifically have these because we have five rescue cats but my husband is allergic to cats to we have these to control the allergens in our home. They both have high-efficiency filter systems and they cover a lot of ground. We run them both 4-6 times a week in different parts of our house but I should note that the purpose of these in our house is to remove cat hair from our floors – like the subtle stuff that you don’t even see – and they do a fantastic job at this in particular. But in terms of actually cleaning floors after a mess or a spill, or like cleaning under the dining table after a meal, cleaning up crumbs, or cleaning an entryway mats etc, that stuff we still need to do ourselves because the roombas honestly just aren’t as good at it. So in our house we use them specifically as cat allergen controllers, otherwise we probably wouldn’t have them.
  • Cordless vacuum: Amazon | Walmart. We have 3 of these for different parts of our house. They run smooth and have multiple attachments. Overall this is my favorite and most-used vacuum. We can keep our entire house clean with it. If I could only have one vacuum, I’d choose this one.
  • Corded vacuum: Amazon | Walmart. We’ve had ours for many years (ours is the slightly older version of these) but since getting our cordless vacuum cleaners and robot vacuums, I’ve used this corded one less and less. It’s a very good vacuum though and I’ll use this once a month or so for a deeper clean, but that’s it. If you have pets, this is a great vacuum for deep cleans.
  • Floor mop: Amazon | Walmart. About once a season we lightly mop out floors down with water, but that’s really all it takes to keep them clean (on top of daily vacuuming). I don’t like using cleaning products unless I really can’t avoid it so my primary go-to for cleaning is always just fresh water.

Grooming the cats regularly makes the biggest difference as far as keeping the house free of fur. I use this grooming tool and I groom all our cats at night before bed every other night. If I’m late by even one day, I notice a difference. This is the best way to get ahead of keeping your house free of fur. Note: this also helps with allergies. To learn more about How to Cope with Cat Allergies, click here.

CLEANING PRODUCTS

We try our best to use non-toxic products where possible, but we also balance practicality with that. So, for cleaning products we use daily like laundry & dishwasher pods, or dish & hand soaps, we choose to use “cleaner” products. But for rarely-used products like glass & steel cleaners etc, we just use whatever the best-working product we can find is because they’re used so infrequently that we prioritize function for those items. If you ever want to go down the rabbit hole of researching how many products in your everyday life are toxic, be warned that the list is likely extensive. I did this a little while back and that’s how I came up with this list of cleaner cleaning products for us to use (I did the same for my makeup and skincare too although that’s not the topic of this post but just FYI, I recommend looking into the ingredients of the products you use if you want to be informed about what you’re breathing in regularly and/or absorbing into your skin). Ultimately, it’s all about finding whatever the right balance is for your household that you feel safe and comfortable with and here I’m sharing the products we like to use:

LEATHER CARE

  • Leather conditioner: Amazon | Walmart. This stuff is amazing! I use it to buff out any accidental scratches our couches get and also just to condition them (maybe once every couple weeks/months). It’s kept our leather looking brand new even though we have 5 cats!
  • If you want more info, go to our post: How to Stop Cats from Scratching Furniture

I hope this helps answer your cleaning questions!
If there’s something else you’d like to know, just leave me a comment down below and I’ll answer!


To explore other rooms in our home, click here for our website roadmap.
To follow our daily progress and house projects, follow us on Instagram @ahousewebuilt.

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • Hi 🙂 Our house actually does not get very dusty. We have a strong air filtration/exchange system so I very rarely dust anything. I clean the countertops and tabletops or benches by hand and everything else (like our mantle top for example) I actually just vacuum with the small vacuum head on our main vacuum cleaner. I do have a little duster thing but it has literally sat unused in a cupboard since we moved in so I didn’t feel right linking to it since it’s just not something we actually use.

        • We don’t have much dust to be honest. We have an ERV (basically takes exchanges the inside air for outside air, but maintains temp and humidity). We also have a whole-house HEPA filter, a humidifier for winter, and a variable-speed furnace that runs 24/7. Everything is looped into the HVAC ductwork.

  2. Do you do anything special for when they jump out of the litter box and get litter everywhere?! I just use a little broom or vacuum, but didnt know if you’ve found anything different that helps eliminate it

    • Just water mostly, maybe a drop of dish soap on rare occasion. I’m not a big fan of using many cleaning products, most of the time they’re simply not necessary. We just wipe it clean after every use.

  5. Super helpful! I have a question about stuff you’re not currently using/displaying (like seasonal decor or just variety of things to freshen up decor), how often you go through the routine of getting rid of stuff you don’t love/want/need to manage your storage space?
    Thanks.

    • I do have season decor throughout our entire home. It’s just subtle, but I change up little seasonal touches 5 times a year: Spring, Summer, Fall, Christmas, Winter. You can scroll back through our “Past Decor” menu to see. We have a storage room in our basement where I keep our seasonal items stored. 🙂

      I’m pretty picky about the things I even allow into our home in the first place. So generally if we have it in our home, it’s something I want to keep. But I have zero issues with donating/getting rid of any items I don’t love/use/need. I talk about this more in our Minimalism post if you want: https://www.ahousewebuilt.com/minimalism-how-to-get-started/

  6. Do you have a designated time each day that you devote to cleaning/tidying? I know you and your husband are self-employed and you are super busy with all of the construction- when do you find time and energy to vacuum, clean your bathrooms, do laundry, etc.?

    • I try not to spend more than 15 minutes total on those type of tasks per day generally so I try to spread the tasks out over time as opposed to trying to do everything every day. But clean-as-you-go routines really cut down on how long those tasks take because you’re already always halfway done when everything is generally kept clean/tidy.

      For example: I don’t dedicate any specific time to vacuuming the stairs but I know that in a given day I will need to go all the way from basement to third floor and whenever the first time I have to do that is, I just grab our little hand vacuum and vacuum the steps as I walk up. Typically that happens once a day, sometimes every other day. But because I have it worked into my habit that the first time I go all the way up in a day I reach for the vacuum, it just becomes second nature. We also designate certain tasks to certain people which helps spread out the tasks even further.

  7. How do you handle cleaning showers and bathrooms? Cleaning large showers weekly takes time!
    Also, does your Dad make the beautiful mirrors to sell or by commissioning?
    He is so talented!

    • We keep squeegees in the showers and long ago got into the habit of squeegeeing down the walls/glass after every shower. It only takes about 30 seconds and goes a long way towards keeping them clean and cuts down on weekly/monthly cleaning considerably.

      And no, sorry. He really only builds stuff for our home and their own.

  8. Hi. First off, I have to tell you I love your house (and your cats!). My husband and I just built a home and are getting ready to move in. We purchased all new furniture and want to protect it from our Roomba. In your sources, you mention felt bumpers for the Roombas. Where on the Roomba do you place them and do they interfere with the navigation at all? Thank you!

    • Thank you! We placed them on the lower part of the rubber bumper that goes around the front half of our roomba. You can place them all the way around if you want but we didn’t feel it was necessary. We spaced them approx 2.5-3″ apart – the goal is close enough together so that no part of the rubber can make contact with furniture because the felt always blocks it. They do not interfere with navigation at all. 🙂

  9. Do you like the energy efficiency of the electric fireplace? I live upstate New York. Several friends installed gas fireplaces, but I’m leaning towards electric. Was there a particular reason you went with electric vs gas?
    Thanks so much.
    I love your home and kitties!!
    Your IG account is one of my favorites!

    • We actually chose electric because we had no intention of using our fireplace as a heat source and just wanted a fireplace for show so electric was a much simpler way of accomplishing that. Our unit has full heating capabilities but we don’t use it for that and just turn the flames on without heat because it creates a cozy feeling. We insulated our home wayyyyyyyyyy above code so we have very little heat-loss and we already keep our home consistently at an unusually warm temp so having the heat function on in situation would just be uncomfortable. So I don’t actually have a lot of feedback on it’s heating capabilities other than the fact that I know it has it, we just don’t really use it for that.

  10. I have followed you for several years now and love everything you post and all the tips and resources you share. Thank you so much for all you do.

    Curious if you could post pics of your storage and talk through how you store things. For example all your holiday decor. Do you have clear storage containers or a closet dedicated to specific things?

    I have 4 kids and a very messy husband. Consistency is not a thing in my house when it comes to staying tidy and organized but your posts sure do help keep me in a good mindset and it is much appreciated! ❤️

    • Thank you for your kind words! ❤️

      Sharing our storage in more detail is on my to-do list. It would be a big undertaking though which is probably why I’ve been putting it off lol. We have a whole storage room in our basement I’ve never shared online that is where the bulk of our deep-storage items are. Our cabinetry that you see in my pics (and we have more that I’ve never posted because they’re literally just a wall of cabinets but don’t necessarily make for an interesting picture) is used for all our seasonal and everyday-use items. I have a bank of 4 floor-to-ceiling cabinets I use for seasonal items in our basement. My preference is clear containers, although I do often just dedicate a whole section or cabinet to something specific to keep everything together and easier to find. Like I have a cabinet for florals, a cabinet for Christmas, another for fall, a bank of drawers for wrapping stuff, etc

      One day I will take the time to document and go into more depth on this. But I don’t particularly think there’s a right or wrong way to organize things. Lots of different methods can be effective. The most important thing (in my opinion) is decluttering so that you’re not storing anything you don’t love/use/need (our Minimalism Post has more details on this) but once you have your items narrowed down, then you can adapt your storage methods to however your home is set up.

      I will say that it is much harder when you’re the only one in your home trying to keep things tidy so I always recommend trying to get family members on board. Labelling sometimes helps people return an item to where it belongs. Our non-negotiable house rule is that every item we own has a place it belongs and if you move something away from that place then it is your responsibility to put it back as soon as you’re done with it. The first step though is to give everything a place it belongs. Once it’s organized and the system (whatever that may be) makes sense (and the items are decluttered so that there’s nothing excess), it’s often a lot easier for people to use that organized system to help develop habits of putting things back after they’ve been used. Finally, remember that decluttering and organizing is a process that often can even take years to fine-tune so don’t pressure yourself to get it all done at once. 🙂

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