While cooking, take the extra steps to clean as you go. If you scrub the cutting board and load dirty bowls, etc., while waiting for the pasta water to come to a boil, most of the cleanup will already have been done before dinner is even served. Not only is this an efficient way to cook, but it also prevents having to do a massive after-dinner kitchen cleaning.

It doesn’t have to be a move-everything-out-and-scrub-completely kind of clean, but take some time for a regular cull. Throwing away leftovers that didn’t get eaten and wiping up any spills before they become gunked-up and moldy will ensure the fridge remains clean and tidy on an ongoing basis. Cleaning your fridge regularly will also help prevent food waste.

Try to do a load of laundry every day. Not only will this prevent laundry from piling up and becoming a huge, overwhelming undertaking, it also ensures you’ll never again run out of clean underwear.

Assuming you weren’t able to clean up while cooking, the worst thing you can do is wait until the following morning to clean the kitchen. Before going to bed, clean up pots and pans, scrub surfaces, load the dishwasher and you won’t be met with a monumental task awaiting when you wake up when you should be focusing on the day ahead, not yesterday’s mess.

When you’ve created a place into which things can be put away, it makes it that much easier to put things away and maintain a sense of tidiness. Attractive baskets throughout the home allow stuff to be easily stored before it becomes cluttered.

No matter how much of a rush you’re in during the morning, take a few moments to make the bed, or at least pull up the comforter and smooth things over so it at least looks like it’s been made. While this may not seem like a big deal, psychologically this sets you off on your day in a productive manner that will hopefully carry through to the rest of the day. And bonus: you won’t be greeted by an unmade bed when you come home.

If your home is cluttered with stacks of papers here, there and everywhere, try adopting a system of organizing papers, bills, mail, etc. in one place, hidden away from sight but easy to find and completely organized. Then, once bills are paid and important documents have been dealt with, they can be filed away.

Get into the habit of regularly wiping down surfaces in the kitchen. A great idea is to create a homemade solution – three parts vinegar, one part dishwashing detergent – which will cut grease and keep kitchen counters looking spic and span at all times.

If you have a glass-doored shower, give it a quick once-over with a shower squeegee after each use. It should take less than 30 seconds but will leave the glass looking clean and free of mould.

Run the dishwasher through before you go to bed and unload when you wake up. This will make dinnertime cleanup that much easier, and prevent from dishes stacking up in the sink throughout the day.

Most vacuum cleaners have a small, soft attachment that you can use to vacuum everything – computer keyboards, mirrors, coffee tables, windowsills, lamps, whatever. It’s a fact that dust will accumulate, and sucking it up with a vacuum instead of simply spreading it around with a duster makes so much more sense.

Here’s a great way the entire family can pitch in on home cleanliness: a five-minute clean-up session before bed. Assign each family member a room and have them put away toys, clear away clutter, hang up jackets and generally organize things that aren’t in their proper places. The result: you’ll wake up to a clean house!

One trick utilized by people with clean homes is, when cleaning, to focus on one room at a time in order to make the maximum impact in that one room. Rather than have an entire house that’s only kind-of clean, pouring all your energy – say, once a week – into a particular room, giving it a deep, solid scrubbing will ensure that room is completely spic and span. Keep it up, and over the course of a few weeks, you’ll have a house that’s super clean from top to bottom. Meanwhile, tackling housecleaning one room at a time can seem less overwhelming and make you feel more productive, inspiring you to keep it up.

A great way to keep the clutter down is to maintain a donation box, so when you come across something that nobody in the home uses, needs or wants, toss it into the box and make regular donation trips to your local thrift shop. The effect will be positive for the organization that receives the donations as well as keeping your home clean and decluttered, and regular purges will keep clutter from forming.

Try to keep some basic cleaning supplies hidden away in every room (out of harm’s way of pets and children, obviously). The reasoning is this: say you enter a room and notice a surface that needs a wipe-down or a mark on a wall that should be scrubbed. Rather than making a mental note to do it later, grab the sponge and cleaning spray you’ve stashed in that room and clean it up then and there. When everything you need to clean up a mess is right at hand, the urge to procrastinate lessens significantly.

It’s amazing how quickly dust can accumulate on your home’s surfaces, so making it a habit to give those surfaces a quick dusting on a daily basis can work wonders. By taking a few minutes each day to focus on some dusting removing cobwebs, you’ll prevent dust from accumulating and save yourself from having to tackle a bigger cleanup job later.

When entering the home, shoes and coats should be put away immediately, along with packbacks, purses, gym bags and the like. If everybody in the household leaves their shoes piled at the front door, jackets heaped on the floor and backpacks piled up, you’ve got an instant mess. When that stuff is put away where it belongs… no mess. A clean-house trick that’s as simple as it is effective!

There are two schools of thought regarding the dreaded junk drawer. One view is that every home needs a junk drawer, so you have a place to put those odds and ends that you inevitably need but don’t really have a place to store, thus keeping your home free from clutter. The other view, however, theorizes that homes that utilize junk drawers accumulate more junk, resulting in more clutter, not less. While both viewpoints are valid, the best bet here is to take a hard look at your own lifestyle, figure out whether a junk drawer is making your house more or less cluttered, and take it from there.

If you have a cat or dog that sheds, brushing pets regularly is the best way to prevent all that pet hair from accumulating. The trick, however, is to do it outside the house so all that hair, fur and dander winds up outdoors, not creating dust bunnies inside.

If you want to minimize housework’s drudgery, try to combine chores with some “me” time whenever possible. For example, when vacuuming or dusting, you can also listen to your favourite podcast or catch up on episodes of Island of Bryan while ironing clothes. Not only will you feel the accomplishment of keeping your home clean, but you’ll also feel like you got to do stuff you actually wanted to do. Win-win!