How to Keep Your Home Tidy with this Quick Morning Cleaning Routine

Need a simple morning cleaning routine so your home always looks tidy? Here is a quick chore list to get your house in order, plus a free printable to help you remember the things to do every morning!

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Do you ever feel like keeping your home tidy is an impossible task? No matter what you do, the couch pillows always end up on the floor, and the mail always seems to form a little pile on your dining room table.

But what if I told you that your home could look and feel tidy every single day? What if I told you that all it would take is a few minutes of your time every morning? I know, it sounds too good to be true.

But the fact is that all you need is a simple morning cleaning routine to make your home look less like a disaster zone and more like a welcoming haven for your family.

Here’s what I know to be true: I feel better when my home is tidy. Josh prefers it that way too. And keeping our home tidy really isn’t that complicated. In fact, as I thought through every step of my morning cleaning routine, it hit me just how quick and simple it is.

If you struggle to keep your home tidy, then you might want to give this morning cleaning routine a try. It will help you feel less overwhelmed, and once the routine becomes a habit, you’ll get to enjoy a tidy home every single day!

I don’t know about you, but that feeling alone is enough to put me in a good mood for the whole day!

So let’s get started, shall we?

Quick Morning Cleaning Routine

This quick morning cleaning routine is actually super simple. The tasks only take a little bit of time, but they really make a big difference! Let’s go over each of them and then you can grab my free printable cheat sheet at the end of this post to help you remember the steps!

Make your bed

There’s just something about a made-up bed that instantly makes a bedroom look tidy. I know some people think it’s a waste of time since you’ll be climbing back in bed later tonight, but I promise that it’s totally worth it. And maybe it’s just me, but I sleep better in a made-up bed. The sheets are pulled tight and the quilt or comforter is where it’s supposed to be. I don’t get tangled up in messy sheets, and Josh doesn’t have to steal the comforter back from my side of the bed.

In all, it should take you less than one minute to make your bed. I timed myself this morning, and going at my typical pace, it took exactly 54 seconds to make our bed. We have a queen-sized bed, and it isn’t in a corner.

Seriously, if your bed is in a corner, rearrange your room if at all possible. You need to be able to reach both sides of the bed to make this a breeze.

Our bed consists of sheets, a duvet and cover, a quilt, five standard pillows, two small decorative pillows, and a small throw blanket. Even with all of that extra stuff, it takes me less than one minute to make our bed each morning. The feeling of a made-up bed is well worth that extra minute of my time, and I’m sure you’d enjoy that feeling too!

Wash the breakfast dishes

A sink full of dirty dishes just looks…well, dirty. An empty sink really helps make your kitchen look clean even if you haven’t formally cleaned it.

Personally, I wash all of our dishes by hand. I’ve never even used our dishwasher! Seriously, Josh could hide my birthday present in there and I’d never know it. 🙂

Since it doesn’t take long for me to wash dishes the old-fashioned way, I prefer to wash them immediately after breakfast. But if you prefer using a dishwasher, make sure to start a load at night so you can empty it first thing in the morning. When you start the day with an empty dishwasher, you can bypass the sink all day long and put your breakfast, lunch, and supper dishes right in the dishwasher.

By starting your day with an empty sink, your kitchen looks tidy, and you’re less likely to run out of clean dishes!

Start a load of laundry

It’s easy to let laundry pile up if you aren’t diligent. In fact, I hated spending my weekends catching up on laundry when I worked a full-time job. It’s much easier to stay on top of things if you wash one load of laundry every day.

(Thor likes to “help” me with this task. 😉 )

For me, I typically wash our sheets on Monday, clothes on Tuesday, living room blankets or whites on Wednesday (I usually alternate those each week), towels on Thursday, and another load of clothes on Friday if we fill up a laundry basket by then. And that’s it! I don’t have to do laundry on the weekends because we don’t have anything else to wash.

Washing one load every day prevents you from getting behind on laundry and having to catch up on your precious weekends. No one wants to do laundry on the weekends if they can help it!

Wipe down all countertops

Wipe down all the countertops in your home each morning. This includes the kitchen countertops and table, and the countertops in your bathrooms. Your home will look and feel cleaner if you don’t have a layer of dust collecting on your countertop surfaces!

I like to use my DIY all-purpose cleaner with a microfiber cloth to wipe down our countertops. Since I’m trying to eliminate as many harmful chemicals from my home as possible, this is a great alternative to harsh Clorox wipes.

Straighten the couch pillows and blankets

I hate to admit it, but our couch doesn’t stay put together for long. Throw pillows end up on the floor and blankets get tossed haphazardly on the couch. We usually end our evening by watching Netflix, so it’s no wonder the couch ends up a mess.

I find that my living room instantly looks more put together when I spend a minute folding the blankets and putting the throw pillows back where they belong. It’s a small effort, but it really makes a big difference in the overall feel of the room. Plus, it makes the couch look more inviting when I don’t have to move a ton of blankets and pillows just to sit down!

To make your living room look put together without giving it a formal cleaning, just tidy up the couch a bit. You’ll be surprised by the difference it makes!

5-minute tidy session

Depending on how much time I have in the morning, I may spend five to ten minutes putting things back where they belong. We’re usually pretty good about picking up after ourselves, but we aren’t perfect. Sometimes I have to put Josh’s shoes back in the closet, put a handful of clothes in the dirty laundry basket, or sort some mail that I didn’t put away the previous day.

If your house looks like a tornado ripped through it, you may have to set a timer each morning for this step. Set your timer for five or ten minutes and go around your house one room at a time putting things back where they belong. When your timer goes off, stop tidying and move on to the next step in this list. It’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole when putting things away if you have a big mess to clean up, so doing a little bit each day will make the job seem like less of a burden.

Vacuum or dust

I alternate between vacuuming and dusting each day. For this quick morning cleaning routine, you just want to hit the high spots. Save the deep vacuuming and dusting for an afternoon when you have more time.

If you have allergies, then you’ll want to use a microfiber cloth for dusting instead of a feather duster. They rock! They actually wipe up the dust rather than dispersing it into the air.

I just dampen one rag with a little bit of water and wipe down the main surfaces in my house. Once I’m finished, I rinse the rag under running water and hang it to dry. Easy peasy!

Morning Cleaning Routine Printable Cheat Sheet

And now for the printable I promised you! You can get my free printable morning cleaning routine here.

Wrapping It Up

If you commit to a morning cleaning routine, I’m confident that you’ll fall in love with your tidy home. I find that I’m more cheery when my home is put together because I don’t have all sorts of chaos and clutter weighing me down. And once you get in the habit of spending a few minutes each morning tidying up your home, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner!

The key is to do it regularly until your morning cleaning routine becomes second nature. It may take you a little longer to accomplish these tasks when you first start, but you’ll find your groove after a few days. You’ll discover ways to make your routine more efficient, and you might even be able to shorten your to-do list by getting your family to help!

Remember, all it takes is seven steps every morning. Make your bed, wash the breakfast dishes, start a load of laundry, wipe down all countertops (kitchen and baths), straighten the couch pillows and blankets, spend five minutes tidying up, and alternate between dusting and vacuuming (just the high spots, not a deep clean). And just so you don’t forget any steps, be sure to grab the free morning cleaning routine printable!

Happy cleaning, my friend!

How to Keep Your Home Tidy with this Quick Morning Cleaning Routine (free printable!)