- Hello, friends, and welcome back. If you're new here, hi.
(bubble popping) My name is Kallie Branciforte. Thank you for joining me. A little lesson that I have learned over probably the last two or three years is that if I kind of make myself in the constant state of cleaning up, I find it to be so much more manageable, and I keep my house so much tidier. Sometimes it feels
easier to just say, like, "I'll do that when I have more time," but I find that if I let
cleaning tasks build up, it becomes this, like, huge mountain that I have to, like,
overcome, and I have to tackle as opposed to just if
I'm doing little things throughout the day, it is so much easier. It is so much more manageable,
and it just helps me keep my house so much cleaner. Now, don't get me wrong. My house is not, like,
perfectly clean all the time, but I am somebody who just
finds more peace in my house when things are just a little bit tidy and a little bit cleaned up, and I do get overwhelmed when
cleaning tasks build up, and then, that makes me more
likely to not wanna do them. And so, I've adopted some cleaning habits over the last two or three years of my life that really just work. They really just help
me, like, stay on top of keeping my house clean
and tidy so it's, like, no longer this thing that I
find totally overwhelming. It's just something that
I find I can, like, fit into my everyday life, and I wanna share with you guys those nine cleaning habits. (cheerful music) (air whooshing) (air whooshing)
Okay, so, tip number one is to drink copious amounts of coffee so that you have lots of energy to clean. I'm just kidding. That
is not tip number one. Tip number one is to set up
little routines for yourself. As people, we're very habit-oriented. It's why, like, we
remember to brush our teeth every night before bed because
we've just always done it, and I found that you can do the same thing with some cleaning tasks so that they just sort of happen naturally. So, what you're gonna do is
think of some cleaning tasks that you need to do every single day, and then you're gonna tie them
to a routine or an activity or a habit that you already
do every single day. A really easy trick to
help you form new habits is to tie them to habits
that already exist because your brain is already sorta wired for that one habit, and then your brain will become accustomed to thinking about those two habits together. So, let me give you an example. One thing that I started doing is I always will sweep and Swiffer my floors right after my son finishes his breakfast. I do this every morning. It's just become part of
our little morning habit and routine that we eat
breakfast, we clean the floors, and then we go upstairs and get dressed. By tying sweeping the floors
to my breakfast routine, I've made it super-easy to
adopt because I'd literally just, like, tied it to another
habit that already existed. Also, another little bonus
tip I'm gonna throw on this, it's not a habit, but I
recently purchased myself a little handheld, like, duster buster, and it changed my life, and
if you're somebody who sweeps. Like, I have a robot vacuum
that goes through the house, but I like to sweep every morning. Get rid of the dustpan. Why didn't somebody tell me this before? The little duster buster
is so much more effective at cleaning up the little mess that you made from sweeping up. And a little mom tip, I'll
try to throw in a few mom tips for those moms that are
watching, and that is that I have cleaning
activities I know I can do when my child is awake or around that he can sort of help me with, and so, I'll tie those to routines or
habits I do with him already. So, one example that I shared
was sweeping the floors. My son loves to help sweep the floors. He's not actually sweeping the floors. He uses this little duster to sweep. He literally knows every
morning after breakfast, when I go to get the broom,
he comes running over 'cause he wants his duster,
and he helps me sweep, and it works great for me because he is preoccupied, and he is
busy while I'm sweeping, and I'm getting the floors done. Okay, tip number two is to
have cleaning lists by time. I think one reason, like,
I sorta mentioned earlier that cleaning can sort
of become overwhelming, or we avoid it, or it builds up. It's 'cause we think to ourselves, "Well, I'll clean the bathroom when I have a free 45 minutes," but,
like, it could be days or weeks before we have a
free 45 minutes to deep clean the bathroom, so what I like
doing is having little lists of small tasks that I can do
in dedicated periods of time. So, I actually have this free
cleaning checklist printable. You can download it
totally free on my website. I'll have the link down
below in the description, and it has tons of cleaning
tasks that you can tackle in either 10 minutes, 30
minutes, or 60 minutes. This way, if you have some free time, even if it's just 10
minutes, you can still get something cleaned or tidy, and you don't need to
feel like you have to have this, like, huge space of
time before you can tackle a specific room, or you
can tidy the bedroom. Even if you only have 10
minutes, you can still do some work in that room. Tip number three is to focus on surfaces. There's something about
having cleared-off surfaces, flat surfaces in a
space that just makes it feel cleaner and less cluttered. This little trick is sometimes called the flat surface clutter
rule, and the idea is just to really only focus
on clearing off clutter on the flat surfaces of a space, and I really like this
because sometimes you can walk into a room and, again, feel overwhelmed by,
like, the cleaning tasks. You look at it, you're,
like, "I gotta do the floors. I gotta do the windows, and
I gotta empty the counters, and I gotta wipe down the
counters," and you sort of get this, like, long task, and
instead of feeling empowered to do it, you feel really overwhelmed. So, I love the little
trick of, like, okay, I'm just gonna focus on the flat surfaces. I've gotten into the
habit of just constantly decluttering my surfaces. At least three times a day,
I do a quick walkthrough of my entire downstairs
with the ultimate goal of removing anything from a flat surface that doesn't need to be there, and I know that that can sound kind of daunting. You're, like, "Three times a day, you want me to go through and declutter?" But I'm telling you that
as you start that habit, your clutter becomes so much more minimal because you are constantly doing it that I would say at most, it
takes me two minutes to do it. Of course, I do have a smaller house, and that is one perk of a smaller house. If you have a larger house,
then break it into sections or really just focus on
your main living spaces such as, like, the living room and the kitchen, and
the goal is to get all of the flat surfaces completely clear. It's not about making tidy little piles and sort of, like, moving
your tidy piles around because this is, like, a
mistake I totally used to make. I used to be in such a bad
habit of having little piles or leaving things out because
I was gonna use it later, or I was gonna get to it tomorrow, but I've actually found
that it takes literally less than 60 seconds to put
something away where it goes, and it makes my surfaces nice and clear, and then when I need
it, I can just grab it. Okay, tip number four is
kinda going off the last tip, and that is to get better
about letting things go, specifically getting
things out of your house that you do not need or
do not need to be there. In general, stuff breeds more stuff, and clutter breeds more clutter, and there are so many
times that we keep things in our house because
we're gonna use it later or we just need to fix it,
or we keep it on the counter because, you know, we're
gonna craft with it tomorrow. So, I've tried to really
get good about the habit of, like, being
super-intentional about looking at the stuff that's in my house, and if it doesn't need to be there, immediately getting rid of it
or immediately filing it away where it needs to go, and
constantly be thinking, like, "Do I actually need this?" And if I don't, trash it,
donate it, recycle it. Okay, so let me give you a couple examples to sort of explain this a little further. Raise your hand if you have ever opened, like, a box from something that you got from online shopping, and
then the box sits on the floor for two or three or five or six days before you even, like,
think about breaking it down or throwing it out, because guilty. A small shift that I have started adapting is the minute I get a package, I open it. I put the product that
I have purchased away where it needs to go,
and I break down the box, and I put it by the
back door, and that way, the next time I go out
the back door, which, because I have a toddler and a dog, is 45 times a day at least,
I can just take it out to the recycling or put it in the garage, if it's a bigger box that
needs to go to the dump, and it's just, like, again,
it's that constant state of, like, cleaning, the
constant of getting stuff out of my house that doesn't need to be there. The boxes don't pile up, and
they're sort of always on, they're always just, like on their way to where they need to be. Okay, habit number five is never go to bed with a dirty kitchen sink. This is actually one of the
very first cleaning habits I ever adopted, probably,
like, three or four years ago, maybe five years ago, I don't know. (laughing) I'm getting
old, and all the years just mix together, but
it's literally, like, one of the first cleaning
habits I ever adopted, and I realized how
powerful cleaning habits can be to keeping your house clean. So, the idea here, again,
is just that you never go to bed with your kitchen sink dirty because at the end of
the day, we're tired. We just wanna go upstairs. We wanna get in bed, and I
have that one little rule that I can't go upstairs until
my kitchen sink is clean. It's not an overwhelming task. Even if I'm really tired, I'm, like, "Okay, I can clean the kitchen sink. It's only gonna take, you
know, tops 10 minutes," but what I find is that
usually once I'm in the kitchen and I'm cleaning whatever is
left in the sink, if I haven't done already, it tends to lead
to a little bit more tidying. I tend to wipe down any
counters that haven't been wiped down or put away any
food that I forgot to put away, and the reason this habit has
worked so well for me and it has helped me adopt
other cleaning habits is 'cause I've found there
is literally nothing worse than walking down in the
morning to a dirty kitchen, and there is literally
nothing better in the world than walking down in the
morning to a nice, tidy kitchen to start your morning, and so, I've kind of found I'm, like, it's
this little thing I do at night that makes my morning better. A little joke that you've
probably heard me say before is, like, I like to think of
things that Today Kallie can do that'll make Tomorrow Kallie's
day a little bit better, and, like, having a tidy
kitchen is one of those things. Okay, habit number six is
because my dirty kitchen sink habit worked so well, I also have adopted the 15-minute pre-bed cleanup. Now, this doesn't actually
have to be right before bed. I just call it the pre-bed cleanup. Usually, I do it right
after my son goes to bed, but the idea is that it's just
15 minutes of cleaning up. 15 minutes is, like, not a lotta time. You can set a timer on your phone. It feels totally doable. It's not overwhelming, but
it's just 15 minutes of, like, getting the house picked
up, whatever it is that's laying out that
needs to be picked up. If you have older kids,
this can be something you guys all do together after dinner. Everyone just picks up for 15 minutes, and it helps you sorta
tackle any little tasks that may be laying around for the day. Okay, tip number seven is
to think about setting up some smart solutions
in your home to answer, like, the biggest cleaning or, like, clutter problems that
you have in your house. I'm gonna link two
organization videos down below that I think will help out a lot. It's just little organization things that I have done in my home
really, at the end of the day, with the goal of everything
having a place where it lives to help keep things more
organized 'cause I find that when we're in the state
of, like, constantly cleaning, you really need to have,
like, everything needs to have a place that it belongs,
and everything needs to have a place that it goes, so
you need to sorta set up these smart solutions in your house so that everything has a place. Okay, habit number eight that I've gotten really good about is to get in the habit of cleaning as you go when you're cooking. Like I said earlier in
this video, I feel like a clean kitchen helps lead to
a clean house, and obviously, our kitchens get the
messiest when we are cooking. I have found that if I kind
of am constantly, again, it's sorta the same idea
of, like, constantly being in the state of cleaning, but
if I'm constantly cleaning as I'm cooking, I'm not just, like, making a big mess and
then trying to clean it up all at the end. It makes keeping the kitchen
tidy so, so much easier. Okay, my very final tip. Number nine is to give
yourself little treats. We're all about positive
reinforcement, and I'm one of those people that,
like, I love to give myself little rewards when I
have done things good. After I put my son down for a nap, the first thing I do is I come down, and I do a quick 10-minute
cleanup in the kitchen. My reward for that is that
I always get to make myself my little iced coffee
afternoon drink that I have every single day, and
it's my little reward. So, like, I might come down the stairs. I'm, like, "I don't really
wanna do 10 minutes of cleaning. I just spend six hours
entertaining my child," but, like, I know that I get
to have my little coffee drink afterwards, and it's just,
like, a little reward. I know it seems silly,
but having little rewards for yourself totally can
help, so think of, like, the couple of tasks that you
dread doing, and then think of, like, what reward you can put at the end of them to sort of motivate yourself. All right, my friends, that does it. Those are the nine habits
that I have adopted that really help me keep
my house, in general, help me keep it more
tidy, help cleaning tasks not build up so that I'm
feeling totally overwhelmed by what needs to get done. Again, like I said, my house
is not always perfectly clean, but it just helps keep things tidier and so much more manageable. Again, I have that free
cleaning checklist printable that I'm gonna put down below. As always, thank you so much
for stopping by and watching. I hope you are having a fantastic day, and I will see you all in my next video.
