When I used to live with my parents, we depended on them to care for all household issues. It never hit me until I was made responsible for my properties. This is where hourly calls to my mum and dad would start and I was forced to ask myself: “Why didn’t I know this before?”.

If you haven’t shared tasks and responsibilities in your parent’s house before, I am not expecting for you to know how to “boil an egg” or “separate colours for your laundry”. It is becoming more common in teens and new adults in our generation to not know the basic cleaning, fixing or even cooking skills.

I’m not blaming anybody. We all understand the pressure and hecticness of our busy lives. But not to worry. I have listed here 5 things you should clean on a frequent basis. Try to make them rituals in your daily schedule:

1. Bed Sheets

You must wash your bedsheets every week.

Best way to do this is to decide which day of the week you want to do this. I change mine on Sundays and wash them on a 60° or preferably 70° cycle, depending on the options you have on your washing machine.

If you don’t have a tumble drier, make sure that you have another spare of bed sheets. They might not dry completely by the time you go to bed, so having another set of sheets can guarantee you sleeping on sheets the night you wash the first ones!

2. Fridge and Freezer

Your refrigerator must be cleaned at least once every two weeks.

Big or small, wiping it at least with warm soapy water helps to eliminate funky smells and accumulating mould.

3. Surfaces and floors

Any surface in your house must be dusted, from coffee tables to baseboards. If you ventilate a lot and have more the 2 people living in the property, I would say twice a week. But in a not so perfect world, I can bypass for once a week.

Use a solution of 1 tablespoon of dish soap and 1 cup of water in a spray bottle, spray a little amount on a dry cloth, and wipe the surface area.

Any surface that is glass or mirror must have a different product, that can be Windex (that you buy from the supermarket) or a homemade solution of 1 part water and 1 part white vinegar with some drops of lemon essential oil (if you hate the smell of vinegar). Spray on a different dry cloth and wipe till the glass or mirror surface is smudge free.

Be careful though with technology items like TV screens. Just dust it with a dry cloth. Microfiber cloths do very well.

Concerning floors, you would typically have carpets or hard floors (tiles or wood). Cleaning them twice a week is ideal. Vacuum your carpets with a vacuum cleaner that has a strong bristle head attachment so that hairs and other stuff can get picked up. You can use a vacuum cleaner to vacuum hard floors as well, but make sure you use a head attachment without bristles to avoid scratching your floors. After your floors are dust and crumble-free, mop the surface with warm water with 1-2 drops of dish soap. Open your windows while doing that for the floors to dry.

4. Bathrooms

Since bathrooms are places we visit around 3-4 times a day, I know you will hate me for this, but doing them daily before you go to bed is ideal.

In my experience, giving the sink, bathtub and toilet a daily mild scrub will prevent you doing a major bathroom clean up every week.

Use a silicone sponge with water and dish soap for a quick scrub (don’t forget your toothbrush holder!). Make sure you use a different sponge for toilets. You don’t want to contaminate the whole bathroom! You can do a quick hoover to the floors too. In the weekend, you can use more sophisticated products and tools like bleach and wash the floors properly.

5. Clothes

My rule is: the more a piece of clothing is stuck on your body, the more frequent you should wash them. So, underwear should be changed daily, other items can wait for three days maximum, unless you sweated on it or it got stained, and then toss it into your laundry basket.

If you aren’t sure, use your nose! It can be an excellent judge in sniffing garments that need washing!

In conclusion, don’t neglect your home, dedicate at least 30 minutes to clean it and make a cleaning timetable that suits your busy agenda. Doing little chunks of cleaning every day will avoid accumulating dust and dirt so you won’t end of with a big spring-cleaning job!

Good luck!