5 min readWe all want our homes to be as clean as possible, but staying on top of household chores isn't always easy. Whether you've let tasks pile up, recently moved into a new home, or simply aren't sure how often certain things need cleaning, knowing where to start can feel overwhelming. To help, we asked professional cleaners and organizers to share their best weekly cleaning tips. These simple habits will make it easier to maintain a tidy, organized home.
Keep reading for 10 expert-approved tips that will leave your space feeling fresher and are easy to incorporate into your routine. Tackling these tasks each week will also make those bigger deep-cleaning days much more manageable.
Wipe Down Your Front Door
Yes, you read that correctly: You should be wiping down your front door weekly, according to the founder of The Feng Shui Edit, Dee Oujiri. “In Feng Shui, the front door is considered the ‘mouth of chi,’ where energy enters your home,” Oujiri says. “Wipe down the door each week, including the handle and threshold, using a cleaner appropriate for its finish.”
Doing this removes the dust and everyday buildup, but it also allows you to set a new weekly intention as you do so. Release the accumulated energy and welcome something new into your space.
Clean Up Your Chair Pile
While many of us have junk closets and junk drawers, something we should talk more about is the dreaded “junk chair.”
Along with your other weekly chores, Dana Reder, founder of luxury organization company Winnow & Bloom, says to clean up the pile of stuff that’s accumulated on your designated junk chair. It’s typically laundry that gets put here, so once a week, she says to “separate out what needs to be washed, and replace (hang or fold and put away) all clean items that can be re-worn.”
Change Out Your Bed Linens
This one shouldn’t be surprising, but it’s important: Make sure to change your sheets at least once a week. As cofounder and head of design at Levtex Home, Joanne Levin, points out, “We spend roughly a third of our lives in bed, and over the course of a week, sheets collect body oils, sweat, and dead skin.”
Even if your sheets still feel clean or at least don’t smell, it doesn’t mean they’re not dirty. Plus, fresh sheets after a long day will always make you feel better.
Spray Down the Kitchen Sink
The kitchen sink can quickly become a source of odor and gross food residue buildup if it’s not cleaned enough, which is why Chris Castlebury of Two Flags CP Cleaning Co. suggests cleaning “the sink basin, drain area, faucet handles, sponge holder, and the counter around the sink” every week.
Even if it looks shiny and clean, it at least deserves a weekly scrub to ensure it stays that way. Your drains will thank you.
Refresh Your Kitchen Sponge
Did you know you should be cleaning your sponge? “This is the one most people forget, and it's the dirtiest tool in the house because it stays damp and grabs food bits all week,” Julian Silva, founder of Plastno, says. “Give it a weekly refresh in the dishwasher or a quick one- to two-minute boil, and replace it every couple months once it stops rinsing clean.” He suggests replacing it with a long-lasting plant-based loofah or cellulose sponge to reduce the microplastics that a regular sponge sheds into your sink.
Sofia Martinez, cleaning expert and owner of Sparkly Maid Austin, doesn’t want you to forget about the other things surrounding your sink. Dish soap, scrubbers, dish drying mats, sponge caddies—all of these things hang out near dirty dishes and receive dirty dish water splatter, so they should be cleaned weekly too. “Make sure they're completely dry before putting them away,” she adds. “Setting them back into their equally grimy and damp holder would be a step forward and two steps back.”
Wipe Down All High-Touch Surfaces
Cabinet handles, light switches, countertops, faucet levers, doorknobs: These are all things within the home that get touched constantly and can quickly pick up grease and grime.
“Spray a multisurface cleaner, let it sit a few seconds, then wipe with a reusable cloth,” suggests Silva. Keeping these often-touched places clean will make your home feel more put together for you, your family, and your houseguests.
Swap Out Your Bath Towels
“Towels are easy to overlook because we use them when we're already clean, but they spend a lot of time damp, which makes regular washing particularly important,” explains Levin. They should be washed at least once a week, though it should be done more frequently if they’re not fully drying between uses.
Towel bars are better for this, as they have enough room to be completely open rather than folded slightly when hanging on a hook.
Give Your Fridge Shelves a Once-Over
It’s unrealistic to expect a full fridge deep-clean every week, but taking a few minutes to throw out anything old before you go grocery shopping will keep your fridge cleaner for longer. Don’t hesitate to wipe up any spills or leaks on the shelves and inside drawers too.
“Doing a little every week prevents sticky spills and forgotten food from becoming a much bigger, and considerably less pleasant, job later,” says Levin.
Vacuum Underneath Your Furniture
Even if you have a robot vacuum that runs on its own schedule, an additional manual vacuum once a week is good for those hard-to-reach places, like underneath your furniture, corners, and right along the walls. Martinez says to pay special attention to the areas around nightstands, beds, desks, and dressers where they sit along the wall.
“Dust collects there unnoticed until someone walks through the area and kicks it up, or it gets pushed against the wall,” she adds. A special crevice tool can give you better control over cleaning these spots.
Clean Your Bathroom
Your bathroom as a whole could use a weekly wipe-down, says Cathy Teague, the lifestyle and home experience advisor for KB Home. She says to first focus on the high-touch areas, like the sink and door handles. Then wipe down the mirror and scrub the toilet, shower floors, and the glass door and/or walls.
“Replace used towels and restock essentials like toilet paper, hand soap, and tissues, and clean your bath mats weekly to make the space feel fresh,” she adds. “You and your guests should be able to walk into the bathroom and immediately feel like it’s clean, comfortable, and cared for.”
