8 Holiday Cleaning Tips to Keep Your Home Spotless This Christmas

When your Christmas to-do list is already nearing a mile long and you haven’t even added cleaning your house onto the list… it’s tempting to want to run and hide from all the responsibilities that fall on your plate.

Isn’t this time of year supposed to be fun, relaxing, and filled with joyful family time?

So why are YOU stuck with all the responsibilities? All the stress of getting the house prepped and ready for company? What if you don’t even like cleaning and now you’re stuck having to clean the entire house from top to bottom before Christmas comes around?

If that’s you, I’ve got your back. Here’s a list of 8 holiday cleaning tips that will help even the worst homemakers create a beautifully clean and organized house FAST (so that you can get back to doing all the Christmas activities that you actually enjoy doing).

While Christmastime is busy enough with preparing for the holiday and preparing your house for all the guests that are coming, it’s also known for bringing unwelcomed sicknesses into your home and family – and when you’re busy getting everything ready for Christmas, lying sick on the couch just isn’t an option.

So, to help eliminate the spread of germs and (hopefully) keep sickness out of your house this year, be sure everyone in your family is extra diligent with washing their hands and wiping down doorknobs and lightswitches daily (as if you needed more to add to your plate. I know, it’s not ideal, but it’s a whole lot better than having a sick family over Christmas).

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On with the holiday cleaning tips

Now that we have all that stuff out of the way, let’s get on to the 8 easy holiday cleaning tips I promised you!

Before we start I just want to put it out there that I am someone who LOVES to work off of a schedule. I love to have a physical timeframe that I have to get certain tasks completed in. It helps me stay focused and get more done throughout the day, but I realized that not everyone is like that.

Other people (you, perhaps) prefer to work on things throughout the course of the day with no real schedule; they just get their tasks done when they get time.

And if that’s you, then great! Keep doing what you’re doing if it’s working for you. But, if what you’ve been doing hasn’t been working and you find you never get everything done that needs to get done and you feel stressed because your plate is just TOO FULL, then it might be time to try something new.

Start with a list.

(While you could just use a blank piece of paper from your house and write down your to do list on there, I always find that I work better when I have an “official” to do list to keep me on track. If you like structure, this one is my favorite one. However, if you prefer to work with a list that isn’t as specific, this one will work fine.)

8 HOLIDAY CLEANING TIPS to keep your house spotless this Christmas season

1. CREATE A CLEANING SCHEDULE

My fellow list lovers, you’ll be all for this step.

Non-list lovers, you’re probably thinking something along the lines of, “yeah, right. I’ll just do all this without a list.“

If you are completely set against using a list, then go ahead and do all this without one – but I do want to challenge you to try to use a list and a schedule, at least when you’re starting out.

Making a list is a quick and painless task that will help you in the long run since, especially during this time of the year, your brain is likely already going at a 100 miles an hour, and you simply don’t have room to remember anything else.

Using a holiday cleaning schedule will help you to focus on one task at a time and work your way through all your to-dos as quickly as possible.

**If creating a schedule overwhelms you, you can use this pre-made schedule.

2. USE THE RIGHT SUPPLIES

Now that you’ve made your cleaning schedule and you have a good idea of everything that needs to be cleaned before guests arrive, it’s finally time to get to work.

First, grab a cleaning caddy (or just use an old ice cream pail) then place all the cleaning supplies you need in the caddy. This helps you have everything you need with you everywhere that you are. Rather than having to run around your house looking for specific cleaning supplies, you can keep everything organized and together in the caddy.

Here are a few things you’ll want in your cleaning caddy:

Microfiber cloths (I actually use these specific cloths, and they do an INCREDIBLE job of cleaning – I don’t even have to use cleaner with them – but they are on the pricier side of things, so if you don’t have room in your budget for these cloths, your normal microfiber cloths will work just fine.)
All-purpose cleaner (I use a homemade cleaning solution of this mixed with water in a spray bottle.)
Cleaning gloves
Bathtub sponge
Blind duster
Any other cleaning supplies you use

* The reason why you want to use microfiber cloths while cleaning is because they don’t leave behind any dust-attracting residue on the surfaces you wipe (other cloths do), so you are able to dust less often. (If the idea of dusting less often has you jumping up and down with excitement and you’re wondering how you can get your hands on these magic cloths, you can grab them right here.)

After you have collected everything you need to clean your house (besides the big things like the vacuum, broom, and mop), you’re ready to get cleaning.

3. BE A DELEGATOR

Rather than tackling this big chore of cleaning for the holidays all on your own, split the chores up and give each member of the family a group of chores to complete.

Even some of the littlest members of your family will be able to help out with chores, and you can use this to help everyone keep track of their own responsibilities.

Use a chore chart to state which member of the family is responsible for each particular task. This will help everyone get their chores done without having to come to you every 5 minutes to ask what else they need to do. Instead, they can look at their chore board and move on to the next task all on their own.

To make it even simpler, either use ONE chore chart and put it somewhere centrally located where everyone can see it (like the fridge or hanging on a wall), or you can grab a chore chart for each member of your family so everyone can keep their chart with them at all times.

(If your kids tend to drag their feet and/or take 30 minutes to do a chore that should only take 5 minutes, have a small prize for whoever does the most chores – and does them well.)

Some families like to have a chore chart for each week that states the chores and tasks that each child is responsible for daily and weekly, and if you already have these chore charts in your house then you can simply use those ones for this holiday cleaning list.

4. THROW IN A LOAD OF LAUNDRY

Laundry is where everything falls apart. You could have all the cleaning tasks divvied up between the members of the family, but if you don’t have your laundry accounted for, your house won’t be fully cleaned yet.

Laundry is that one task that tends to get ~~forgotten about~~ put off until the pile of dirty clothes and lines is so big that this chore just went from a couple loads of laundry to an entire day doing laundry.

And nothing BUT laundry.

Brutal.

Stay on top of your laundry pile(s) by adding this chore to your family’s chore charts.

5. DECLUTTER BEFORE YOU CLEAN

Have you ever made the mistake of trying to clean a cluttered house? Trying to work around clutter distracts you and makes your task take twice as long as it should take, and that’s why you want to declutter your house BEFORE you start cleaning it. (Otherwise you’re just wasting your time, and since finding time for anything is very few and far between these days, wasting it just isn’t an option.)

While you don’t need to spend days and weeks decluttering your house – because if we’re being honest, you probably don’t have that much time – you should dedicate one day (or, at the very least, a couple hours out of one day) to getting rid of trash and unnecessary clutter.

Getting rid of clutter won’t only make cleaning your house easier, but it will make your house look a hundred times more organized and welcoming.

Don’t know how to start decluttering? Use these free guides:

6. CLEAN BEFORE YOU DECORATE

One thing you’ll want to be absolutely sure of is that you clean your house BEFORE you put up any Christmas decorations. Now that you’ve got your house decluttered, you’re set to start cleaning, and knowing that you need to clean before you decorate (or else you’ll have to spend a LOT more time cleaning than necessary), will be a good motivator to get you to start cleaning, since Christmas decorations are just SO cute. (This is one of my Christmas decoration must-haves. A house isn’t Christmas-ready until it has that decoration set up.)

If you’ve already got a head-start and have your Christmas decorations set up, cleaning your house will be a bit trickier and a bit more time-consuming, but that’s no excuse not to clean. However, if you haven’t set your decorations up just yet but you’re tempted to…

WAIT until you’ve cleaned your house.

When you clean before you decorate your house, you only have to work around the home decor and various items that you have set up in your house on a regular basis. However, if you decide to decorate first, then clean, you’ll have to work around many different items and objects, which will make the whole cleaning process take a lot more time than it needs to.

If you already decorated your house and now you’re wondering how to clean it, not to worry – it will take a bit more time than normal (make a mental note for next year), but it’s not impossible. You can use the deep cleaning schedule below to whip through cleaning your house as quickly as possible.

7. GET READY FOR GUESTS

If you’re hosting Christmas at your house, cleaning and decorating your house is more important than ever; but even if you aren’t hosting Christmas, there’s a good chance that you’ll have guests stopping by for a visit at some point over the next few weeks, so now is a good time to start getting your house (and yourself) ready for guests.

Here are a few different things you can do to ensure your house is ready for all those Christmas guests:

Put extra toilet paper in each bathroom
Put extra towels out
Make the guest bed(s)
Put a glass of water next to the guest bed
Light some candles (or for a safer option, turn on an essential oil diffuser)

8. LIGHT SOME CANDLES

Lighting candles (or using an essential oil diffuser) will help make your home smell cozy, welcoming, and will leave your guests wondering how you manage to keep your house smelling so good. (They don’t need to know that all you’re doing is lighting some candles in each room.)

But, don’t use just any candles… be sure you use THIS specific candle. That’s the one that will leave your guests wandering around your house trying to find that awesome smell. Seriously.

Have you ever walked into someone’s house that smells like a spa? It’s a smell that makes you never want to leave, because it’s just so heavenly.

I love walking into a home that has so obviously had cozy scented candles lit. It helps people feel at home and welcomed.

If you’re not so much of a candle person, you could do the same thing with an essential oil diffuser.

Set the diffuser up in a common area and add your favorite Christmas scents to the diffuser and let it fill your house up with a wonderful aroma.

Use this list of holiday cleaning tips to help you quickly clean your house before your guests start arriving.

Even though cleaning might be the last thing on your mind right now, it should be done before it gets too close to the holidays.

The closer to the holidays that you get, the busier you get so you will be thanking yourself if you get all your cleaning down with plenty of time to spare.

What are some holiday cleaning tips that you do every year?