Top 10 cleaning tips for anyone living alone – and why you should never worry about task perfectionism

Living on your own can be incredibly freeing. You don’t have anyone else to clean up after, after all. But this swings both ways – you also don't have anyone to clean up after you.

Balancing all your chores with free time and work or studying can be enough to make anyone feel overwhelmed, even with the very best cleaning tips and hacks at your disposal.

Luckily, professional cleaners have thought up some smart ways to help you clean without chores taking a big chunk out of your personal time, creating this realistic guide to cleaning when living on your own.

How to clean when living on your own

One of the most important things to remember when cleaning when living on your own is to never push yourself for perfection. This is a slippery slope that can lead to feeling overwhelmed when cleaning, making your job harder and your chores increasingly stressful.

Trish Duarte, cleaning expert and franchisee owner of Maidpro Temecula and Murrieta begins, ‘It’s okay not to have everything perfect. Striving for perfection can lead to unnecessary stress. Life brings dust, dirt, and pet hair; I embrace my perfectly imperfect home and self.

'However, it’s crucial to stay aware of germs, especially in food areas and trash zones that need more attention. Those with asthma and allergies may need to focus more on dust and dander. Customize your cleaning plan based on your home and health needs.’

With that in mind, here is how to break up the tasks to make solo cleaning more manageable.

1. Set a laundry schedule in your calendar

Whether you love or hate it, laundry needs to be done regularly. When you live on your own, however, the chances are that it doesn’t build up all that quickly. To ensure you always have a steady flow of clean clothing Trish Duarte, cleaning expert, suggests setting a schedule in your phone calendar to make doing laundry mindless.

She recommends, ‘General laundry gets tackled once a week on Saturdays, while special items like rugs and pillows have their own schedule – calendar reminders every six months for pillows and quarterly for rugs. Don’t forget to set reminders for cleaning your washing machine and dishwasher too; a monthly nudge keeps them running smoothly.’

2. Practice cleaning as you go

It can be hard to clean your house when you’re too busy, but cleaning as you go can be a simple solution, avoiding the need to set aside huge swathes of time to pick up after yourself.

Jade Piper, cleaning professional and operations manager at BetterCleans says, ‘Do you ever get that annoying voice in your head that says I should probably take out the trash soon, well, listen to it!

'No one knows procrastination better than I do, but I promise if you do that little task in that exact moment you remember it, later on you won’t have to worry about it. My rule of thumb is if it can be done in five minutes or less, it should be done right away. This avoids several ‘five-minute tasks’ piling up or becoming a bigger cleaning problem.’

3. Stick to quick clean-ups

Whether or not you should clean every day really comes down to your personal schedule, but Vanessa Terra Bossart, professional cleaner and owner of Green Terra Cleaning suggests that sticking to quick daily cleans could be the best way forward for people living alone.

‘Dedicate 10 minutes each day to tidying up high-traffic areas like the kitchen or living room. It prevents mess from piling up,’ she suggests. ‘It also helps to divide big jobs into smaller tasks. Instead of deep cleaning your entire home at once, try the ‘different day, different room’ housekeeping schedule. This makes it less overwhelming.’

4. Run the dishwasher nightly

If you have a dishwasher, set it up to run every night suggests Trish Duarte, cleaning expert. ‘Running the dishwasher at night once it’s full and unloading it in the morning is my routine. It’s always ready to load, ensuring no dishes linger in the sink.’

If you do not have a dishwasher, make washing dishes by hand an integral part of closing down the kitchen after dinner. This ensures your kitchen is clean and stress-free when you get up for breakfast in the morning.

Leaving dishes in your sink is one of the things people with tidy homes never do.

5. Use a digital list or app

One of the best tips I’ve learned from pro cleaners is that having a list works. There are no two ways about it – having a physical reminder of what you need to get done and crossing them off once complete is the best way to stay on top of everything. Not to mention it is satisfying.

Trish Duarte, cleaning expert, agrees, ‘There is a chore tracker app called Tidy that could be your new best friend and the perfect accountability partner. With customizable line items tailored to your needs, and starter suggestions to get you going, Tidy is the perfect companion for anyone looking to add a touch of triumph to their to-do list. Trust me, the satisfaction of checking off tasks is one of the many reasons our company swears by its 49-point checklist.'

6. Make cleaning ‘me time’

Cleaning isn’t the most relaxing task, but you can make it more mindful by incorporating small luxuries into your closing shift routines, says Prerna Jain, cleaning specialist and founder of Ministry of Cleaning.

‘Make it a ritual! I often recommend lighting a favorite candle, playing calming music, or even brewing a cup of tea to make the process feel like a soothing ritual rather than a dull task. By turning cleaning into a mindful, relaxing activity, you’ll find it much easier to keep up with chores, and it can even become something you look forward to.’

7. Forget about rooms you barely use

For Trish Duarte, cleaning expert, ‘Rooms that aren’t used much, like those left empty since my kids have grown and gone, get minimal focus – just occasional dusting, flushing the toilet, and running some water down the sinks weekly. Deep cleaning happens as needed, usually becoming part of my pre-guest cleaning checklist.’

This takes a lot of work out of your chore list to make your day-to-day home management simpler. Just remember to open windows and doors periodically to avoid musty smells setting in and keep an eye out for leaks, cracks, and damp.

8. Multitask

You should never underestimate the power of multitasking, helping you to clean and declutter as you go.

Prerna Jain, cleaning specialist, says, ‘In my own routine, I always look for those small windows of time to clean. Whether it’s while waiting for the kettle to boil or while brushing your teeth, you can wipe down the sink, organize the kitchen, or sweep the floor. I tell my clients that these micro-cleaning moments accumulate without you even realizing it, making larger cleaning sessions almost unnecessary.’

9. Designate a space for clutter

No matter how robust your decluttering checklist is, clutter and mess is inevitable. It is a fact of life. One way to stay on top of it when you live alone is to designate a collection zone for it all to make cleaning it up easier at the end of each day or week, says Jade Piper, a cleaning professional.

Having a drop zone is one of the ways you can break the stages of clutter and forge better processes to stop it accumulating in the future.

‘One thing about cleaning up is the visual clutter we sometimes accumulate can make the task seem more daunting. In each room, you should have a storage box, preferably see-through, with the name of the room on it. The size depends on where you’re keeping the box, but make sure it’s in sight.

‘In this box, you can place items that you’re not sure what to do with at that moment, but you don’t want to take up visual space. This could be anything from post-it notes, business cards, brochures to clean laundry, shoes, or items that need fixing. Then designate 15 minutes a day to go through and sort out the contents of the box.’

If you consistently find the same items in rooms they do not live in, consider relocating them and finding them a home in the room you use them to minimize how much you have to tidy away.

10. Consider hiring help

You don't have to do it all alone. If you simply do not have the time or energy for cleaning, or you simply hate it, consider hiring a cleaner.

Cleaning specialist Jade Piper says, 'If your budget allows, hire a cleaning service occasionally. Whether it’s a monthly deep clean or a one-time service, it can take a huge burden off your shoulders. Even a few hours of help every few months can make a noticeable difference, especially for larger tasks like scrubbing floors or deep cleaning carpets.’

A big part of cleaning when living on your own is time budgeting to help avoid cleaning when you feel overwhelmed. By breaking tasks down into these smaller chunks and avoiding the need for perfection you will quickly come to realize that cleaning isn't as daunting as you thought it would be when living on your own.