The cleaners left on Tuesday: how to keep the house that way until next time

A few minutes a day does most of the work

The way to keep a house clean between professional cleanings is to stop the three things that build up fastest: crumbs and grease in the kitchen, water and soap in the bathrooms, and dirt and hair on the floors. Wipe the stovetop and counters after cooking, squeegee or wipe the shower after the last use of the day, keep a doormat at every entrance and run a quick vacuum over high-traffic areas once between visits. Those habits take a few minutes a day, and they are the difference between a home that feels clean all week and one that is back to square one by the weekend.

I own Texas Kings Cleaning Services in Garland, and I clean homes on weekly, every-two-weeks and monthly schedules. In my experience, how clean a home feels during the week depends as much on a few habits between visits as on the visits themselves. Here are the habits I would share with any client.

The daily five

If you only adopt five habits, make it these. Each one targets a kind of buildup that gets harder to remove the longer it sits, and together they keep the house close to how it looked when the cleaner left.

None of these is deep cleaning. They are about interrupting buildup before it sets, so the next professional visit can spend its time on detail work instead of catching up.

If five feels like too many at first, start with the stovetop and the shower. They are the two places where a few seconds today save the most scrubbing later.

• Wipe the stovetop and counters after the last meal of the day
• Run the dishwasher at night and empty it in the morning
• Squeegee or wipe the shower walls and glass after the last shower
• Put things back where they live before bed, ten minutes at most
• Take out kitchen trash when it is full, not when it overflows

Kitchen habits that stop grease and crumbs

The kitchen gets dirty fastest because cooking sends grease into the air and crumbs to the floor. A grease film that is wiped the same day comes off with a damp cloth and a little dish soap. Left for a few weeks, the same film turns tacky and needs a degreaser and real effort. Use the range hood fan when you cook, and wipe the backsplash behind the stove at least once between visits.

Crumbs matter for more than appearance. A quick sweep or vacuum of the kitchen floor a couple of times a week, plus wiping under the toaster and along the edge of the stove, removes what ants and roaches go looking for. Clear the refrigerator of old food before it becomes a smell, and rinse the sink and wipe the faucet at night so mineral spots do not build up around the base.

One more kitchen habit pays off quickly: put things away the first time you touch them. Mail, groceries, school papers and lunch boxes that land on the counter turn into a pile that nobody wipes around. A clear counter is easier to wipe, and it looks clean even on the days it is not.

Bathroom habits that stop scale and soap scum

Bathrooms build up from water, soap and minerals. A shower that is squeegeed after the last use of the day stays clear for weeks; one that is not develops cloudy glass and a dull film on the walls. A small squeegee hung in the shower costs little and saves more work than any product I know.

Keep the exhaust fan running during showers and for a while after, so moisture leaves the room instead of settling on mirrors, grout and ceiling. Wipe the sink and faucet with a cloth when you are done getting ready. Keep a toilet brush by each toilet and use it between visits. Hang towels to dry fully, and wash bath mats regularly; damp textiles are where bathroom odors start.

Floors, entries and pets

Most of the dirt on your floors walked in from outside. A good mat outside and inside each door catches a surprising amount of it, and a no-shoes habit, or at least a shoes-off area by the door, catches more. In the Dallas area, dry spells mean dust and wet spells mean mud, and either one comes straight into the house on shoes and paws.

Pets add hair and dander that settle along baseboards and under furniture. Brushing a shedding dog outside, washing pet bedding regularly and running a quick vacuum over the rooms where pets spend time, once or twice between visits, keeps it under control. Wipe paws at the door after a muddy walk. A pet bowl area that is wiped daily keeps the kitchen floor from getting sticky.

A weekly half hour if your visits are two or more weeks apart

If a cleaner comes every two weeks or monthly, a short weekly routine in the off weeks keeps the house from drifting. It does not need to be thorough. The goal is to catch the high-traffic, high-touch places, which the CDC recommends cleaning regularly, and leave the details for the professional visit.

Choose a fixed time, such as Sunday afternoon, and keep it short. A timer helps; most of this list fits in half an hour once it becomes a habit.

• Wipe light switches, doorknobs and handles in the main rooms
• Clean toilets, sinks and mirrors in the bathrooms you use most
• Vacuum the kitchen, entries and main living area
• Wipe the microwave inside and the refrigerator handles
• Change bed linens and bath towels
• Empty all trash cans and wipe the kitchen bin's lid

Keeping the right supplies, safely

You do not need a closet full of products. A gentle all-purpose cleaner, dish soap, a glass cleaner, a bathroom cleaner suited to your surfaces, microfiber cloths and a squeegee handle most of the daily work. If you prefer products chosen with safer ingredients in mind, look for the EPA's Safer Choice label, which means a product met EPA criteria for its ingredients and performance; there is also a fragrance-free version of the label.

Read the label on anything you use, keep lids closed and store products out of reach of children, as the EPA advises, and never mix two products together. Disinfecting is not usually needed every day; the CDC says it is generally needed at home when someone is sick or at higher risk of getting sick. I cover the most common product mistakes in cleaning and disinfecting mistakes that undo the work.

Getting the house ready before each visit

The single habit that gets you the most from a professional cleaning is picking up before the cleaner arrives. A cleaner can only clean what they can reach. Time spent moving clothes, toys, mail and dishes is time not spent on baseboards, shower glass and the inside of the microwave.

A short reset the night before, ten or fifteen minutes, makes a visible difference in what the next visit can achieve.

If something has changed since the last visit, such as a spill on the carpet, a guest room that was used or a new pet, mention it. A cleaner who knows about it can plan the time, rather than finding out halfway through the visit.

• Clear counters, tables and nightstands of loose items
• Pick up clothes, shoes and toys from the floors
• Load or run the dishwasher so the sink is empty
• Put away jewelry, cash, medications and fragile items
• Leave a note about anything that needs extra attention
• Secure pets in a room or arrange for them to be out

When the routine stops keeping up

Sometimes even good habits are not enough. A new baby, a new dog, a long season of guests or a busy stretch at work can push a home past what the current schedule maintains. If the house feels dirty a few days after each visit, it may be time to change the frequency; I compare the options in weekly, every two weeks or monthly cleaning.

If the details, such as baseboards, vents, fans and shower glass, have slipped even with regular visits, the home may need a deep clean to reset before regular cleaning can keep it there. The signs are in how to tell if a house needs a deep cleaning.

Talk to your cleaner when that happens rather than quietly putting up with it. Often a small change fixes it: moving bathrooms to every visit when they were on rotation, adding a quick mid-cycle visit during a busy season, or rotating a different set of detail tasks so the rooms that frustrate you get more attention.

Building a plan that fits your household

I build schedules around each household rather than a fixed package, and part of that is agreeing on what the visit covers and what the family handles in between. When you reach out, tell me the size of the home, the number of bathrooms, pets, the schedule you have in mind and which parts of the house frustrate you most. I will tell you how often I think the home needs cleaning and which detail tasks to rotate through each visit.

I serve Garland, Mesquite, Richardson, Rowlett and the Dallas area, and I am the person you talk to about the plan. My company guarantees the quality of its work, and if your household changes, the schedule changes with it.

Questions people ask me