You know, I never thought I'd be the guy writing about cleaning routines. I mean, back when my apartment looked like a tech showroom explosion, I had a cleaning lady come twice a month because I couldn't keep up with all the stuff I owned. But here's the thing – when you have less crap, cleaning becomes… well, actually doable.
Let me tell you what happened. Three years ago, I was spending entire weekends trying to organize and clean around mountains of gadgets, furniture, and random stuff I'd accumulated. It was exhausting. Now? I can clean my entire apartment in maybe 45 minutes, and it stays that way. The difference isn't that I became some cleaning guru – it's that I finally figured out what actually matters.
First thing I learned – and this sounds obvious but took me forever to get – you need to know what you're trying to accomplish. Are you trying to spend less time cleaning each week? Want your place to feel more peaceful? Trying to impress someone who's coming over? I started by asking myself what was driving me crazy about my living situation. For me, it was the constant feeling that my apartment was chaos, plus the fact that I was always losing things in the clutter.
I broke this down into smaller goals that didn't feel overwhelming. Like, instead of "declutter entire apartment" (which sounds horrible), I'd pick one area – maybe just my desk or the kitchen counter – and focus on that for a week. Way less intimidating, and you actually see progress instead of getting discouraged.
The whole decluttering thing was honestly the hardest part. I'm not gonna lie – I got rid of stuff I sometimes wish I'd kept. There's this expensive coffee grinder I sold that I occasionally miss, but honestly, most of the time I don't even remember what I got rid of. That's telling, right?
What helped was being really honest about what I actually used versus what I thought I might use someday. That bread maker I bought during lockdown? Used it exactly twice. The fancy kitchen gadgets my mom gave me? Took up an entire cabinet and I maybe touched them once a year. It's wild how much stuff you can accumulate that serves no real purpose in your daily life.
I started dividing my space into zones – kitchen, bedroom, living area, bathroom – and tackling one at a time. For each zone, I'd set specific goals. Kitchen goal was simple: I wanted to be able to see my counters and find what I needed without digging through drawers full of random utensils. Bedroom goal was to be able to walk around without stepping over piles of clothes or books.
The hardest part wasn't deciding what to keep – it was letting go of the "but I might need this someday" mentality that had me keeping boxes of old cables and electronics manuals from 2015. Spoiler alert: I never needed any of that stuff.
Once I cleared out the excess, the daily maintenance became so much easier. I developed these little habits that don't take much time but keep everything from sliding back into chaos. Every morning, I make my bed – takes like two minutes and makes the whole room look put-together. My coworkers would probably laugh at me for thinking this is some big accomplishment, but there's something satisfying about starting the day with at least one thing organized.
Mail was another thing that used to drive me nuts. I'd let it pile up on my kitchen counter until it became this tower of bills, junk mail, and random stuff. Now I deal with it immediately when I walk in. Junk mail goes straight into recycling, bills go in a specific spot where I'll actually see them, and anything important gets handled right away. Takes maybe 30 seconds but prevents those overwhelming piles.
The kitchen thing was huge for me. I used to leave dishes in the sink "just for tonight" and then wake up to a disaster that would take forever to clean. Now I wash stuff right after eating, or at least rinse it and stick it in the dishwasher. Sounds basic, but it completely changed how my apartment feels. Coming home to a clean kitchen instead of a mess makes such a difference.
Before bed, I spend about ten minutes doing a quick reset – putting the remote back where it goes, folding the throw blanket, clearing off surfaces. It's not deep cleaning, just returning things to their designated spots. When you don't have tons of stuff everywhere, this actually works.
The cleaning supplies thing was another revelation. I used to have an entire cabinet full of specialized cleaners – one for glass, one for wood, one for stainless steel, bathroom cleaner, kitchen cleaner, you name it. Half of them were probably expired. Now I have maybe four things: all-purpose cleaner that works on most surfaces, disinfectant for bathroom and kitchen, glass cleaner, and a bunch of microfiber cloths that replaced all my paper towels.
Turns out you really don't need 15 different cleaning products. The all-purpose stuff handles probably 80% of what I need to clean, and the microfiber cloths are way better than paper towels for almost everything. Saves money, saves cabinet space, and I'm not constantly running out of the specific cleaner I need.
I also switched to more concentrated, eco-friendly stuff partly because it takes up less space and partly because I got tired of storing huge plastic bottles of chemicals. The concentrated versions last longer and feel less wasteful, plus my apartment doesn't smell like a chemical factory after I clean.
Living with less furniture made cleaning so much faster too. When you can actually see your floor and don't have to clean around tons of decorative objects, vacuuming takes like five minutes instead of half an hour. I kept furniture that does double duty – my coffee table has storage inside, my bed frame has drawers underneath. Everything has to earn its place by being actually useful.
I stuck with neutral colors for most things, which sounds boring but actually makes the space feel bigger and brighter. White, gray, black, some wood tones – it all works together and I don't have to think about whether things match. Plus, neutral stuff hides dust better than dark furniture, which is a nice bonus.
The weird part is how much mental space this freed up. I used to spend so much time thinking about organizing, shopping for storage solutions, feeling stressed about the mess. Now my apartment just… stays clean. It's not perfect, but it's functional and peaceful, and maintaining it doesn't feel like this huge burden.
My coworkers still think I'm weird for living with so little stuff, but honestly, I can't imagine going back to how things were before. When everything has a designated place and you're not constantly fighting clutter, cleaning becomes this quick, almost automatic thing instead of this dreaded weekend project.
The best part is having people over without panicking about the mess. My place might be minimal, but it's always presentable, and that's worth way more to me than having rooms full of stuff I barely use.
Lawrence’s a San Francisco software engineer who traded constant upgrades for intentional living. He writes about resisting gadget overload, curating only what adds value, and finding clarity in a world built on consumption
