Those with full time jobs - how do you keep your house clean?

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To all those who work full time - what are your tips and routines for keeping your house spick and span? I want my house to be “visitor ready” as we seem to get a lot of people popping round! I did a huge clean of the main rooms downstairs before Christmas and the house looked amazing, but I’m worried that now I’m back at work it’s going to slide back into the messy, cluttered state it was before...

Do it as you go along. Little and often is the answer. Put stuff away when you've finished with it. Wash up after every meal. Do the washing/ironing every few days instead of letting it build up. Run a cloth round the kitchen and bathroom every day. Wipe the oven after the meal whilst you're doing the washing up. Vacuum bits of the house regularly, i.e. downstairs on one day and then upstairs a few days later, and whenever anything is spilled to stop it being spread around. If you do something every day it never builds up to where you need to spend hours on it. I'd say I do about 15-30 minutes per day, every day, never anything more, and I never need to do a "deep clean" for visitors or special occasions, etc - it's "guest ready" all the time.