It's a common misconception that, in order to maintain a clean and tidy home, you need to spend hours upon hours each week doing household chores. In reality, there are several simple, less time-consuming ways to keep your home looking presentable. Read on to find out more.

Give the surfaces a wipe each time you use them

Dirt, grime, crumbs and spillages tend to accumulate gradually; so gradually in fact, that you may not even notice the mess building up until it begins to interfere with your ability to actually use these surfaces.

If you wait until your countertops, tables, bathroom sink and windowsills get this dirty, not only will it have a negative impact on the overall appearance of your home, but it will also take much longer to clean than if you had tackled the mess when it was still 'fresh'; some pasta sauce that's spilled onto the kitchen counter, for example, will be much tougher to get rid of after it has dried on. Similarly, excess toothpaste that's been left to dry on the bathroom sink will require quite a bit of elbow grease to remove.

As such, you can reduce the amount of time you spend scraping dried-on spillages off surfaces and keep your home in presentable condition simply by taking ten to twenty seconds to wipe down a surface immediately after you use it. Each time you make a sandwich, for instance, use a damp cloth to brush away the crumbs and any spilt mayonnaise or butter off the counter before you sit down to eat. When you're finished brushing your teeth, rinse out the sink with some water and use a cloth to wipe off any liquid that has splattered onto nearby surfaces.

Make sure you have enough storage around your home

One of the main reasons that homes end up covered in clutter is because the property lacks sufficient storage. For example, if you have children, and they don't have a specific area in their room in which to store their toys and books, these items will inevitably end up being left on the floor, the bed or in other rooms around the house. Likewise, if you don't have enough space to store all of your clothing and footwear, you'll find yourself leaving garments hanging on the backs of chairs and shoes strewn around your bedroom floor.

As such, it's worth investing in a few key storage items for each room of your home. For your children's bedroom, you could purchase some shelving, along with a few baskets, each of which is designated for a specific category of items (such as shoes, books, stuffed toys, etc.). For your own bedroom, you might want to buy a hanging shoe storage organiser, which can be hung on the inside of the wardrobe door, as well as some under-bed storage boxes, so that you can prevent larger garments, like thick winter scarves and coats, from taking up valuable space in your wardrobe and chest of drawers.

Hire a professional to handle the tougher cleaning tasks

There's no getting around it; deep cleaning your home requires quite a bit of time and effort. This is why, if you want to maintain a particularly high level of cleanliness in your home (without devoting your entire life to activities like scrubbing, washing, mopping and dusting), it might be a good idea to pay a cleaner to handle the more time-consuming and physically demanding tasks around your property.

Take the bathroom, for instance; whilst it only takes a few minutes to pour some bleach into the toilet and give the sink a quick wipe with a cleaning cloth, it can take at least an hour, if not more, to remove grime and mildew from the grouting in between the tiled walls and floors. These substances tend to become embedded into the grouting over time, often to such an extent that standard household cleaners are ineffective at removing them. Grout cleaning usually requires some heavy-duty cleaning products and excellent attention to detail, both of which a professional cleaner will have in spades.