Listen, I get it. Between work, family, and day-to-day responsibilities, keeping your house clean is easier said than done. Especially if you have pets or tiny humans running around. But if you’re only able to consistently clean certain areas of your house, make sure it’s the right ones. Think of these daily cleaning tasks like a wellness check for your home. Because neglecting them not only leads to the need for a massive deep clean, but it can also be a breeding ground for bacteria and germs.

Clean these areas daily for a healthy home:

Sinks

Your sink sees a lot of use every day. All the washing up and rinsing off that goes on every day in your sinks means that your sink could be the dirtiest spot in your home. Your sink could be harboring more germs than your toilet. Even if they look clean, sinks can get really gross. Bacteria from food can contaminate the kitchen sink, especially if you’ve been handling raw meat. When water splashes back up onto your hands, they’re contaminated, too. And don’t forget about your bathroom sink, because we all know what goes on in there. To stay on the safe side, wipe down your sinks daily.

Countertops

When you think about the stuff you put on your countertops (car keys, mail, your purse) it’s impossible to ignore how dirty they are, so you should wipe down and disinfect them every day. Just make sure that if you’re using reusable wipes instead of disposable do not cross contaminate between areas. Each countertop space should have its own wipe to really get the job done.

Make beds

So this isn’t so much a cleaning task as it is a tidying task, but it makes such a difference. Your bed is the center of your room; the focal point. So it naturally follows that a messy bed has the power to make an entire room look messy. Because a bed typically takes up about 35 percent of the space in a room, making your bed instantly cleans up more than a third of your space and motivates you to keep the rest of the space clean as well.

Get everything “back to ready”

Again, this isn’t as much a cleaning task as it is a tidying one, but it makes such a difference. This might seem like an obvious tip, but failing to put away your belongings is the main culprit of untidiness. As you move from one room to another, do a quick scan to see if there’s anything that you can take with you. This is especially important in communal areas. Fluff pillows before you leave the room to go about your day, clean up any trash or drinking glasses that may be lingering and get the space “back to ready” in under a minute.

Dishes

It’s all too easy to let dirty dishes pile up in the sink, but skipping this daily chore can make your home smell, or worse, attract pests. If you have a dishwasher, committing to this daily task becomes much easier. Instead of waiting for dishes to reach critical mass before loading them into the dishwasher, skip the sink entirely and get in the habit of loading each cup, plate and utensil as you use it.

One load of laundry per day

Hear me out here. Depending on how many loads you typically do per week, you may not need to do this every day, but if you’re doing more than five loads of laundry a week, you may want to implement this task. Try to get in the habit of putting in one load of laundry first thing in the morning. Make sure you save some time somewhere in your day to complete the load — including putting it away.