With so much fun to be had this season, the last thing anyone wants to do is stay inside and clean their house.

But with these handy housekeeping ideas, you can maintain a neat home while still savoring the pleasures of summer.

Enjoy the summertime

When the warm weather beckons you outside, heed its call—the less time you spend indoors, the fewer opportunities you’ll have to create a mess. For instance, you can cook dinner on the grill to keep your stove clean and prevent grease and cooking smells from entering your home, then dine alfresco on your deck or patio so you won’t dirty your dining table. Just be sure to scrub your grill grates with a long-handled brush shortly after you’re done grilling; if you do so while they’re still a bit warm, any food or grease that’s been cooked on should come off easily.

Make a mudroom area

In summer, it’s easy to track the outdoors inside, whether it’s sand from the beach or dirt from your garden. To help maintain a tidy house, create a mudroom spot by one of your home’s main exits, where you, family members, and guests can pause to remove debris and deposit items that may be dirty. Lay down a welcome mat on either side of the door for wiping shoes, install hooks on a wall for hanging raincoats, and add a bench with a spot underneath for storing footwear. You could also instigate a no-shoes policy to help avert some messes; consider keeping clean slippers designated for inside use in your mudroom area that people can swap their dirty shoes for upon entering your home.

Simplify laundry

Cleaning your clothes can be time-consuming, but you can lighten your load by employing a variety of tactics. For instance, using a divided hamper for lights and darks will allow you to avoid having to sort them later, while giving family members their own mesh bags for their socks should better prevent pairs from getting separated, necessitating an exhausting search. Wash big loads of laundry so you can do fewer of them in total, being careful not to fill your machine’s tub more three-quarters full to help ensure that your clothes can get fully clean. You can also use your washer’s and dryer’s “delay start” functions, if they have them, to set their cycles to begin and finish when it’s most convenient for you. Finally, to avoid wrinkles (and thus the need to iron), fold, hang, or roll clothing as soon as it comes out of the dryer.

Dust effectively

While there may be no way to cut back on how often you have to dust, there are many strategies you can use to make the chore itself more efficient. For one, always declutter your home’s surfaces first so you can wipe them in one go and make sure to get every inch. Also, the way you dust matters—do so incorrectly, and you’ll end up simply spreading the dust around. Use a damp rag or a microfiber cloth, which should be able to trap more dust, and make sure to work from the top down, tackling higher surfaces before lower ones. And always get this job done before vacuuming or sweeping so you can remove any dust that falls to the floor.

Contain clutter

Incorporating baskets, bins, and other storage containers can make a world of difference for your home’s neatness. For instance, place a basket by your main door to hold your mail and one on the floor in your living room to hide books and magazines. In addition, adding decorative storage bins to other rooms can help you manage stray items to put away later.

Multitask

You don’t have to devote a whole day, or even a large portion of one, to cleaning. Be clever with how you use your time—perhaps clear your kitchen counters while a meal is simmering on the stove or open mail during your favorite TV show. If you can devote just a few spare minutes daily to straightening up, your home will be tidier as a result.

Take charge

Ultimately, the most efficient way to keep your house clean is to stay on top of messes and prevent little ones from building up. For example, every time you finish in the shower, give its surfaces a quick spray with a cleaning agent followed by a rinse so soap scum will be less likely to accumulate. Similarly, immediately wipe up any household spills, such as on your countertops or in your microwave, before they solidify and become harder to remove. Also, it’s not cheating to have a robotic vacuum go over your floors a few minutes a day for you; this will help keep them spotless without you having to put in much effort.

Schedule it

With so many different areas to stay on top of in your home, it can be easy for a household chore to slip your mind. To better remember every cleaning task, consider creating a checklist for what and when you need to straighten up. You could make it a simple to-do list or plan out everything on a weekly calendar—use the printable below to get started!

Without just a few simple strategies, you can tackle essential household chores in a jiff and keep your home sparkling this summer and beyond.