70 Cleaning Quotes To Make This Task a Little More Enjoyable

By Danielle Dahl | Published September 26, 2022

“House cleaning is the most enjoyable thing ever,” said almost no one!

However, as you can see from these cleaning quotes, there seem to be some people who truly enjoy it, like professional organizer Marie Kondo.

Of course, some of the more funny and disparaging quotes will resonate with a lot of us.

Especially those of us with children!

I ask how the house gets so messy, so fast all the time.

These cleaning quotes will also make some perfect Instagram captions, whether you are taking a photo of you swamped in the mess or the rare few moments when the house is spotless after being cleaned.

Just why is cleaning so important?

Not fun, mind you, but necessary?

Keep reading to find out some surprising benefits of keeping your space neat and orderly.

You might also take a moment to laugh at some of the funny cleaning quotes (my favorite is about needing a ride on vacuum!).

Don’t forget to also check out these Marie Kondo quotes on organization and life.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

Check out our entire collection of motivational quotes here.

Cleaning quotes for Instagram

1. “Cleaning is just putting stuff in less obvious places.” — Unknown

You will also enjoy our article on Matthew McConaughey quotes.

2. “You don’t get anything clean without getting something else dirty.” — Cecil Baxter

3. “Sweeping only moves the dust somewhere else.” — Marty Rubin

4. “At worst, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.” — Rose Macaulay

5. “Nothing inspires cleanliness more than an unexpected guest.” — Radhika Mundra

6. “My idea of a superwoman is someone who scrubs her own floors.” — Bette Midler

7. “The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.” — Agatha Christie

8. “A bright person can always think of something better to do than housework.” — Ruby Lou Barnhill

9. “There is no daily chore so trivial that it cannot be made important by skipping it two days running.” — Robert Brault

10. “I am never five minutes into stripping the clutter from my life before I start running into the clutter that is my life.” — Robert Brault

You will also enjoy our article on home quotes.

Funny cleaning quotes

11. “My love of cleaning is symbolic of my desire to rule the world.” — Kristan Higgins

12. “Housework can’t kill you, but why take a chance?” — Phyllis Diller

13. “We should get a Roomba for our Roomba. I feel bad for it because it works tirelessly, and at night I can hear it cleaning, and I just feel bad for it.” — Ryan Gosling

14. “The day I worry about cleaning my house is the day Sears comes out with a riding vacuum cleaner.” — Roseanne Barr

15. “Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.” — Phyllis Diller

16. “If your house is really a mess, and a stranger comes to the door, greet him with, ‘Who could have done this? We have no enemies.’” — Phyllis Diller

17. “My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.” — Erma Bombeck

18. “Why can’t the house clean itself? It seems to get dirty by itself.” — Unknown

19. “I always clean before the cleaning lady comes. If not, when I come home, I can’t find anything. Cleaning ladies are always hiding things you leave out.” — Celia Cruz

20. “Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture.” — Mario Buatta

If you enjoy this article, check out our collection of clean house quotes that motivate you to clean your house.

Cleaning quotes for cleaning lovers

21. “I look forward to spring cleaning and putting things in their place. It’s therapeutic for me.” — Kimora Lee Simmons

22. “I go into a very happy state of mind when I’m vacuuming.” — Joyce Carol Oates

23. “It’s weird, I know, but I find cleaning cathartic.” — Rachel Nichols

24. “Cleaning is therapy for me. I’m not ashamed of holding the duster or broom.” — Amisha Patel

25. “Once I start cleaning, I don’t stop until it’s done.” — Russell Westbrook

26. “The objective of cleaning is not just to clean, but to feel happiness living within that environment.” — Marie Kondo

27. “I enjoy the cleaning up—something about the getting of things in order for winter—making the garden secure; a battening down of hatches, perhaps… It just feels right.” — David Hobson

28. “Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” — William Morris

29. “You never know what you have until you clean your closet.” — Unknown

30. “Cleaning and organizing is a practice, not a project.” — Meagan Francis

You will also enjoy our article on dirty quotes.

Cleaning quotes for cleaning haters

31. “Cleaning isn’t all that interesting to me. I’m disorganized.” — Ruth Wilson

32. “I hate housework. You make the beds, you wash the dishes and six months later you have to start all over again.” — Joan Rivers

33. “One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.” — A. A. Milne

34. “Housework is like cleaning fish. No matter how often you do it, it still stinks.” — Thelma Harper

35. “Nature abhors a vacuum. And so do I.” — Anne Gibbons

36. “My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.” — Erma Bombeck

37. “Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day.” — Simone de Beauvoir

38. “For a woman to get a rewarding sense of total creation by way of the multiple monotonous chores that are her daily lot would be as irrational as for an assembly line worker to rejoice that he had created an automobile because he tightened a bolt.” — Edith Mendel Stern

39. “When it comes to housework, the one thing no book of household management can ever tell you is how to begin. Or maybe I mean why.” — Katharine Whitehorn

40. “There was no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years, the dirt doesn’t get any worse.” — Quentin Crisp

If you enjoy this article, check out our collection of laundry quotes for a healthier life experience.

More funny cleaning quotes for when you need to laugh

41. “Housework, if you do it right, can kill you.” — Erma Bombeck

42. “Housekeeping is like being caught in a revolving door.” — Marcelene Cox

43. “Housework is a treadmill from futility to oblivion with stop-offs at tedium and counter productivity.” — Erma Bombeck

44. “Housekeeping ain’t no joke.” — Louisa May Alcott

45. “Have you ever taken anything out of the clothes basket because it had become, relatively, the cleaner thing?” — Katherine Whitehorn

46. “Housework is what a woman does that nobody notices unless she hasn’t done it.” — Evan Esar

47. “I’m eighteen years behind in my ironing. There’s no use doing it now, it doesn’t fit anybody I know.” — Phyllis Diller

48. “Love is the thing that enables a woman to sing while she mops up the floor after her husband has walked across it in his barn boots.” — Hoosier Farmer

49. “Housework is work directly opposed to the possibility of human self-actualization.” — Ann Oakley

50. “My favorite way of getting out of doing chores is by acting like I’m asleep. But it never works.” — Devon Werkheiser

House Cleaning Quotes and Sayings

51. “The stuff you own has to help you create the life you want. And if it doesn’t, why is it in your home?” – Peter Walsh

52. “Everybody wants to save the earth; no one wants to help mom do the dishes.” – P.J. O’Rourke

53. “Spending ten minutes clearing off one shelf is better than fantasizing about spending a weekend cleaning out the basement.” — Gretchen Rubin

54. “I make no secret of the fact that I would rather lie on a sofa than sweep beneath it. But you have to be efficient if you’re going to be lazy.” — Shirley Conran

55. “When your environment is clean you feel happy, motivated and healthy.” — Lailah Gifty Akita

56. “When all else fails, cleaning house is the perfect antidote to most of life’s ills.” — Sue Grafton

57. “Clean your screens as if you are cleaning your soul, allowing the air to flow through freely.” — Shoukei Matsumoto

58. “Cleaning is my favorite way to relax. I clear things out and get rid of the stuff I don’t need. When the food pantry and the refrigerator are organized, I feel less stressed.” — Jennifer Morrison

59. “Clutter is caused by a failure to return things to where they belong. Therefore, storage should reduce the effort needed to put things away, not the effort needed to get them out.” ― Marie Kondo

60. “Get rid of clutter and you may just find it was blocking the door you’ve been looking for.” – Katrina Mayer

Cleaning Quotes To Make You Enjoy Cleaning Up

61. “I cannot function if there is a physical mess around me. If everything is falling apart, I go on a cleaning frenzy.” — Gwyneth Paltrow

62. “I love cleaning, weird but true. It really relaxes me.” — Jessie J

63. “My life is gardening, cleaning around the house and power washing.” — J. B. Smoove

64. “I’m sure nobody wants to know this, but my husband does all the cleaning – rather too much cleaning. It is too clean, the house!” — Harriet Harman

65. “A great statesman, like a good housekeeper, knows that cleaning has to be done every morning.” — Andre Maurois

66. Scrubbing away at the dirt helps clear my mind as well.” — Kandyse McClure

67. “I started my own little carpet and upholstery cleaning business. I’ve done it for 20 years. I live well” — Tommy Kirk

68. “I don’t mind dying, I’ll gladly do that, but not right now, I need to clean the house first.” — Astrid Lindgren

69. “My favorite dish is cleaning out the fridge on Sunday night and improvising a great medley.” — Matthew McConaughey

70. “I love cleaning. I love mopping the floor. If you need your floor mopped, I’m there.” — Saoirse Ronan

What did you learn from these cleaning quotes?

Now, most people agree that cleaning is an important task, but might wonder why.

Obviously, if you clean your space, it is most likely somewhat organized.

Organization will save you time in the long run, as you will most likely be able to find things when you need them.

Did you know that cleaning can also reduce your stress levels?

That might seem a little counterproductive, as you might feel stressed about the need to actually clean, but looking at cluttered spaces is stressful.

Clutter reminds you of all the endless tasks that need doing.

It can also make your home feel smaller than it actually is.

Cleaning also reduces germs around the surfaces you touch and will keep you healthier.

Getting rid of dust and other allergens will also help you avoid symptoms of allergies, like runny noses and sneezing!

You will literally breathe easier with a clean home!

It is also necessary to clean so that pests, like rodents and bugs, do not move in with you!