Try following The Boy Scout Rule, as described by Uncle Bob in Clean Code. He refers to the Boy Scouts of America as having a simple rule: Leave the campground cleaner than you found it.

We can apply this to our code. If we always leave it in a better state than when we found it, over time it will maintain its usefulness. There will be less opportunity for those thickets and bushes to grow.

Remember, refactoring should be treated as making small, continuous improvements to our software.