There are actually two parts to maintaining clean ears and dealing with the issue of ear wax buildup.
1. Use hydrogen peroxide based products to loosen the ear wax for 5–7 days, During this time your hearing will actually seem worse and your ears more clogged and blocked than when you started. Be sure to book an appointment with your GP nurse to have the wax syringed if you have bad buildup.
2. Get yourself some olive oil ear spray, there are several available at your local pharmacy. Use this once or twice a week after you shower and have dried your ears thoroughly, this will prevent the build up of ear wax so you shouldn’t need to repeat step one again. After a couple of months you can cut this back to just once a week or even fortnight, unless you have some serious issues with ear wax buildup, in which case you can keep doing it twice a week.
There are no know side effects to using olive oil based sprays as they are non abrasive and will not harm your hearing. Using hydrogen peroxide products long term is not recommended as it can cause damage with extended regular use.
NOTE: Some people when using hydrogen peroxide for the week will suffer from tinnitus whereby they will experience ringing in the ears and some pain. This is normal but should the pain be excessive its best to take the slightly longer route as this process can be damaging so stop using hydrogen peroxide and start using olive oil spray for 7–9 days, it should provide the same level of loosened ear wax as hydrogen peroxide, its just somewhat slower but works just as well.
Extra Note: Using Q tips to remove wax is far easier when its already loosened, using Q tips on unloosened ear wax is definitely not recommended as the process will merely push parts of the wax deeper into the ear and when ear wax hardens onto the ear drum itself, you will start experience some extreme ear aches.