Quan arribo a casa, recullo la roba del terra i tanco la porta.

Here quan can be understood as when, but in a sentence like this it often has a habitual sense, closer to whenever in English.

So Quan arribo a casa... can mean:

• When I get home...
• Whenever I get home...

The exact nuance depends on context. Because the rest of the sentence is in the present tense and describes a routine, many learners will feel a whenever / every time sense here.

Catalan often uses the present tense to describe habits, routines, and things that regularly happen.

So:

• arribo = I arrive / I get
• recullo = I pick up
• tanco = I close

In this sentence, the speaker is describing a repeated action or normal routine, not one single event. English does the same with the present simple:

• When I get home, I pick up the clothes from the floor and close the door.

Catalan usually leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed.

The verb endings already show who is doing the action:

• arribo = I arrive
• recullo = I pick up
• tanco = I close

So jo is normally omitted. You could add jo for emphasis or contrast, but it is not necessary:

• Quan jo arribo a casa... sounds more emphatic, like when I get home... with extra stress on I.

A casa is the normal idiomatic way to say home.

So:

• arribo a casa = I get home / I arrive home

If you say a la casa, it usually means to the house in a more literal sense, referring to a specific building rather than the idea of home.

Compare:

• Vaig a casa = I’m going home
• Vaig a la casa dels meus avis = I’m going to my grandparents’ house

Arribo is the 1st person singular present form of arribar.

So:

• arribar = to arrive
• arribo = I arrive / I get

This is a regular present-tense form.

Recullo is the 1st person singular present form of recollir.

So:

• recollir = to pick up / gather / collect
• recullo = I pick up / I collect

Like many common verbs, its present-tense forms are something you learn as a set. The important thing for this sentence is simply that recullo means I pick up.

Yes — terra can mean earth, ground, or floor, depending on context.

In this sentence, del terra clearly means from the floor.

This is very normal in Catalan. English often separates ground and floor more strictly, but Catalan terra can cover both ideas.

Del is the contraction of de + el.

So:

• de = from / of
• el = the
• del = from the / of the

Here:

• la roba del terra = literally the clothes from the floor
• more natural English: the clothes on the floor or the clothes from the floor

Catalan often uses de in places where English might prefer on or another preposition.

Catalan uses the definite article very often, sometimes more often than English.

In this sentence:

• la roba = the clothes / the clothing
• la porta = the door

The article is natural because the speaker means specific, known things in the situation:

• the clothes that are there on the floor
• the door of the house or room

English sometimes omits or changes the article depending on style, but Catalan commonly keeps it.

Catalan often prefers the definite article instead of a possessive when the owner is obvious from context.

So:

• tanco la porta = I close the door

Even though in English you might think of my door or the door, Catalan usually just says the door when it is clear which door is meant.

Using la meva porta would sound more marked and is usually unnecessary unless you really want to stress ownership.

Yes. Catalan allows some flexibility in word order.

For example:

• Quan arribo a casa, recullo la roba del terra i tanco la porta.
• Recullo la roba del terra i tanco la porta quan arribo a casa.

Both are possible, but the first version is very natural because it sets the time frame first: When I get home...

Also, when the quan clause comes first, the comma is normal in writing.