Who said confusion is a bad thing? According to British playwright Thomas Middleton, the disorder is the perfect way to always make exciting discoveries. Seriously, keeping your home tidy, for some, is a pleasure. Still, for many, due to the lack of time and desire, it is a real challenge, which has very little joy. Leaving the house in chaos is not an option since the consequences could be very annoying for the normal performance of daily actions. So, how to get organized?
In the end, it is not so difficult if you have more or less fixed rules to follow. The following 20 tricks will be beneficial, especially when you have little desire to spend hours cleaning.
“Whoever cleans is not cleaner, but less dirty”
This proverb is the one that helps those who have little desire and time to clean. The best trick to do a few household chores is to get rid of a bit of dirt when it’s possible. So, it is essential to pay attention to all the little things that are done daily to reduce dust or intervene before it becomes difficult to manage. Small tricks that make a difference in the long run.
Clean the stains immediately
As mentioned above, it is better to intervene immediately on certain spots that form since they can be removed more easily if you do that as soon as possible. Whatever turns over, falls, or breaks, immediately get it out of the way and remove any stain you see. When the dirt dries, it takes longer to clean it up, and the desire to do it also passes.
Remove the excess
The more things you have, the easier your mess is developing. Today our homes are full of objects of all kinds that are used very little, but which require space and cleanliness. That makes it impossible for us to fix the things we use frequently. Especially if you don’t have large spaces and don’t like to tidy often, the best thing is to get rid of the excesses, sell them, give them away or throw them away when you think they are no longer useful. A good example is a student burdened with various assignments. When there is one serious and huge research paper, it’s better to take care of it first. And if there are many other writings to deal with, one can entrust them to https://an-essay.com. This way, you manage what’s more important, but don’t neglect other tasks.
Eliminate all the knick-knacks and similar useless objects
This point is closely related to the previous one. Here, we refer to all those small objects such as knick-knacks, which easily accumulate dust, but above all, prevent the cleaning of a surface with simplicity. When space is occupied, to get rid of dust, it is necessary to do a more complex operation that takes more time than a simple swiping with a cloth. If those are things of particular emotional value and you don’t want to remove them completely, it is recommended to keep them in a showcase, where they will collect dust slower and will not be too much in the way.
Select a place to everything
It may seem strange, but deciding on a precise place for everything helps a lot in maintaining order. The broom in one place and the detergents in a specific cabinet are things that everyone already considers. Still, when you want to keep an overall order without going crazy, you have to select a specific place for EVERYTHING. For example, towels on one side, single and double sheets on the other, half-sleeved T-shirts separated by tank tops and long-sleeved shirts, and so on. Using spaces intelligently and attributing everything to its place is another essential point for cleaning automatically and simply.
Use hooks
Small and large hooks on the wall near the entrance of the house, inside the wardrobes, in the bedroom, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, on the terrace — in short, wherever they can help you keep your home more organized. Rather than pulling the jacket on a chair, simply use one of the hooks to hang it. You have to use suitable and safe ones — in some cases, even childproof.
Use less paper — Keep it in containers — Recycle it
Paper takes up space, and today we can reduce it to the maximum — thanks to the internet. We are not referring to books — however, it might be an idea to replace them with (less romantic) ebooks. It’s about all those papers concerning advertising, bank statements, receipts, etc.
Eliminate things that you can avoid having on paper and have it in electronic form instead. For the rest, organize your documents into appropriate containers or recycle useless papers with the help of organizations specializing in it.
Organize the play area for children in advance
Children play with a thousand things, throw them up, and obviously, it is not always easy to get help from them to clean everything. Frequently you end up leaving the whole house in disarray with games scattered everywhere, and you cannot even find all the pieces to manage things properly. Organizing the space where kids play in advance is a good way to create a more or less appropriate place to be able to control it and tidy it up better. In this space, there must be special containers and bags for the strategic collection of all the games and toys.
Clean up before leaving home
It is a very useful trick when you don’t feel like spending hours cleaning. Tidying up and dusting just before leaving home is a fast method that helps to cope with everything. It must be an organized minimum, at least half an hour before going out. This way, you’ll have time to put back everything you have used. Otherwise — goodbye order!
Take a 10 minute to tidy up in the evening
Alternatively, there is the possibility of cleaning the house before going to sleep. There is no need to clean thoroughly, even 10 minutes every evening, as usual, will help a lot to keep the house in order. Also, waking up in cleanliness is pleasant and will become a simpler routine than you think.
Make the bed every morning
Even if it seems a small issue, just having the bed tidy can make a big difference. It only takes five minutes to do it, and if you have a habit of not putting your clothes back in place, take 2 minutes for this too. When you return to your room to go to sleep in the evening, it is more pleasant not to find the unmade bed and all your clothes thrown around. You can also organize yourself with sheets and blankets that are easy to redo.
Arrange your clothes every evening
It is certainly preferable to do it in the morning when making the bed. Again, it’s not so demanding if you organize yourself better. There must be special spaces, hangers, or tools that help to store clothes as simply as possible. Also, acquire a habit of arranging shoes without leaving 5 pairs scattered on the floor of the room.
Always clean the shelves
At a certain time of a day, clean all the surfaces you use most often. Table, kitchen and work surfaces, desk, coffee tables, etc. Any surface takes you very little time. If it is cleaned often, it is impossible for dust, crumbs, and dirt, in general, to accumulate there.
Wash the dishes immediately
The rule is always roughly the same: by washing the dishes immediately, it is easier for the dirt not to become more unpleasant to clean, and it will take 5 minutes to make the things used for lunch or dinner clean. If you have a dishwasher, you have to do the same thing, i.e., rinse the dishes and insert them there immediately, and then launch it when full.
Load the washing machine every day
Don’t accumulate dirty laundry! Just sort it and insert it directly into the machine, trying to keep the colors separate from the whites. This way, you won’t have too much laundry in a basket.
Ask the whole family to keep things in order
Set rules to clean your home that is not torture for anyone, but everyone will have to keep. From the youngest to the oldest, everyone will have to make their daily effort, obviously according to their possibilities. If there are members who cannot participate in ordering the house, they can help to dirty it as little as possible, which, as mentioned, is a good way to minimize fatigue.
Create a ‘six-month box’
Use a chest or box to store all those items that you don’t know what to do with. Open it once in six months and consider whether the things inside are useful, or you can sell them or give them away since you no longer need them. You can also decide to open it often, but not too much before four months because you risk not giving the right value to things.
Create a space for confusion
It’s fantastic advice that usually messy people like a lot. Create a space in your home or garage where you can keep the ‘confusion items.’ There you can throw things that you can’t tidy up at a given moment or don’t know where to put. It must be a space that can be closed so that it does not affect the rest of the house, which remains tidy. It cannot remain confused and messy forever, so it will have to be managed. But don’t do it daily — it must not be part of the daily routine.
Follow the Pomodoro technique
This technique was studied by Francesco Cirillo and is used to optimize time for any activity. It is based on 4 simple steps:
- Choose an activity to do.
- Set a timer for 25 minutes.
- Work at full speed until the timer rings.
- Take a short break for a couple of minutes.
After 4 cycles are done, you take a longer break (15/20 minutes) and repeat the steps.
Create routines suitable for you
Once you know how to keep the house in order with the tricks discussed so far, try to create routines adapted to your lifestyle and your needs (and those of your family), but without neglecting any of the tips mentioned above.
The rules for cleaning the house are always relevant. Still, it also takes a minimum of will, but that will be easier once the commitments become routine. You will like the cleanliness so much that you will no longer be able to imagine your home being in chaos.
If you absolutely can’t keep up with the housework, you might want to find the right maid for your family to help you!
