4 Ways To Keep A Tidy Home

Friday, March 1, 2019


4 Ways to Keep A Tidy Home

It's such a good feeling when you get done with a huge purge of clutter in your house.  You have decluttered, organizing, and cleaned and you're loving life.   But then a few busy days go by and the next thing you know it looks like a bomb went off (again) in your home.  If this has happened to you, YOU ARE NOT ALONE. 


Don't get me wrong, having a neat and tidy home is an amazing thing.  You may have tried it yourself with the KonMari Method and my free printable KonMari Checklist, or maybe you just did your own decluttering in the beginning of the year.  Either way, after you initially get your home in tip top shape, you still need to maintain it or else you basically just did all that for nothin! 

These 4 ways to keep your home neat and tidy can really make a difference especially when you go through busy days and weeks. 



1. Prepare Things Ahead of Time
Preparing things ahead of time in all aspects of your home and life can benefit you in many ways.  Not only can you save money, but also time and energy and you can avoid being stressed.  So how do you prepare stuff and what do you prepare? Let me break it down for you. 
4 Ways To Keep A Tidy Home

Choose your outfits for the week on Sunday evening. I'm serious, this will help you SO MUCH!! Getting dressed in the morning will be mindless when you have your shoes, jewelry, AND clothing grouped together by day in the closet. It's a way to save time AND reduce stress because no one enjoys rushing around in the morning to change their outfit because something doesn't match or their jeans were dirty and hadn't been put through the wash yet.  

How does this keep your home tidy? Uhh, well let's see - you likely won't have an endless pile of clothing strewn all over the place from when you frantically tried 3 different tops and still didn't like how they looked. 
4 Ways To Keep A Tidy Home

Pack your lunch the night before. Not only does packing a lunch for work save you money, but you will again save time in the morning because you just have to grab it and go.  This can save you money because you aren't going to be buying a lunch (which costs more than packing your own) but also it saves time because you have one less thing to do in the morning.   

How does this keep your home tidy? Well, you won't have plastic baggies and dirty knives to deal with after work because you did all the stuff the night before and you made sure your kitchen was tidied before you went to bed.  
4 Ways To Keep A Tidy Home

2. Put Everything Back In It's Place
What's that cliche quote? A place for everything and everything in it's place!  Ah, yes but it is SO TRUE.  When you don't have a place for every item you own it will sit in a pile or hidden in a drawer and it can stress you out when you go to look for it and can't find it.  If you take out the scissors to use them, DON'T just sit them down.  Put them back where you got them.  You likely designated a space for EVERYTHING when you tidied your home, right? Why would you let that hard work go to waste?! 
4 Ways To Keep A Tidy Home

Now, maybe you have kids or a husband or wife that has a bad habit of just leaving stuff lay around.  What I suggest you do is have a cute basket or bin ($1 from Dollar Tree) and whenever you leave a room or you're getting ready for bed, you take all the loose stuff in your home that "doesn't belong" and place it in the basket and then put it away where it goes.  You can leave that basket near the entry to your living room and whenever a family member goes to walk past it, remind them to deal with the basket.  Trust me, you won't want to do it forever which will make you and everyone in your family to remember to take the extra second to put something back right when they're done using it. 
4 Ways To Keep A Tidy Home

3. Deal With Things RIGHT AWAY
We have tendency as a society to put things off.  For some reason the concept of making  a decision or taking an action on even the simplest of things like throwing away a piece of obvious junk mail is just too much for us to handle. What the heck!? 

So the easy fix to that is to DEAL WITH IT ASAP.   Anything!!  When the mail comes, you stand over the trash can and immediately pitch ANYTHING that is junk mail.   DO NOT PUT IT IN A PILE!!!   Anything that needs action (like a bill) should go to your dedicated action spot for that.  If you have a bill pay calendar on the fridge, clip the bill to it.  Stop putting things off. 

If you notice an accumulation of "stuff" anywhere in your home, tackle it ASAP.   This is especially handy in the kitchen.  Did you just finish drinking from your glass?  Now, don't just sit it on the counter.  Either wash it in the sink and put it in the drying rack or place it immediately in the dishwasher.  You will have more free time in your life because you won't constantly be tackling big messes since you won't really let them get to the point.  
4 Ways To Keep A Tidy Home

4. Avoid Piles by Making a NO PILES Rule
Piles are horrible.  They make your home look cluttered and dirty and they give most people anxiety to the point where you look right at them and then ignore them.  You can't even make the choice to deal with the pile because you hate it so much.  So what's the easy fix? DON'T MAKE PILES.  EVER! 

Don't pile books, dishes, papers, clothes, toys, blankets, etc.   When you put things in a pile "to deal with later", you basically just mentally assigned them to that current spot.  Which means, you likely won't put them in their REAL SPOT.  So no, don't just pile clothes on the chair in your room - fold them and put them away. Don't pile dishes in the sink - wash them immediately or put them in the dishwasher. Put your books in a book case.  Take action with papers immediately or file them away ASAP.  Toys should be put back in their proper organized place and blankets should be folded and put neatly in the closet rather than sitting in a bunched up pile in the corner of a room. 

If you got to the end of this post and thought "dang, I really need to work on all of these things." then you're in luck because I guarantee if you start doing things different you'll see how neat and tidy your home STAYS and how much more time, energy, and less stress you have! Plus if you want to get the rest of your life organized, make sure you check out my Home Management Binder - it's free! 


What's the problem spot in your home?


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4 Ways to Keep a Tidy Home




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5 comments:

  1. Your home is lovely and organized, Ellen!! I am super neat and tidy but unfortunately my daughter is NOT...however, she's moving out soon and will hopefully learn how to clean up after herself in her own home. And my home will be neat and tidy once more!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I so need to make a no pile rule for my house.

    http://www.amysfashionblog.com/blog-home

    ReplyDelete
  3. Problem Spot - The dining room table! It becomes a catch all!

    ReplyDelete

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