Ladies, what are some tips and tricks to a clean and organized home that work for you?

33 comments

  2. Just clean as you go. Always clean a mess the moment you see it. Stochastic cleaning is always less stressful longterm when compared to having ‘cleaning sessions’.

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    Also, rooms just have an energy. It gets stale. Move things around when you actually do big cleans. Get all the furniture out of a room, spray good smelling things on the carpet/floor and vaccume/mop. Rearrange the furniture to match your new mood. It really helps with negative mental states.

  3. When I’m having a hard time getting the motivation to start (oh hi depression, didn’t see you there!) I let myself spend 15/20 min doing whatever it is I am doing/feel like doing, but I set a timer. When the timer goes off, I stop, and get up and start cleaning/tidying/do a task for 5 min, also with a timer. When that timer goes off, I let myself go back to the fun stuff. Rinse and repeat!

    Often, I’ll get caught up in the cleaning and will decide to keep going at it after the timer. But no matter what, it gets me to start on the job. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when I look at everything that needs doing. But I can always convince myself that I can handle a couple minutes of it.

  4. Clean/pick up as you go and clean a little each day or every other day:

    – don’t go to bed with dishes in the sink or clean dishes in the dishwasher that need to be put away.

    – if you get out a book/game/blanket/etc put it away as soon as you are done

    – have a specific place for everything to go so things stay organized so you aren’t just shoving it somewhere

    – make the bed every day

    – put away clothes you decided you didn’t want to wear when getting ready or and throw dirty clothes in the hamper instead of throwing them in “the chair” or on the floor

    – do a quick 10-15 minute clean a couple days a week. Maybe one day it’s vacuuming, another day it’s cleaning a bathroom, etc. that way you aren’t saving everything for one day and getting overwhelmed. Split it up throughout the week.

  5. Clean as you go. I swear we probably use the same 3 forks, spoons, knives, and plates everyday since we wash as we use. Laundry is the only thing that builds up since it’s such a waste to wash small loads. Oh, and the rumba is awesome too. Keeps the dog hair at bay

  6. Tidy up as you go. I’ll put stuff away today so that tomorrow, all I have to do is sweep.

    I also mop before I sweep. I find that mopping loosens up more dirt. Floor dries, I sweep, place shines like the top of the Chrysler building.

  7. Download an app to keep track of what you need to do and how often – I have “Housy”

  8. Split domestic labour 50%-50% with my partner and never say anything about how he should do something.
    Done is better then perfect

  10. I use the ‘one-minute rule’, not specifically for cleaning and organizing, but basically for everything. It’s pretty simple: if something is going to take less than a minute to do, do it immediately.

    Clean as you go, especially while cooking. For example, if something’s in the oven, use that time to do dishes.

    And if I’m perfectly honest, the only reason my house is as clean and organized as it is, is because I have a cleaner that comes in once a week. That forces me to tidy everything up so she can get the actual cleaning done.

  11. Shoes off at the door, and tidy them as you go. Don’t leave the dishes to pile up, do them as you go. If everything has a place, there is no room for tru clutter to form

  12. Clean Mama routine is like what others are saying-clean a little bit per day rather than spending half of your Saturday doing it all at once. Have I perfectly implemented the routine? Not at all, but I’m trying!

  13. Start in the corner closest to you and start picking up stuff. Don’t look at the mess as a whole just at the small accumulation at your feet and you’ll be done before you know it. My family will start in the middle and just give up because it’s so overwhelming. I start on the corner and am finished within 20 minutes. They are always shocked and ask me how I did it; I just say magic now because having told them to start in a corner and fan out from there is always ignored.

  14. I’m really good at being tidy and organised because I enjoy that stuff. But I hate cleaning, and the key for me getting to done is planning out what needs to be done daily, weekly, monthly, and less often, and using a to-do type app to give myself reminders for when to do those things.

    For anyone interested, the best one I have found is called TickTick and it allows you to record pretty much anything, anyway you could want, eg: set up different lists, set repeating tasks, track daily habits, set different priorities for tasks, have sublists under a task, and you can use it on mobile, desktop and web versions. It does have free and paid versions, but the paid version isn’t ridiculously expensive. I’m not advertising for them! Just took me ages to find the right app and I hope it’ll meet someone else’s needs!

  15. If it’ll take less than 5 minutes, I do it immediately when I see it needs doing.

  16. Throw away anything you don’t want or need has helped me. Donate or sell things also if its in good condition. Having specific places for important things you use daily and putting those items exactly back where I got them helps to stay organized. If you have a few minutes to spare then take that time to do a small chore like wipe down a table or a few dishes.

  17. “Less is more.” Made sure that we only keep important stuff at home, the rest can go.

  18. Have set days for things that need to be cleaned that way it’s not so much that has to be done all in 1 day

    (Example

    Mon-Laundry/clean bathrooms

    Tues-Vacuum

    Weds-Laundry/dust

    Thurs- Vacuum /Wipe down furniture,walls,toys

    Fri-clean bathrooms )

    I clean the kitchen everyday and wipe down the table, counters and sweep everyday also . I have my kids that have certain areas that are their chore to clean throughout the week also

    Do what is best for you and make it where it doesn’t feel overwhelming

  19. Everything needs a place. The vast majority of issues in my house (clothes, shoes, books, hobby things, general clutter) is that not everything has a place.

    We also hired a house cleaner that comes twice a month after I got a promotion and we could afford it/justify it with my increased workload. It has been life changing for me.

  20. Break chores up into 15-20 min tasks and then do them when you take a break from working or being lazy.

    Small tasks are harder to avoid and can be done during downtime.

  21. Start with de-cluttering. Less stuff is less to clean

    Start by looking on each shelf, cabinet, bathroom and kitchen. And look what you can throw away, give away or sell.

    Everytime you hold an item think about these rules:

    -Have i used it in the last 6 months?
    -Am i going to use in in the next few months?
    -Does it have any (emotional) value?
    -Do I really need it?

    Are the awnsers no? then get rid of it.

    When you are in doubt. Put it in a box. If you didnt need it and picked it out in 2 a 3 months, than get rid of it.

    You dont need tons of (often incomplete) tupperware. Tons of diffrent clothes (that you dont wear) And obsolete stuff like old video tapes, dvds, old books and old magazines.

    Or in the kitchen: If you have a family or 4. Do you need 30 mugs or glasses? Something I see a lot in peoples houses. A kitchenkabinet filled to the brim with all kinds of diffrent glasses from alcohol glasses to lemonade glasses. And the front few get used and the others are just collecting dust for years.

    Especially when you dont use it. It takes up space, It costs extra time to clean. And less clutter is good for your mental health.

    After de-cluttering, your house is easier to clean.

  22. Lower my standards. Accept that my toddler is going to destroy things while she is awake. Embrace a little bit of mess. Do necessary cleaning related to hygiene. Put toys away after bedtime, not naptime.

  23. I think everyone else has covered clean as you go but on a similar note- after you’ve made dinner and plated up, spend a couple of minutes stacking the dishwasher/rinsing off pots/wiping down surfaces/whatever. Your food will be at a consumable temperature by the time you’re done rather than piping hot and when you finish dinner you’ll just have the plates to deal with.

  24. Making sure to let the 3 people I live with know that I expect them to do 75% of the work, on time and to a high standard.

    And then not accepting less than 75%.

  26. I’m a Marie Kondo fanatic, honestly. Just get rid of stuff.

    All of your closets and cabinets should be full of only stuff that you actually use or actually feel a strong attachment to. If all your storage space is full of crap from years ago that you don’t use or care about but can’t justify getting rid of because it’s not outright broken or expired, then you’re never going to be organized.

    Make friends with local homeless shelters. Make friends with the local library that takes book donations. Make friends with buy nothing groups on Facebook and resellers like Poshmark and Thredup. And for crusty old expired shampoo bottles and scratched up Teflon pans, make friends with the Dumpster. Just get rid of stuff so you can use your storage to store things you actually need or want to store.

    I’m saying this as someone who doesn’t make a lot of money and can’t afford to just run out and buy things when I need them. Even after keeping all the practical stuff (extra blankets etc.) my apartment was STILL full of crap I didn’t need or want. And I made pretty decent money selling some of it, and, for the rest, got plugged into the local gift economy, which is a huge help, too. Hoarding stuff helps no one.

  27. Take your time cleaning. If not dedicate a whole day to just cleaning

    Once its clean, just clean up after yourself

    Done with a dish? Throw away scraps, wash the dish and go back to your day

    Took a book out the shelf? When your done put it back

    Its just easier that way

  28. Something I thought was really cool was figuring out what kind of “clutterbug” I am. The website you’ll find looks like one of those “buy my program” kinda websites, but it’s not, I promise. The quiz and explanations/tips are free and don’t need an email or anything. I looked it up after watching a tv show the lady did on organizing homes.

    Basically, the idea is that everyone has an organization style that works best for them and any storage/organization solutions that don’t support their main style (represented by a bug archetype) will inevitably fail. Butterflies like to have their things out in the open/accessible, bees like visible, strictly organized systems, ladybugs hide their messes behind doors, etc.

    I especially liked these explanations because they take away any guilty feelings over being a slob or lazy. Some people just have systems that aren’t ideal for them. I had my husband take the quiz too and we figured out that we’re always at odds with each other over how we organize the kitchen, so it gets out of control.

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    Something that’s helped me a lot is always having something in my hand that doesn’t belong every time I leave a room/area of the house that tends to amass clutter. Just going to the bathroom? Pick up something out of place on the way and put it where it belongs.

  30. control my shopping urges so my house is kept pretty minimal. general sweeping/wiping/vacuuming/mopping multiple times a week. laundry & dishes every day. donating/getting rid of stuff i don’t need. prioritizing storage for the important things. seasonally deep cleaning with wiping down baseboard heating, walls, windows, etc

  31. Put things away right away. Don’t just set it on a table and do it later. Right then, right there, put it where it belongs. If you buy something new and don’t have a place for it…make one immediately. It’s amazing how clean and organized things stay if you do this.

  32. Mail gets sorted at the door. I have a recycle bin right next to the front door so the junk gets pitched in that immediately. The other mail gets opened immediately. Bills get placed on my keyboard, magazines next to my bed, and all packages get placed near where the items will live i.e. chewy packages get placed next to the cat stuff.

  33. I do not keep things that I don’t genuinely want or need.

    I aggressively get rid of clothes I don’t wear, I don’t shop on amazon, I do not take souvenirs or swag, ever. It’s all just crap.

    The less I own, the less I have to keep track of and find a neat storage place for.

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