How To Keep Your Home Tidy & Organized In Just 10 Minutes A Day
Keeping your home organized (especially when the mess is never yours!) can feel like a mammoth chore that you've got as much control over as you do over the rain.
If you feel overwhelmed halfway through the week as the chaos piles up in your house yet again, try building this quick system into your routine. It’ll help you keep your head above water.
These 6 steps will take only 10 minutes each day and will save you from a weekend of work:
1. Clean your surfaces as you go.
You probably tell this to your kids all the time: put it away once you're done. That goes for you too, whether it's cooking, dining, paying bills, styling your hair, or curling up on the couch with a blanket and a book. Give yourself the 2 minutes it takes to put things away as you go and you'll save yourself an hour cleaning up each weekend.
2. Make it a rule to take off shoes at the door.
If you declutter your entryway to make room for shoes, everyone should be taught to take them off at the door. This does two things: 1) it keeps your floors MUCH cleaner so you don’t need to do so much sweeping and mopping during the week; and 2) it creates less clutter of shoes lying in random spots all over the house.
Each time you come in the door and take your own shoes off, get in the habit of spending just 1 minute to straighten up the shoes that are there. If there are kids in the house, no doubt they’ll be flopped off anywhere they land in the entryway area. Don’t stress. You can straighten them up yourself in under a minute and keep control of that area so it doesn’t frustrate you every time you walk by it. Yes, it’s annoying to have to do it yourself. But what’s 30 seconds compared to constant mental aggravation?
If you have a tiny entryway, try making room for a bench or a slim console table with room underneath as a perfect spot to tuck away shoes and room above to hang coats.
3. Use catch-all baskets or trays in entryways, bedrooms, and the laundry room.
-All mail/flyers/papers that come into the house should have a designated drawer or bin somewhere near the entryway so that any papers immediate go there - and nowhere else.
-Every member of the household should also have their own basket or tray or shelf or drawer where they dump the things from their pockets, backpacks or purses each day. Maybe that’s in their bedrooms or in the laundry room or a common space. The point is - everyone has their own dumping spot so that it doesn’t end up on the counters!
Make it a rule that miscellaneous stuff like papers, change, keys, glasses, receipts, tools, phones, books, tools and lip balms aren't allowed anywhere to pile up on counters or floors or anywhere else except in those designated spots. If they do, put them into others’ baskets yourself and when they look for them, they’ll find them there. It’ll become habit soon enough.
Each night, take what’s in your own basket and put everything away in it’s proper home. “A place for everything and everything in its place.”
4. Turn the dishwasher on every night (if it's full).
Make sure to do up the dishes - whether by hand or by filling the dishwasher - every night and put the clean ones away while the coffee is brewing every morning. Teach everyone at home that dirty dishes go into the dishwasher immediately after use throughout the day. Voilà -no piles of dishes in the sink!
5. Put clothes in their place.
Have a laundry hamper in each bedroom and full bathroom. There are no excuses for towels and t-shirts on the floor when hampers are in convenient places. All dirty laundry goes in the hampers, and all clean clothing goes back to where it belongs on its hanger or folded in a drawer. By a certain age, it’s totally realistic to expect that everyone in the household puts away their own clean laundry.
If you do the laundry in your household, make it a rule that you'll clean only what's in the hampers. Anything on floors or chairs or tables goes into the donation box. Once the others realize you'll make good on your promise, they'll get used to using the hampers and putting clean clothes away!
6. Do a 5-minute sweep through at night.
Dash around the main living areas of your home before your bedtime routine and pick up anything that's laying around like toys or tools or papers or electronics. Put them away where they belong (if they're yours or if your kids are too young to pick them up themselves) and then designate a "lost & found" bin in a closet for any items that belong to others in the house. The owners can retrieve them from the bin and take them back to where they belong. You might take a look in the bin once a month, make a 'last call' and and then donate anything still in there, since it's obviously not missed!
These six quick organizational tricks should really only take you about 10 mintues a day. Getting and staying organized doesn't have to be that difficult when you have your environment and systems set up to make it simpler. Enjoy your extra free time this weekend!
