Having a consistently tidy house is possible, just take proactive steps with small tricks and considerations that will pay off in the long run.
Small adjustments in organizing things and daily habits will enable you to keep the house tidy without (almost) any effort.
Believe us: the result will bring you immense satisfaction.
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10 Tricks to Effortlessly Keep Your House Tidy
1. If you Want a Tidy House, Start by Clearing Space
You know that basket of trinkets? The one where you store pencils, lipsticks, eyeshadows that you don’t always carry with you in a pouch and which multiply month after month. Take an hour to do a check, decide what you won’t use anymore, and either give it to a friend or throw it away. The same goes for all the other items scattered around the house.
Set a time to clean out all the unnecessary things: you’ll have more space and less to tidy up every day.
Tackle one room at a time and gradually make an honest selection of what you need and what simply gathers dust.
Every time you tackle a room, equip yourself with the necessary cleaning supplies, because there’s no better time to clean the bottom of the closet than when the closet is (temporarily) empty.
2. Assign a Place for Everything Using Boxes and Baskets
If everything has a specific place, it’s easier to keep everything tidy. Imagine how many small items we keep around because we don’t have a precise place to put them.
Fortunately, someone invented baskets and made them fashionable in the art of interior design. Scatter containers in every room, each with a well-defined label and purpose; having fewer things lying around will clear your mind.
3. Put Away Your Clothes in the Evening
Undressing in the evening and throwing clothes on the chair or floor before putting on pajamas gives a great sense of freedom, but when at the end of the week that pile has become a mountain ready to engulf you, you’ll regret being so lazy and want to be like all those good and tidy people who put their clothes away before going to bed.
4. Don’t Procrastinate
Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do – with less effort – today. Clutter is insidious, it accumulates little by little, and before you know it, you’ll find yourself overwhelmed with a huge workload to clear up over the weekend, when a small gesture earlier could have avoided it.
When you come across something to tidy up, don’t ignore it, or it will soon come back to haunt you.
5. Make the Bed Every Morning
Why make it when you know it will be undone every night? Because it’s the focal point of the bedroom, and even if everything else is tidy, crumpled sheets alone will give a sense of confusion to the environment. Instead, try making it as soon as you get up every morning.
You don’t need to tuck in the blankets perfectly, just pull them up and arrange the pillows to give your room a different look.
6. Schedule a Laundry Day
Remember the episode of “Gilmore Girls” where Lorelai takes Rory to her first day of school in shorts, a cowboy hat, and a faded t-shirt because it was laundry day?
Well, to avoid ending up having to go out with the leftovers from the closet, plan your laundry in your routine. Calculate how many loads you’ll need to do and schedule them on fixed days. You could try washing whites on Mondays and darks on Wednesdays, for example.
7. Empty the Dishwasher in the Morning
Less than ten minutes each morning, when you’re feeling refreshed after coffee, to enjoy a tidy kitchen and have the dishwasher ready to be filled after lunch.
8. Clean Up Bit by Bit
Another way to reduce stress is to minimize clutter, one step at a time.
For example? After having breakfast in the morning, rinse the cup and put it in the dishwasher (which you’ve already conscientiously emptied).
In the evening, it will be one less thing to tidy up in the sink after dinner. Similarly, while cooking, wash and put away what you no longer need to avoid ending up with a stack of dishes at the end of the meal.
9. Clean the Kitchen Before Bed
We all would love to ignore the mess from the day prior and simply wake up with a tidy house. Unfortunately, reality is quite different, and the mountain of dishes that you decide to ignore in the evening to dive onto the couch will reappear – inexorably – the next day and the day after that, until you decide to clean it, with undoubtedly greater effort.
10. Use Folders for a Tidy (and Functional) Home
Bills, documents, receipts: every piece of paper you come across should have its place. Folders serve the same function as baskets and can easily be hidden inside a bookcase or displayed on a shelf if you choose pretty ones. You’ll see that the first time you need to retrieve a receipt or any other document, you’ll thank yourself..
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This article first appeared on Grazia.it – Author: Giada Borioli
