If you lead a busy bee, then you are all too well familiar with the drill. The week starts off well with a neatly organized home, by mid-week; your utensils are dirty in the sink, clean unfolded laundry on the bed, unread mails on the hallway, unattended gym bag by the floor just to be modest. By Friday your home is a full-blown disaster like a bomb exploded and scattered everything away. Then the weekend kicks and you tackle the huge tidying up job. Then before you know it, the weekend is over, Monday comes, and the cycle starts all over again. If this is your life sit back, relax and adopt these five tips and give your weekends a refreshing break.
1- Remove the excess.
Your home will feel and look untidy if you remove clutter that you do not use. If you have not used an item for more than six months, give it away to charity. You will eventually have just the essentials to clean and tidy up. While doing that, assign a place for every item in your house, that way you can tell when something is out of place.
2- Clean as you go.
If you are in the bedroom and you notice the bed is unmade, clothes are on the bed, shoes out of the rack, tidy these things up while you are just there. It will probably take you less than five minutes which will make a huge difference. The problems come when you procrastinate and let things pile up. It is better to spend five minutes a day tidying up than to spend an agonizing two hours folding your clothes.
3- Create a routine.
If you are not a spontaneous cleaner, then you need a routine that suits you. It starts with making your bed in the morning. A routine will help you keep your home clean. Plan your day when you wake up, if you are supposed to report to work by eight in the morning, wake up at five, make your bed, jump to shower, clean your bathroom after a shower, make breakfast, clean your utensils and sinks, take breakfast and leave for work. When you come home in the evening, your sink and utensils are clean, make supper, eat and clean dishes soon after finishing dinner. When you are going to bed, your bedroom is tidy since morning, hang or fold your clean clothes, and put the dirty ones in a washing basket. Keep the routine going for a week, and it will soon become a habit.
4- Designate a mess corner.
Your house might not achieve the 100% tidiness especially if you have children in the house. If you have a spare room, assign it as a mess-place and let your children know that. Understand and appreciate that your kids care less about a tidy home. They will just pick things up and drop them anywhere. With a mess space, they will know what it means, when they need to drop dirty things that is where they go to. Then set a time or a day to sort things out in the mess space. It will be easier and time-saving than having everything lying around your house.
5- Do not use paper.
Paper tends to just drop everywhere even when we do not intend it to. If it is your bank statements, switch to digital banking; leave receipts at the convenience store before you leave. Then buy a magazine rack to sort out the paper mess. However, since some will still find a way to your home, conduct a 5-minute dirt collection. This can be a family exercise if you have kids; create the perception that it is a punishment they receive for dropping things around. When you have collected enough clutter and rubbish set a day to incinerate it. Such an exercise will instill discipline to your young ones and leave the house tidy.
Conclusion
You do not have to stress over tidying up your house even if your schedule is tight. You can use these few tips to always maintaining cleanliness and tidiness. These will not even take much of your precious time but will save you from the agony of doing a week’s long cleaning up job.
