Do you struggle to stay tidy? Many people dislike living in a messy home, but hate the challenge of a big clean. Here are 15 easy hacks to help you keep your home tidy – even if you hate tidying!
1. Remove The Excess
Clutter builds up quickly if you have a lot of it. When you don’t have a place for clutter, it ends up floating around your house making every room feel messy. Stop saving things for ‘just in case’ and get rid of everything you don’t use any more. This will make your home tidier with minimal effort!
2. Give Everything An Assigned Place
Now that the excess is gone, it is important to give everything left a place where it belongs. For instance, a shelf in the living room is useful for your remote and magazines, and hooks in the hall can home your purses and coats.
3. Plan In Advance For Your Children
If you have children, appreciate that they care less about a tidy home and accommodate that. If you have toddlers who like to draw, put up a few whiteboards so they don’t feel tempted to draw on the walls. If you have older children, use labelled baskets so they know where to put everything.
4. Work As You Go
If you go to the bathroom and notice that the sink is a little dirty, give it a wipe down while you’re in there. This will help your whole home to look tidier, without you actually spending more than five minutes at a time tidying.
5. Do A 10 Minute Pick-Up In The Evening
Set a rule for everyone in the house; at some point in the evening, everyone has to pitch in and do a quick 10 minute pick up. During this time tidy clutter and bin rubbish – it won’t take long at all and the whole house will look tidy!
6. Avoid Using Paper
Try to get rid of the paper in your life. Magazines, bank statements and receipts will build up in your home, creating messy clutter. Switch your accounts to paperless, and buy a magazine rack to minimize your paper mess.
7. Make The Bed Every Morning
It may not be fun, but making your bed in the morning takes less than five minutes, and it is one of the easiest ways to make your bedroom look tidy. It will help set the tone for the day too, making you more likely to stick to being tidy.
8. Create Routines That Suit You
Routines are a big part of clean your home clean and organized every day. Decide what your priorities are and set a routine that works for you. If you hate a messy kitchen, create a routine that means you never have to deal with too many dirty plates. Don’t create too many routines – you will struggle to stick to them if you take on too much!
9. Put Away Your Clothes Every Night
As soon as you’ve changed into your pajamas, hang up your clean clothes and put the dirty ones in the washing up basket. This will only take a few seconds, but it means you will wake up to a nicer, tidier room in the morning.
10. Wash Dishes Straight Away
This may not sound like fun, but 3 plates is preferable to 15 that need a deep soak. Letting tasks build up often means they become time consuming and daunting, so wash up straight away to avoid an hours’ worth of washing up later.
11. Follow The Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique means for every 25 minutes you don’t work, you work 5 minutes. If you’re chilling online or reading a book, set a timer and tidy up the room you’re in for 5 minutes every half an hour. It is over quickly and it just feels like you’re relaxing!
12. Do A Load Of Laundry Every Day
Put a load of laundry in the washing machine every morning, or when you get in from work. No matter how much you work, it is very likely you have the time to hang up a wash every day – and it is much more enjoyable than spending a whole day doing laundry!
13. Wipe Counters As You Go
After cooking, give your counter a quick wipe, before anything dries and sticks to it. As the job takes a minute it won’t feel like you’re tidying, but afterwards you will appreciate your clean kitchen.
14. Create A Space For Mess
Your whole home won’t stay completely spotless, so it is a good idea to create a space for mess. You could set aside a whole room, or just the corner of a room. If you have children, create this space so they can share it too – they will probably need it more than you!
15. Stay Tidy Together
If you are the only person tidying up, you can become resentful of all the work. To avoid this, assign tidying jobs to everyone you live with. This will minimize the amount of tidying and make you all feel like a team, motivating each other to stick to the rules!
