But how do you KEEP it tidy?
“But how do you KEEP it tidy?” That’s a good question! Ah well, who am I kidding, I’m a teacher so I don’t believe in stupid questions anyway.
So a good question, how to make sure your house doesn’t become a mess again. Let me give you a really stupid answer: You can’t! It just won’t stay tidy. See, there’s no such thing as a stupid question, but there are definitely stupid answers.
Ok, all jokes aside. No, your house won’t stay tidy. And you know why? Because you LIVE there, it’s not a showroom. After you’ve cooked and had dinner, your kitchen is guaranteed to not be empty and clean. It makes me sigh sometimes too. Oh man, now I still need to do the dishes…
But I can guarantee you too that picking up and doing a little bit throughout the day will make a world of difference. I was always team “I will do those dishes later” and if you live alone you can keep that up for some tim - I think my record is 5 days. The problem with that is that the longer you wait, the more dishes you’ll have piling up. Makes sense! But more dishes equals more aversion to actually getting in there and cleaning everything.
After I decided to take time to do dishes twice a day, I have noticed I’m dreading it less. Because there is no longer Mount Everest of dishes on my kitchen counters, but a OK amount each time. So I will put on a series on Netflix on my laptop and there you go, after just 15 minutes I’m done. My kitchen is ready for the rest of the day, or nice and empty when I walk in next morning. That’s pretty nice after being up a couple of times with the baby that night, of when he wakes up at around 6.00 am. All I need to focus on then is the kid, not some chaos in my kitchen.
My second tup is to set two times a day to tidy the living room. For example after the dishes. You won’t have to spend a lot of time when you have a dedicated place for everything. After 5-10 minutes most things will be back in their homes. You can call it a reset. Routines like that really help you keep control of your house.
Did you notice the secret third tip just now?
Making sure all your stuff has its own dedicated place!
Is that something you’re struggling with? Or would you like to learn more about keeping your house tidy? Send me a message and we’ll work at it together.
I’d happy to help!
