The Always-House People

Do you have four staplers, six measuring cups, and three hundred pens? If you do then you understand why getting rid of extras is a good idea.

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I used to be like that too. But once I decided I wanted to live a simple life, I had to make decisions about what I was going to keep and what I was going to get rid of. I remember the day I was organizing the attic and found 30 sets of Christmas lights, enough lights for three trees or more. It takes less effort to file papers immediately instead of keeping documents hanging around the house.

Keep menus, coupons and other mail you may need in one place, so you can find what you need and purge regularly. Evelots 6 File Holder. American Craft Stacking Paper Tray. After I cook, brush my teeth, make a sandwich, put on my makeup — whatever I do, I wipe down the surface I just used.

It takes only a few seconds to wipe down the area after you just used it. This way it stays clean and disinfected, ready to be used again. My mother was a borderline hoarder and always had junk on her bed.

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I mean it interferes with your sleep, right? If you need your bed to put your clothes on, you probably are due for a major clothes purge. I remember going to clean this house for the first time and counting 12 pillows on the bed. How on earth do these people sleep with 12 pillows? Throw out your old pillows and donate the blankets to a local animal shelter.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I hate to see shoes thrown around a house. We take our shoes off at the door and put them away in the closet when we get home. So Buy Storage Bench.

Closet Maid Stackable Shoe Storage. Growing up my daughter was notorious for leaving her dirty dishes in the sink even when there was plenty of room in the dishwasher. I eventually broke her of the habit, but it was tough to break.

After you use pots and pans, clean them immediately, dry and put away. I wrote off maintaining a clean home as something that I just didn't have the time or energy for. Or at least, I had the time, but I would rather spend it living my life, thank you. Now, I still don't have the time or will to clean my home for hours and hours each week. These are the secrets of people whose homes always seem clean. A house could be clean in that the surfaces and floors are scrubbed, the furniture and carpets are vacuumed, and the bathrooms are shining.

But if there are clothes all over the unmade bed and toys all over the floor and piles of books and papers everywhere, that house will not give the appearance of clean because it isn't tidy. I can function and feel at ease when my home is tidy but a little dirty; I can't relax when it's clean but cluttered.

People whose homes always appear clean don't wait until it looks like a bomb went off and then snap and spend hours and hours cleaning up the wreckage. They have routines note: This might mean rearranging throw pillows and folding blankets when they're done in the family room each night, having kids put toys back in the toy box, hanging up clothes at the end of each day, and folding the laundry right when it comes out of the dryer.

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Much like making tidiness a habit, they make cleaning as they go a habit. They do the dishes right after dinner, they wipe down the bathroom counters after getting ready for the day, and they sweep the crumbs off the floor after having a snack. By keeping major surfaces relatively clean throughout the week, they don't have to spend time doing these tasks during more intensive cleaning sessions, leaving more time and energy for things like mopping floors and dusting baseboards you know, occasionally.

It's hard for a home to look cluttered when the owners don't have tons of stuff. Instead of spending tons of time organizing the stuff they do have, just to have it all go back to chaos a week later, these people keep their stuff simplified in the first place so they don't have to organize it.