Who wants a clean house? Do you want to spend more time enjoying your house and less time cleaning it? Do you ever just look around and wonder how you get a grip on the cleaning so that you do not have to spend so much time cleaning up after the mess?
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a self-cleaning house, yet, but some simple organization can help you get a handle on the clutter and the cleaning. It takes a bit of commitment to get your house to the semi-automatic cleaning stage, but the work you put in up front pays off in extra time to spend with your family, your friends, and your favorite hobbies. Here are some tips to help you get organized so that you can enjoy a clean house from now on.
Organize your family into a trash patrol.
Designate one day as “Trash Day” – a day to get rid of all the old things that no one is ever going to use. Hand out trash bags to everyone and point each person in the direction of a room with instructions on what to remove.
Clean out the medicine cabinet
Throw out all medications that are past their expiration date and make a list of anything that needs to be replaced. You may find that you now have room in your medicine cabinet for the essentials and you can easily keep track of what you have and what you need once you get it all organized.
Clean out the pantry
Pull everything off the pantry shelves and throw out that box of cereal that no one likes and those olives that someone gave you in a gift basket. Pour dry goods like sugar, salt, and rice into airtight plastic containers that stack easily. Dispose of those messy paper and plastic bags. Use the bottom shelves to store bulk goods. Put foods that you use everyday such as canned vegetables, soups and other meal prep items on the shelves at eye level in easy reach. Save the top shelves for foods and food prep items that you only use occasionally.
Clean out bedroom closets and dressers.
Get rid of clothes that do not fit and toss out anything torn, worn or otherwise unwearable. Empty dressers and closets and start sorting clothing into three piles – throwaway, giveaway, and keep. Be ruthless – have a friend help you decide what to toss and what to keep. Your friend may have a much keener eye for what you should hang onto than you do.
Clean out your cleaning closet.
Get rid of that collection of almost-empty spray bottles of window wash and cans of air freshener that were too heavy for your house. As you run out of cleaning supplies, replace them with simple, natural alternatives that do multipurpose jobs. Who really needs sixteen different kinds of cleaner when you can clean almost anything with bleach, baking soda, lemon, or ammonia?
Sort out your laundry room.
Strip down the laundry supplies to the essentials: laundry detergent, pretreatment, bleach, and fabric softener if you use it. Make use of vertical space above washer and dryer to store laundry supplies, and do not give in to temptation to tuck a basket of “mending” up there to overflow. Put an open laundry basket in each kids’ room to collect dirty laundry each day, and make “bring me the laundry” one of the first chores that you teach. Put a hanging rack beside the washer to make it easy to hang clothes right out of the dryer.
Keep your cleaning supplies together and portable.
Keep your housecleaning supplies in a single portable basket that holds everything you need for basic household cleaning tasks in each room. That includes an all-purpose cleaner, dusting cloths or paper towels, and a glass cleaner. Keep cleaning supplies that are used exclusively in one room in that room – the bathroom particularly. You may be far more likely to mist the shower tile if you do not have to go to the kitchen to get the tile spray.
Pick up as you go.
Once you have your house clean and organized, you may find it easy to keep things neat and clean. Do not let the mess get ahead of you. When you use a plate, rinse it, and put it in the dishwasher. Put books back on the shelf when you are done reading. Keep a simple organizer basket on the side table in your living room to hold remote controls, eyeglasses and other things you use in the living room so you have an easy place to stash those important things.
Make use of baskets so you only have to make one trip.
Keep a basket by the stairs to collect all the things that need to go upstairs or downstairs. You may find it much easier to get things out of the way when you can just drop them into a basket. Every time you go upstairs, grab the basket and put the items it has collected where they belong.
Straighten up before bed at night.
It is easy to get into a bedtime routine that includes cleaning off the kitchen and living room tables and putting things back where they belong. It is far easier to spend the few minutes doing that than it is to face the mess in the morning.
Jeremy Foster is a freelance writer and blogger who writes about DIY topics and home care, often focusing on a specific area such as home organization.
Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com
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