A good read...

I found an interesting article that, basically, affirmed some of the patterns I've built into my life:  9 Things People with Clean Houses Do Every Day.

In short:

1.  They Make Their Bed
2.  They Empty the Dishwasher in the Morning
3.  They Do A Load of Laundry Every Day
4.  They Use Baskets to Organize Things
5.  They Don't Procrastinate
6.  They Put Away Their Clothes for the Day
7.  They Clean as They Go
8.  They Never Go to Bed with a Dirty Kitchen
9.  They Plan Ahead

Obviously each point has a short explanation.  I think that No. 5 is key in both the workplace and the home:  They Don't Procrastinate.  The explanation:  When a box is delivered, unpack the goodies inside and discard the packaging immediately. The same goes for dealing with spills or messes. The longer you wait, the harder they become to deal with.  A way I learned this at work is:  Only touch the things in your inbox (physical) once.  People at work found their offices a mess because they would glance at something, set it aside, and think they would deal with it later, but "later" rarely comes.

In a way, that is how you can keep your email inbox clean.  Delete/respond to/file your emails as you read them.  One thing I do is if I have an email that I do not have time to address, I will mark it as Unread so that the next time I open my email I could deal with it.

No. 7 is key:  They Clean as They Go.  I have this ditty oft running through my head:  "Clean as you go so your mess doesn't grow." A tuneless humming.  The explanation in the article is:  You can dramatically minimize your mess by cleaning as you go. If you rinse the cutting board while the pasta is boiling or start loading the dishwasher while the chicken is baking, the bulk of the work will be done by the time you serve dinner.

It is much, much, much easier to keep a place straight if you take small moments of time to do quick cleaning, pick-up, or organization.  If you are waiting on a dish to cook or a spouse to finish dressing or a child to gather things for school, use the opportunity to tackle a small task.  I've mentioned before that this motivational speaker I heard in college, Harry Wong, taught: If you take care of the minutes, the hours will take care of themselves.  I think a lot of folk use those "minutes" on social media instead of staying on top of the care of their home.

I partially disagree with No. 4:  They Use Baskets to Organize Things.  Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they use a variety of containers to organize things.  I am a HUGE fan of baskets, but I am not a fan of having a house full of baskets.  For example, I do not have a basket in my cabinet for the lids to my glass food containers, but I do have a bookend that has made a tremendous difference in both keeping my cabinet neat and the ease of putting away both lids and the containers.

If you have multi-level homes, I do STRONGLY BELIEVE that a key keeping-the-house-straight help is to have a basket at the top and bottom of all the stairs.  Now, in my home, I have a basket hanging on a hook at the top of the basement stairs.  Throughout the day/week, when I have something for the basement, I will pop it in the basket.  Then, when I go to fetch meals from the basement freezer, I will first carry down and put all the things in the basket away in their place and then fill the basket with mason jars.

For upstairs, I place items at the left side of the bottom step of the back staircase.  If I had a family, I would get one of those baskets that sit on stairs.  With just one person, a discrete pile is fine.  At the top of the main staircase, there is a wide square newel post.  There is also a smaller one at the top of the servants' staircase.  So, when I am upstairs, I will perch things that need carrying downstairs on one of the newel posts, depending on the size.  That is often the last thing I do before I crawl in bed, check to see if there is anything upstairs that needs to go down in the morning.

The point is, I do have baskets or a container of some sort in places to keep things organized, but I do not have them everywhere.  That would be tacky.  I'm the daughter of an Interior Designer, after all.  But baskets can be really useful tools for gathering and carrying things as you are going about your day.

I would also add a No. 10:  Have a Place for Everything and Keep Everything in Its Place. When things have a designated place that everyone in the household knows, picking up a room or straighten a space can be accomplished more quickly and more smoothly.  This is especially important for children and their rooms.  You set up most children for failure by telling them to clean up their room if you have not first worked with them to find a place for all of their things.

Of course, as I have stated many times, there is a difference between a "straight" or "neat" home and a "clean" home.  My home is incredibly straight.  It is not always clean.  Vacuuming and dusting weary me.  My kitchen is always clean, as is the half bath off the parlor.  My bathroom ... well, I cannot see the floor and what you cannot see doesn't really hurt you, right???  So, in short, the title of the article needs a correction, too.  This is about keeping a neat house, not necessarily a clean house.

A good read ... in my opinion.