Organize Your Life at Home

When I come home from a long day, or even a short day I want to come where things are not only familiar but the atmosphere is relaxing, comfortable, and welcoming. Getting on top of your home clutter and to-do list.

Do you feel overwhelmed at home? Drowning in things like children’s toys ,paperwork , to-do lists, and just the everyday chores it takes to keep your home looking presentable?  Maybe you’re so overwhelmed that you find yourself shoving things in closets and under the bed. Out of sight out of mind. Eh?

Well take a deep breath and think about how much more at peace you could be if just some of this stuff was taken care of.

How about if your laundry was caught up?

Your office desk cleared off and neat as a pin?

Your bedroom closet organized and arranged by item type with the out of season clothing safely stored in the attic? Or the basement.

Okay I don’t mean to scare you but it is possible.  The key is not to try and do it all overnight and to tackle it all in bit sized moments.

If you only took 15 minutes a day and focused on organizing one area of your life or home just think where you could be in 3 months. If you did nothing and let it go on as it has just think where you’ll be in 3 months. Quite a difference and it shows you can get done in the small space of 15 minutes.

You may have heard about using 15 minute slots to clean your home before I personally enjoy the way Emilie Barnes details how they can help you organize your entire home in the books Survival for Busy Women and  [easyazon_link identifier=”0736922539″ locale=”US” tag=”mommybabytool-20″]More Hours in My Day: Proven Ways to Organize Your Home, Your Family, and Yourself[/easyazon_link]

Let’s put these little chunks of time to use. Listed below are what I think of as the ultimate BASICS in my home when I’m just uninspired or have no energy to do more.

These BASICS are just taking care of the most visible surfaces of the home.  Keeping up with these areas of your home is  the very base to keeping your home clean an organized.  Once you have the surfaces of your home clean and sparkling then you can start scheduling in slots of time to attack the clutter and deep down dirt you’ve been ignoring (yes you have, who hasn’t?)

I’ve listed a basic daily cleaning list as a guideline to daily home care.

Use this list to establish a daily routine to keeping up your home.

Basic Daily Cleaning

1. Clean out the kitchen sink.  First thing in the morning and last thing at night make sure your sink is cleaned out. Dishes put away or in dishwasher.  If it’s the dishwasher that is full, then clean that out to ready it for the next batch of dirty dishes. The ideal is to empty the dishwasher first thing in the morning so that you have an empty one to fill all day and then run that night. Or if you have no dishwasher empty the dish drainer and again have that to fill with clean dishes all day.

2. Do a load of laundry. Do at the very least one load of laundry a day. With larger families try for a load of two. One dark and one whites. Or small families of 2-3 one white one day and one dark the next day.

3. Clean off dining table.  The dining table seems to attract papers and other sundries.  Do your best to clean it off at regular intervals during the day. If you work try to have it clean as you leave the house. If you’re at home try making sure it’s cleared off first thing in the morning. In the afternoon and again before you go to bed.

4. Make all beds. Make them as soon as you get up. Period. Makes a whole room look neat. (Okay I personally wait until after breakfast so the beds have a chance to air out but if you struggle in this area make them as soon as you get up.)

5. Arrange the bathroom counter and wipe down counters and toilet. I know after I’m done with my morning ablutions if I leave everything just as it is it’s very messy.  So at the very least I try to put away all lotions, toothpastes and the like. This takes 2 minutes.

• Read our article Put Your Home on a Schedule  for more tips on scheduling your cleaning chores.

• For more tools and inspiration consider picking up a copy of Finally Organized, Finally Free for the Home   It is an amazing collection of 2,175 organizing tips, ideas and techniques to help you organize your home, your office and your life!

• Get our beautiful Chore Box. This cool box helps you to organize your household chores and more. Sooo organized!

• Take is one step further and join My Homemaking Mentor Online Homemaking Academy. Encouragement, tips, and tools for your homemaking journey. Pretty cool!