Maintain an Easily Tidied Home with These 21 Tips

We all want a tidy home, right? I’m sharing a few tips to help you create an easily tidied home! No more long weekend cleaning sprees just to make it through the week. A tidy home is attainable for you!

A few weeks ago I came across a quote that said something to the effect that the goal of home organization is to have a home that is easily tidied.

Isn’t that what we want?

That’s the reason we spend so much time cleaning out closets and hauling our stuff to Goodwill?

We aren’t getting our homes organized just to sit and stare at our pantry full of labeled acrylic bins, all perfectly aligned!

Getting rid of the stuff that overwhelms us and setting up systems is to make our lives easier.

We want easily tidied homes!

My 21 Tips for a Tidy Home

1. Be vigilant about the things we allow in our homes

Every item that makes its way into our homes requires some amount of energy. It also requires us to clean it or dust it or find a place to store it. When we only allow things in our homes that we really need or use, we have less to clean and dust and more energy to give to things we value more.

2. Keep our shopping habits in check

One of the biggest reasons we have too much stuff in our homes is because we like shiny new things, especially if they’re on sale. With the ease of online shopping, we don’t even have to put on good clothes to spend money. Often, we buy things as a way to fill a void or for the thrill shopping gives.

When we step away from our credit cards, we are less likely to fill our homes with things we don’t need or use. Instead of making us feel good, these items eventually create a sense of guilt over money wasted.

3. Practice the One In/One Out Rule

To keep from accumulating closets and cabinets full of things we don’t use, every time we bring an item into our homes we can remove one item from our homes.

Buy a new shirt, find a shirt in the closet that we never reach for, and add it to the giveaway pile.

Buy a new kitchen utensil – throw away the melted, past its lifespan utensil that needs to be replaced.

Apply this rule to every purchase and our homes will be full of things we genuinely need and use.

4. Never leave a room empty-handed

Inevitably, items wander from room to room in our homes.

Folded laundry in the living room. Socks in the floor by the front door. Blankets we snuggled under while watching a movie.

Instead of leaving these items perched in a place they don’t belong, as we walk about our homes or go from the living room to our bedrooms, we can pick up these random items and place them in the room or closet where they belong.

This constant movement will keep items from piling up for weeks at a time, creating an overwhelming amount of misplaced items in our homes.

5. Always have a box ready for collecting donations

We must have a plan for keeping items moving out of our homes. By designating a box or bin specifically for donations, we are more likely to place items we’re ready to part with in those designated boxes or bins.

As our families catch on and know this donation box exists, they’ll be more willing to place their discards there as well.

6. Apply the 1 Minute Rule

Any task that we can do – right now – in 1 minute or less, do it right now!

Hang up the towel after a shower. Put keys and purses in their designated places. Place dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Replace the toilet paper. Carry the empty cereal box to the recycle bin. Throw away the junk mail.

So many tasks we do every day really don’t that long! And if it won’t take us more than a minute – we should do it immediately!

7. Do a quick pick-up every night before bed

As part of our evening routines, let’s spend just a few minutes picking up! Spending just a few minutes picking up what’s left behind from a busy day helps create a more stress-free morning.

The quick pick-up will also prevent the inevitable piles from growing all around our homes.

8. Corral all papers and mail in one place

Designate one place for mail, school papers, magazines, receipts, doctor paperwork, etc. Place a basket on the counter or on the corner of a desk. Train all the members of your family to drop their paper in the basket.

Paper is a massive annoyance for so many of us. Prevent paper pile up all over our homes by designating one gathering place for all the paper that makes it through the front door.

9. Throw trash away

The amount of trash that accumulates on our floors and in our drawers is astounding! I’m talking real trash like tags, food wrappers, empty bottles, and more. Conveniently placed trash cans all around our homes will help with our trash issues!

10. Embrace Trash Day

Once a week or twice a week if we’re lucky, the trash truck drives through the neighborhood. Let’s push to fill the trash cans every single time the truck rolls by. It’s a low-effort, convenient way to remove unwanted items from our homes. Embracing trash day is a key ingredient in your easily tidied home.

11. Wake up with a clean sink

Years ago, I read a lot of Flylady articles. One thing she emphasizes is to “shine your sink” every evening! Bottom line, go to bed with an empty and clean sink! At my house, this means running the dishwasher every single night. Whatever waking up to a clean sink requires us to do in the evening, get those dishes done and out of our sinks!

12. Establish a laundry routine

Depending on the size of our family and the age of our kids, laundry gets to be a never-ending process. I encourage people to do at least one load of laundry – floor to drawer – every day. That may not work for every family.

Before laundry becomes a bottle-necked system, we should find a laundry routine that works for our family. A quick Pinterest or google search will help us come up with all kinds of options for getting the laundry washed!

13. Put laundry away

Now that we’ve established a laundry routine, we must be sure and put the laundry away! Every piece of laundry should have a designated drawer, bin, or a place in the closet. Shockingly, once all the laundry gets put away we’ll likely find clothes we didn’t remember we had!

Avoid throwing loads of laundry in chairs or in baskets only to stay there until they’re worn or thrown in the washer again.

14. Make the bed every morning

Wanna give the appearance that our bedrooms are tidy? Make the bed!

And if we accomplish nothing else all day in the realm of tidying your home, at least we know we tidied our beds!

15. Clear the bathroom counter daily

It takes just a few seconds to put away all the make-up, brushes, lotions, and potions we use while getting dressed each morning. Wake up each morning to a cleaned-up bathroom counter! Getting dressed in a clutter-free bathroom is a lot more fun and less chaotic in a tidy bathroom.

16. Set a weekly declutter appointment

No matter how much we work on our tidy homes, it’s likely there’ll be some busy weeks where tidying will not be a priority. In these times, we can find a few hours in our calendars to dedicate to decluttering. Making an appointment to declutter just like we would to get a haircut or massage might be necessary. Decluttering is self-care, too!

17. Put dirty clothes in the hamper right away

The floor, the treadmill, the bench at the end of the bed are not acceptable places to place clothing if tidiness is the goal! Laundry baskets should be conveniently located near the place we change clothes in our homes. Those steps are worth it to have your easily tidied home!

18. Commit to a daily “Big 3”

When I say “Big 3,” I’m referring to 3 household tasks that can be completed every single day. These tasks will help us stay on top of areas of our homes that are prone to clutter. My “Big 3” each day are running the dishwasher; completing on load of laundry (floor to drawer); and making my bed.

19. The floor is not for storage

Years ago one of my favorite home bloggers said that tidy people never use the floor as storage. She’s right! Using the floor for storage means we’ve run out of space to store all the things in our homes. When tempted to keep a pile of books on the floor of the living room, remember that tidy people don’t use the floor for storage.

20. Establish a weekly cleaning routine

I loathe cleaning! LOATHE IT! But when I’m on my A-game (which isn’t often), I follow Clean Mama’s weekly cleaning schedule. By focusing on cleaning 1 area per day, we can stay on top of the cleaning. Part of the weekly cleaning routine could be having a cleaning service show up once a week and that’s okay (that’s incredible), too!

21. Only keep items in your home that you love or use

We’ve all heard it said that our homes are living space, not storage space. Oh so true and a worthy goal! Let’s fill our homes with only those things that we love and actually use and our clutter problem will take care of itself! Am I right?

I hope these 21 tidy home tips are helpful as we seek to create homes that we love and enjoy with our families and friends, but at the same time are easily tidied.

Perfection is never my goal.

That’s too lofty!

Easily tidied is doable!