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Last updated on April 9th, 2022 at 12:03 am
Organizing and maintaining a clean house takes SO MUCH TIME! Doesn’t it? Actually, it doesn’t have to. There’s a lot of easy ways to spend less time organizing your house. It’s true!
If you want to spend less time organizing and cleaning up, you need to use routines and habits.
Here’s 4 easy routines and habits that will help you spend less time organizing and more time doing the things you really should be doing.
1 | Put things away when you’re done using them.
My daughter has a pretty big playroom. She’ll take out a few toys in the morning, then they’ll lay abandoned on one side of the playroom while she pulls out a whole new set of toys. If I let it go, by the evening the entire playroom looks like a tornado blew through. Then she complains that it’s too much to put away.
You know, that overwhelming feeling.
We’ve been trying to teach her to put things away as soon as she’s done with them. If she did that, there wouldn’t be nearly as much work to do at the end of the day.
I practice the same habits. If I’m cooking, I don’t wait until the very end to clean up –I clean up as I go. And as we use the kitchen throughout the day I spend 10 minutes doing the dishes after breakfast and lunch so I don’t have to spend an hour cleaning up before I can make dinner.
2 | Use the One-Minute Rule.
Yes, this is similar to the first rule. Kind of. But it’s more fun.
If there’s something you need to do and it can be done in a minute or less, just do it right then.
I call this fun because sometimes it’s like a game to see how many little tasks I have that I can do in a minute or less. Then I get a whole bunch of stuff done and my house is cleaned up.
Maybe I’m just crazy.
3 | Set a timer.
I know, I know. I get tired of seeing this tip everywhere too. But it makes things less daunting if you can set a timer for doing it. Just organize as much as you can in 30 minutes.
If you’re cleaning up, make it game by trying to beat the timer. Try to finish cleaning up the kitchen in less than 10 minutes. It’s such a great feeling when you can beat the timer.
4 | Make a plan.
If you know what you’re supposed to be doing, it’s easier to get things done, right?
When Keelin was working on her Home Organizing Action Plan, she told me how much easier it was to organize because everything was laid out in a step-by-step checklist. She knew exactly what to do next. No time wasted trying to figure out the next thing.
Having a plan, no matter how simple, keeps you from wasting time.
Make a plan. Don’t waste more time.
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That’s 4 easy ways to spend less time organizing your house. If you use habits like putting things away when you’re done with them and using the one-minute rule, your house should stay pretty tidy. And when it comes to decluttering something bigger, setting a timer and making a plan can save you more time in the long run.
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