I love to organize and I want to make it easier for you to feel, stay and be organized.

We keep our house pretty tidy all of the time.  I’ve never apologized as visitors come over and, in fact, we’re ready for guests all of the time.  And yes, we enjoy living in our house and still make good use of the areas (I have piles of projects to rival the best of them), but we know that we feel better when our house is tidy and it’s easier to accomplish than you think.  I promise.  I’m going to share my best ideas with you for how I make this happen with just a little bit of effort every day.

Simple tips when you’re trying to organize anything:

• Focus your efforts on the spaces you see the most often.
• If it’s filling your life with stress, maybe it shouldn’t be in your life (you don’t need so much stuff).
• Give everyone ownership and age-appropriate tasks to get involved.

Here is what I do every single time our house needs to be a little more tidy. I encourage you to try these simple tips:

1. I tidy a little bit every single day.
2. I spend about 15 minutes each morning cleaning up a small area (usually one room) of our house.
3. I have a few regular tasks I do every morning, including loading and unloading our dishwasher (and the kids put away the silverware in the morning before school).
4. Our kids put all of their used dishes in the sink (ok, most dishes make it close to the sink – but I’m still counting it).
5. We each pitch in every single day to clean up something in our house.
6. I try to check basics each time I’m in a room and do one thing to make an improvement.
7. I keep my cleaners & supplies in the area I use them most.
8. In the evening, I’ll often do a quick fix while I’ve got a minute (like when we’re starting a family movie)
9. We have ample storage: shelves, cubbies, bins and tubs.  Everything in our house has a place.
10. We don’t have tons of stuff everywhere – we donate used items, fix broken items and remove unusable items regularly.

Our house is showcase ready because we work as a team and do a little bit here-and-there every single day.  Just a little bit.  Every single day.  There are dedicated times when I spend more time cleaning and organizing our house.  During those times, I follow my lists and schedule my time so I know it’s going to be a deep cleaning day.

If you don’t feel like your house is tidy or you’re not getting the help you need, I encourage you to start or refine your system today.  If you are specific with your tasks and help the team take ownership, you should be able to make progress.

I encourage you to spend time this week – 15 minutes to one hour – tidying your house so you can live a more peaceful, less cluttered life today.