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I love learning new tips and tricks both on how to more easily keep a clean, organized home as well as everyone's little tricks for those moments when you have 20 minutes before unexpected company is about to walk through your door. (One of the funniest I've heard is to pull out the vacuum and display it prominently and then explain apologetically "You caught me in the middle of my spring cleaning."
To help keep the house clean, I:
- sweep kitchen floor nightly before bed
- take kitchen trash out nightly
- use microfiber cleaning cloths and spray bottle of water to quickly remove fingerprints from stainless steel appliances
- make bed every morning (ok, I only do this about half the time, but I'm working on it!)
- open and sort the mail daily
- utilize a 'landing strip' zone in the foyer
If you can't afford to hire someone, the next best thing is to have many children and raise them the old-fashioned way by having them do chores. My siblings and I joke that my mother had children because she couldn't afford a maid. The truth is she could afford a maid. She just didn't need one. She had us. We did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed the floors, etc. I swear the only thing she ever did was cook dinner and laundry. Of course, she must have cleaned when we were younger, but that can be considered investing in the future labor source.
Second best answer - if you close your eyes upon entering a messy room, it does not look messy at all. You can have fun trin to fell your way through and get around base on memory and approximate distances.
For me, the ONLY answer is, DON'T LET THINGS SLIDE, otherwise they get worse and worse and worse until you are so demoralized at the state of a particular room that you just give up and close the door!!
Of course, "don't let things slide" is easier said than done. I do try to keep up with simple things every day, and I have 2 small vacs for quick jobs when I don't want to lug out the big guns, but still -- there are times with certain rooms that I just give up for a few days.
Get rid of knick knacks and clutter.
Replace carpet with porcelain tiles.
Don't buy stuff you don't absolutely need. Everything you bring into your home is just one more item that has to be cleaned and maintained.
Go through all your rooms and remove furniture you can live without.
Less is more. Family and friends are important, stuff isn't.
We will do a quick vacuum or mop after company leaves and I'm OCD about the kitchen being put back together after a dinner/before bed. I have my "shut the house down for the night" routine as well.
The Swiffer wet jet is amazing, especially since I used pliers to pop the insanely secure top on them to put in our own additive/cleaners (money saver).
Declutter 15/20 mins a day. If you do a little bit each day it wont seem like much.
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