Friday, February 23, 2018

Make Your House Look Clean: Day 5

Welcome to our fifth and final day of talking about how to keep your house looking cleaner, without actually cleaning!

Today's lesson just keeps building on the rest of them.  So if you've been following along days 1-4, you might not even need this!

Keep surfaces clear.

That's it.

Again, easier to say than execute.

Maybe visual clutter doesn't bother you.

(But I don't believe that.)

It bugs me.  There have been times where I've left something sit on my desk for days, weeks, because I think I need to reference it.  Like there were some vases in HGTV Magazine (did not expect to be mentioning that twice this week...) that I liked and was interested in buying.  Why did that magazine sit on my desk for over a week?  Is it that hard to go to the website and find the vases?  No.  But there it sat.

I didn't think the magazine on my desk would bother me.  It was just one thing and the rest of the desk was pretty clear.  And I got used to it.  But then I "finished" with it and put it away.  And magically, my desk seemed SO MUCH bigger.  Even though I had gotten used to that magazine sitting there, putting it away made everything seem better.  It was no longer nagging me, my desk was clear.

It's happened time and time again with things that have sat on my desk or on the kitchen counter.  I think "Oh, this pile of Luke's art can just stay here.  I don't want to sort through and figure out what to keep and what to recycle."  So the pile kept growing, I got used to it.

Then I finally took care of it and everything was better.  The counter was clear!  I had dealt with a nagging issue!  It didn't bother me every time I looked that way.

So now I make a point to keep surfaces clear as their base point.  How they are when they aren't actively being used (baking cookies or having dinner or piling up receipts to enter when doing bills).

(Note: the way to keep your surfaces clear isn't to push everything to the floor.  That will only work for about a second before all of a sudden the floor is now the problem.)

I cannot tell you how much more sane it makes me and how much cleaner it makes the house seem just by keeping surfaces clear.  Usually of papers (how is there so much paper coming into the house?!?!).  I can relax better when things are put away, things are clear, the house is tidy.

It really makes such a difference.

Keep your surfaces clear, put things away (or get rid of them) and your house will look SO MUCH cleaner.
 office gallery wall (4 years later the only thing that's changed are some of the personal pictures!)
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This week I'm sharing 5 little tips to keep your house looking clean, little things that can make a big difference in how you and others see your living space!  Day 1 | Day 2| Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

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