What thing, no matter how small, really improved how clean or tidy you manage to keep your house?

[Cotherstone]

With hindsight our old house was not clean at all - it was old and run down and I hated cleaning as it never made a dent to the overall picture. We’ve recently been lucky to move into a new, and newer, place which the previous owners kept immaculate, so I’ve been trying to really up my game.

The main things I’ve learnt are:

A decent stick hoover means you actually can whip it around every few days, or even every day in certain areas, and my word that makes a difference to everything else!

The dining table is obviously the tempting place to dump everything but keeping it clear with some flowers (even fake ones) and a fruit bowl on it makes me feel so much better

Trying to stop seeing cleaning as “wasted time” - I’m starting to understand that 15 minutes running the cloth and hoover round the kitchen after dinner isn’t wasted, and while I don’t have to love doing it, it genuinely pays off with an improved state of mind because the kitchen looks nice in the morning

For the first time as an adult I finally have a house that’s not perfect, but definitely in a state where I’m not going to panic if someone drops in unannounced.

Anyone else have one or two things that seem to have made a real difference?

Clearing out and having less stuff.
Organising stuff logically (thank you Marie Kondo) ie stored close to the places you will use it.
Putting stuff away in its designated place immediately after use.

If the house is tidy it's easier and less daunting to keep it clean

The mantra 'I deserve to live in a clean house' rather than 'ugh I have to clean'

Professional decluttering and organisation cracked it for me. Then a fortnightly cleaner as mobility problems have made some tasks difficult.

I realise that it's not an option for everyone but it's helped me to understand how I'd ended up with too many possessions and how I'd allowed stuff to accumulate. I donated a lot of stuff to the local women's refuge too.

Brilliant!!

Getting my family members to do their fair share.

• Timers - 15 minutes when get in from work, 15 minutes after dinner. Daily jobs.About one hour Sat morning. Timer makes me more efficient.
• Empty dishwasher every day, load of laundry most days. previous day is folded and put away.
• don’t leave a room with empty hands! There is usually something to carry and put away.
• swish and swipe loos/sink every day/ every other.

1. my very recent purchase of a shark vacuum cleaner. It tackles house bunny fur in a way I've never managed before.

2)use the delayed start timers on washing machine. I can set dishwasher and washing machine going before work and then get home to clean pots and clean pants.

3. if it doesn't go in the dishwasher or washing machine it doesn't get bought. (No handwash/dry clean items)

4. empty both machines as soon as possible so you can tidy dirty pot/socks into them and just set them off when full instead of collecting things from around the house.

5. live alone. No one coming behind you making a mess as you clean. 😁

Kids leaving home, then retiring 😂😂
the house is now spotless!

The bottom line is everything you have will end up being in a tip or recycled eventually whether it goes through several other owners (unlikely) or not.
Living with the guilt of having chucked reasonably good stuff that you just don't use or don't want is a good incentive NOT to buy more.
A visit to the tip is pretty depressing. Think carefully before you buy.

I try to only throw stuff away if it’s literally past use, but I declutter stuff every week. I don’t bother trying to sell things, just donate, and will drop off a bag of 2-3 things at the charity shop on my way past. Outgrown clothes go in the textile bin, or to the baby bank. We have a very active free cycle group so I often post something for free then leave it in the porch for collection.

basically do little and often and don’t waste time trying to sell stuff.

Having a DH that cleans is the thing that makes the most difference to mine blush I'm a total slob.

But agree that following a method helps. I like a slob comes clean too, I bought her book and this is really helpful in the way it's laid out and the things she says she used to think about cleaning all made me laugh because they are exactly how I think about cleaning. Changing that has helped.

And decluttering. I also used to save things to sell eventually or think I needed to donate etc. Now what I do when I declutter is have a donation/free exit strategy for them before I start. So I have a place to drop off books and a donation bin for clothes. I need to identify a second hand shop or charity shop for the rest really but I have become a bit more ruthless with throwing away, if I think nobody would reasonably want it. This is a combination of konmari and Dana (the slob) thinking - seeing that lost value as buying space in your home, buying your time back etc. If you really think about the amount of time it will take you to organise things into piles, wash it, photograph it, list it, research how much it should sell for, then deal with sellers or postage - it's so much work and you usually don't get a lot back. You could actually just donate all that stuff and use that time to deliver leaflets or something for the same amount of money! I wouldn't want to deliver leaflets and I realised I didn't actually find the online selling a huge amount of fun so what I do now is list things that are likely to sell, throw things away that are not, and whatever doesn't sell in a short period gets donated somewhere that will take it no hassle, no questions asked.

So if you're saving things for a car boot, have the car boot. Don't save them up forever. Just go and do it once a month or so.

Something else Dana says about decluttering is understanding that it is not a project that ends. You'll always have extra stuff that you no longer need. Decluttering is something you'll always have to do. Thinking of it like that changed the way I thought about it as well.

Sorry for formatting - I had to copy and paste written post and it went like that.

My local tip now has a little shop where things can de donated and sold on, cuts down on the guilt factor when decluttering.

Great thread! I have nothing to add as my house is a tip...

Getting rid of DH would be a good start but he also earns the money to pay for the weekly cleaner so it's a catch-22 😁

I have a variation on the Marie Kondo view to decluttering (or preferably buying in the first place).
Rather than ‘does it spark joy?’ I ask myself ‘can I be arsed keeping it clean?’ If not, it goes or preferably doesn’t enter the house in the first place.

I've not read all the thread... but I've got a rule that really helps me..

... it's just to make sure you leave the room how you wish to find it.

So when I get up I make the bed and tidy up and whatever so it's good for when I'm back that night.

When I finish in the living room I plump the cushions and take out any mugs etc - again so next time I come in it's "welcoming"

Same with the kitchen etc - so really it's just using one room at a time I suppose?

I've always been ruthless with STUFF but getting a cordless hoover really changed things. Now I want a robot.

Owning less.

Reasonable expectations. My house will never look like a show home. We try our best and we must accept it.

As soon as I win the lottery 😉I am buying a 3 storey home. The ground floor shall never be used. The ground floor will have an immaculate lounge, dinning room, guest powder room, and a spotless kitchen on account that it will never be used😄 The middle floor will have our everyday kitchen and lounge, and the top floor will be for the bedrooms and family bathroom.

Listening to audio books by my fave writers ONLY when cleaning or driving meant that I felt super productive and actually wanted to do the housework or run my errands. That's when my house is the cleanest, when a new book has just been released 😂.

Other wise I got everybody a large plastic tub each. They are put on the stairs every morning. Whatever "stuff" I find through the day , any clean folded washing etc I put in the correct tub. Once everybody is home from school/college/work they take their tub upstairs and put their stuff away.

Love this thread thanks

Every time you boil the kettle you clear down anything in the kitchen.

Getting rid of downstairs laundry organisers. A dirty basket comes down, and it goes back.

organising the house to have a good flow. This takes time. Ie. If you usually use something but its home is somewhere else. Ie. Keys at front door. Or My hairbrushes were in the bathroom. But I usually use them downstairs too. So either get two or move it’s home.

Oh and pre cut disposable paper for the air fryer