I clean here and there, but living alone its not always a huge priority. Occasionally my apartment gets to be enough of a mess that I spend a couple hours straight cleaning but as long as my living room looks decent and my bathroom isn’t trashed I’m generally ok (only places people that visit here and there stop into anyway)… but my kitchen at the moment is a mild disaster… My bedroom… slightly better…
I can’t seem to keep it clean… so busy with work and such its tough to get into a routine that keeps it liveable.
Always wipe up any spill immediately, clean the counter and cutting board/knife as you use them. Plate up the food and wash the pots and pans as soon as you finish eating [no leaving them for later or in the morning.] If you have a dishwasher load it as soon as you finish eating. Always put the ingredients away after cooking, and use small trash bags and take the trash out nightly if the dumpster is located close.
I had an apartment once that had nothing in the way of cupboard space, so I literally used the dishwasher to store everything - i washed the dishes every night because I only owned enough for 1 person to cook and eat 1 meal. Amazing how clean and bug free it stayed without dishes sitting around.
30 second rule. If you can put it away in 30 seconds, do it. It’s much faster than tossing it aside and going back to clean or put it away later.
I also like the Flylady suggestions for when you do the heavy cleaning…for 15 minutes, do one thing and one thing only. Vacuum, do laundry, iron, dust, whatever. Then, after that 15 minutes is up, do another chore for 15 minutes. Then, a third. The last 15 minutes you take a break. Repeat this until you’re done.
The trick is to keep you focused on the one chore. A lot of us, in running around, will see other things that need to be done, so you’ll drop what you’re doing and start something else. Also, a lot of times, you’ll find 15 minutes is plenty of time to complete one chore.
The others have tackled clean, so I’ll tackle organized.
Iron Rule #1: “Organized” comes from having less crap than you have places to put it.
Start by identifiying stuff you’re saving to deal with when you “get around to it”. For me, that’s impulse magazine buys, or junk mail catalogs that somehow seemed interesting at first glance. Since there will never be a time when I’m less busy than now, the idea that I will ever “get around to it” is faulty. So just pitch the stuff.
Next step is to avoid accumulating round tuit stuff in the first place. I’ve been working that problem for 40 years and have made some progress, but it’s not totally stopped yet.
If you still have too much stuff, time to get serious about not buying more. You’ll be amazed how much money you save.
Iron Rule#2: Put it away the instant you’re done with it.
Before my kids trashed it, I used to use their Time Tracker if I needed to blow through the house quickly. Set for 20 minutes with a 5 minute and 2 minute warning, then off to the next room. When you’re focused on trying to beat the timer you get a whole lot accomplished.
I’m terrible about letting the kitchen get a mess, so I won’t say anything.
Don’t keep things on the floor. Furniture goes on the floor and everything else goes on the furniture. It makes it a lot less of a chore to vacuum that way.
If you haven’t touched or thought about something in over a year, get rid of it.
Plastic bins / drawers are your friends. They’ll keep everything clean and neat. I keep all my toys and decorations in them when I don’t have them out.
Hampers / baskets are also your friends. It’s much less intimidating to put something away if you don’t have to step over a million things to do it. And that way you have something to sooth your messy instinct. Throw it all in the hamper instead of the floor. You’ve got one messy spot and it’s easy enough to clean that later, instead of the whole room being a dump.
The best advice I can give you is to become a minimalist. I picked up the habit from Zen Habits.
The key is to have as little objects as possible on cleanable space. The pain of cleaning comes from moving or putting away objects cluttering your tables, floors or counter tops. If you don’t keep anything but the essentials on your table, cleaning it will take no time at all.
The only effort is in setting up a minimalist home, which takes some savvy organizational skills. In addition to what you will read in the site, here is what I do:
Everything that I haven’t used within a week is stored inside a draw.
Everything that I haven’t used within six months is in the basement.
Once or twice a year I look through the stuff in the basement and throw out whatever I can.
If you can, do away with rugs and carpets.
The less you have to walk to put something away the better. Keep a laundry hamper in your room if you must.
Don’t buy unnecessary furniture, or furniture that is hard to clean.
Remember: The less stuff you have the less time you spend cleaning.
There is only one universal rule: A place for everything and everything in its place.
The first part is hard unless you buy lots of shelves. I recommend the type that can hold “banker boxes” which are 12"x16" with cutout handles and loose fitting lids. I have them along every wall, and the wall then stores things up to the ceiling with no wasted floor space.