a quick one: keeping your place clean
May 11th, 2008
You know, I’m not one to toot my own horn, but I keep my home, car, and office pretty clean and tidy. I’d like to think that this comes naturally to me, but it really doesn’t. It takes a concerted effort to keep the cobwebs out of my brain and out of my living space. The reality is that I’m pretty scatterbrained and I tend to procrastinate; these are two traits typically held by messy people.
So how do I battle my own messy tendencies? I really only have two tips that I follow pretty religiously, and I can’t even take credit for those as I’ve read great articles about both of these tips on Lifehacker, Unclutterer, and Zen Habits. Even so, I’m gonna rephrase them here with a little dan spin, cool?
- Clean As You Go
- The Ten Minute Blitz
This is key, and it doesn’t just mean always pick up after yourself. I’m also talking about the little things: scrubbing the throne, taking out the trash, wiping down the kitchen cabinets, reorganizing your medicine cabinet. All of these things are great to do as you notice them or think of them. See a trash can that needs emptying? Don’t wait till trash day, empty it now. Bathroom faucet looking a little dingy? Wipe it down while you’re brushing your teeth. The point is do things as they occur to you rather than putting them off till some prearranged (or often ambiguous) cleaning time.
I think it was Leo Babauta of Zen Habits who wrote the article where I first read this. Every day, at a time that’s convenient for you, set a timer for 10 minutes, then clean. When the timer goes off, you’re done. Even if you didn’t get all the cleaning done that you intended, go ahead and quit.
This serves two purposes: First, it keeps you from procrastinating until Thursday night or Saturday afternoon or whenever your cleaning day is. It also forces you to clean with purpose…with laser-focused precision. Side benefit? If you force yourself to stop after 10 minutes, you can stave off Cleaning Burnout, which is the bane of clean houses everywhere.
Follow these two tips, and I can’t guarantee that your house/car/office will always be clean; heaven knows my stuff isn’t. But I can guarantee that it will always be cleanER than if you didn’t, and I’m pretty sure you’ll stress less about it. That counts, right?
Disclaimer: there are millions of tips specific to cleaning, and I don’t pretend to know everyone’s situations (kids, pets, lazy husbands, etc). These tips are for keeping things clean. You may have to augment these with your own personal cleaning strategies. As always, I’m just sharing what works for me.
Tags: cleaning, organization, neatness, clutter, messiness
Filed under: uncategorized
One Response to “a quick one: keeping your place clean”
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May 12th, 2008 at 10:00
That 10 minute cleaning blitz is a helpful idea. Looking at a messy room and thinking about cleaning it up can be scary. Cleaning for 10 minutes? That’s not scary at all - mostly. Thanks, Dan and Leo. You guys are quite a team.