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When it comes to cleaning your house, it boils down to two things:
1- Actually cleaning (scrubbing, wiping, washing).
2- Decluttering & Organizing.
Beyond cleaning, your home won’t “feel” as clean if it looks cluttered, so I suggest doing these things to make your house look as Tidy as cleaning makes it feel.
Top Ten Rules for a Tidy Home:
1- Let go of things (not just material things).
2- Visualize a life free of clutter. Picture your home like you want it to be, room by room. Now go to each room and make it happen. Work on it every day.
3- Keep only things that spark joy. If you are about to bury something in a dresser drawer because you don’t know what to do with it, just get rid of it.
4- Get rid of things you’ll use “someday”. Trust me, if you haven’t used it in the past year, you probably won’t use it. It will cause more stress than happiness.
5- Respect your home goods for the use they provide. Take care of your things.
6- Don’t hold onto things for fear of the future. Don’t keep your 200 receipts in case you need them some day… if that time comes, you’ll be able to find it (credit card statements, etc…)
7- Don’t hold onto things to preserve the past. Don’t keep that shirt from high school… take a picture of it, but get rid of it. Don’t keep that vase that you don’t even like to look at just because it was a gift. Remember it, write a note about it, take a picture of it, but get rid of it.
8- Make an epic clean sweep. Just like I talked about above, clean your house from top to bottom. It may take a few days, but you can do it and you’ll feel so much better!
9- Don’t store clothes according to the season. I say this because most people that do this are keeping far more than they can wear… When you put it away, you don’t know what you have and you may buy something similar. In the end, you have 6 pairs of jeans that resemble each other and far too many clothes.
10. Don’t let your possessions control you. Clutter does not just fill up your house with stuff, it fills up your stress levels, it fills up your tension, it fills up your irritation. Let it go and let yourself feel free because of it.
