Guest Blogger: How to Organize your Home to Minimize Cleaning Time

Guest Blogger #249, Entry #752, November 9, 2011

If you’re like most adults, cleaning is just an arduous chore that takes up a big chunk of your minimal free time.  Many people put off cleaning tasks or moan and groan about them because they are so time consuming, but all of us like a nice clean house to come home to at the end of the day.  And while you can certainly split the chores amongst members of the household (since everyone contributes to the mess); the truth is that there is a much easier way to cut down on the amount of time that everyone spends on cleaning.  All you really have to do is get organized.

Organize your home and cleaning will be a breeze

Image via: Womans Day

The first step is to reduce clutter

It’s a sad byproduct of our consumer culture that households often end up overflowing with unnecessary junk.  Have you seen the show Hoarders?  It’s a fine line between having a lot of stuff and hoarding, and there’s a reason that show stays in business season after season.  It’s a vicious cycle when you stop clean but keep bringing stuff into your house.  In any case, an abundance of items in your home will obviously make it more difficult to carry out cleaning tasks, so you’re going to need to cut back in some areas.

Start by decluttering your home first

Image via: The Martell Experience

Furniture

Furniture is a biggie, especially if it’s bulky.  Furniture that is too large for your space or doesn’t fit your needs has got to go.  You can also get rid of duplicate items that you really don’t need two of (like the blender you got as a wedding gift that you haven’t even taken out of the box because you like the one you had before).  You should also try to pare down the tchotchkes.  Even if you are some sort of collector, every piece you have is one more thing that has to be cleaned and then moved to clean underneath.  We’re adults here, not kids, so why not set a good example by sharing?  Keep just a few of your favorite pieces and sell or donate the rest.  You are guaranteed to have a much easier time cleaning afterwards.

An organized room can make for easier cleaning later

Image via: House Beautiful

Time to Organize

Now that you’ve managed to reduce the amount of clutter in your home, it’s time to get everything else organized.  This means you’re going to have to get on board with compartmentalization.  The bedroom, family room, kitchen, office, and even bathrooms can benefit from adequate shelving, drawers, and bins that give everything its own place (so that nothing is ever out of place).  Bins that snap closed are often the best option since they are less likely to collect dust and you can stack them up.  You can use them to organize files and supplies in the office, clothing and accessories in the bedroom, linens in the hall closet, makeup and toiletries in the bathroom, non-perishable food items and cooking utensils in the kitchen, and media in the family room.  The potential to organize is at your fingertips in every room in the house when you adopt smart strategies for an orderly space.

And the best part is that you can clean as you go so that by the time you’re finished organizing, your spaces are spic and span.  This will pave the way for easy upkeep that will allow you to spend a lot less time cleaning and a lot more time enjoying your tidy household.

Evan Fischer writes for Asset Tags (view asset tags here), a company that specializes in adhesives and security tags to help you get organized and ensure the security of your items.

For more home organization ideas on Stagetecture, click here.