Day 16: Tidy up as you go
On Sunday I had a long over-due day at home while my husband was at work. It was just me and the poodle. I pottered and tidied and did laundry and it was wonderful. I had missed my previous day off as a day-at-home because little Atlas had his vet check-up. We only have one car so I drop my husband off to work and pick up him afterwards. So my day at home included the home, but not me.
This meant nothing got done and because we’ve been busy at work I haven’t felt the motivation to get stuck into doing things when we’ve arrived home. Evenings are for relaxing! Not so relaxing though when the table by my armchair (under the reading lamp) has magazines piled piggledy, a layer of dust, extraneous extras (such as a knitting pattern I printed out for a ‘small dog’ jersey, our rescued poodle feels the cold being so thin).
Not to mention laundry accumulating and the bed haphazardly made.
I woke on Monday morning after such a good sleep, and a clean and tidy house only added to my well-being as I got ready for work. When a home is organised and neat, it’s so much easier to put something away. When I let things slide, what’s one more thing on the ‘to put away’ pile?
I am now being very diligent with tidying up as I go, as I have a few more of my days off work in the future where I won’t be able to be at home.
Just a simple thing like clearing out the living area before we go up to bed in the evening, putting remotes and tv guide in the basket by the sofa, wiping off the coffee table, putting cloth napkins in the washing basket, tea cups in the dishwasher and straighten my end table, removing things that should not be there. It’s much nicer to come down to in the morning.
I "have" to tidy as I go. I hate going to bed with dishes in the sink and waking up to them the next day. When we leave for vacation, my house has to be in great shape because I want to come home to that and feel good. What has saved me a lot of time in our "new" house is having a HEPA filter (previous owner's kid had bad allergies)--I only have to dust once a month. Now if only I could get my laundry to do itself. : ).
ReplyDeleteYou're SO right! It IS much nicer to come down to in the morning!
ReplyDeleteI agree with this wholeheartedly...it's more relaxing when things are in order...chaos at home=stress.
ReplyDeleteFiona,
ReplyDeleteI am pretty good about keeping the common areas tidied up. Our kitchen is always cleaned up right after dinner. It's our bedroom that gets messy - books, magazines, doggy stuff, clothes that need to go to alteration, the cleaners, donation, etc., camera stuff, catalogues and the list goes on and on. Not too chic....especially for the boudoir.
Thank you for the reminder...I'm doing bedroom tidy duty today!
i agree =)
ReplyDeletein order to study i need a room conducive to studying, and by that logic in order to live (chic-ly) a room that is conducive to living. =)
although.. my room always seems to get messier before it can get cleaner...
~lenna
Boy do I need to start doing this. I always have a problem maintaining the neatness I work so hard to achieve. And, cleaning just becomes a way to procrastinate because I can't study when it gets to a certain point. Thanks as always for the tips!
ReplyDeleteOne sure way to stay tidy is to get rid of stuff! A spare room looks great if even there are dust bunnies on the floor. Our new house has wood floors throughout and the dust is very conspicuous, but the rooms still look great because of the lack of clutter.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked, I spent Sunday evening organizing for the week. I resented having to use the precious weekend time, but it paid off during the week.