15 infallible tricks to keep the house tidy

If you are up to Marie Kondo's bow and want to achieve a harmonious home without having to throw everything away or spend the day tidying up, you've come to the right place. With small gestures like the ones we propose in our tricks, in a few minutes you will be able to keep clutter at bay.

Make the bed

Although you may be very lazy, there is a before and after getting into the habit of making your bed as soon as you get up. Something as simple as stretching the sheets makes a bedroom look neat or messy. And it is not worth the excuse that it is to air. It is proven that a few minutes is enough for the room and sheets to be well ventilated. And also, with current duvet covers, you just have to stretch them. What does it take? One minute? Two at most?

Leave the bed wide open to ventilate while you shower or have breakfast and, after dressing, you stretch it and, as if by magic, the bedroom will look tidy.

Drying the shower screen

Having a squeegee in the shower seems obsessive about order. But beyond that prejudice, what is proven is that drying the screen after each use helps save time when cleaning. Although it may seem like a contradiction, investing a couple or three minutes in passing a window cleaner brush or a dry cloth through the screen after each shower means that you do not have to kill yourself to remove the lime the day you decide to clean it.

You can have the brush inside the shower or hidden behind the toilet. Another trick is to use an old family-size towel to dry in a flat pleat. It is one of the tricks to clean the bathroom in 5 minutes.

Dry the faucet and the mirror

The other trick to keep the bathroom in order and clean with almost no effort is to dry the faucets, the mirror and keep the surfaces clear. After showering or cleaning, wipe the taps and mirror with a microfiber cloth, so they won't be full of light bulbs. And keep everything you have used in their drawers or corresponding spaces. As in the previous cases, it does not take more than a couple or three minutes to do it.

For example, I keep a microfiber cloth in the sink drawer and I change it regularly at least once a week. Or you can use the same large towel that you used to dry the shower.

Collect towels

One of the cleaning and tidy mistakes that we make very often is to leave towels lying around, or anywhere, after showering; something that gives a feeling of disorder and, in addition, can cause bad smells. Keep in mind that wet clothes can be one of the causes that your house smells funny.

After each use, skip the intermediate step of tossing the towel on the floor or wherever and then repositioning it where it belongs. Unless you have heated towel rails to dry them from, put them out after each use.

Put clothes to wash

Likewise, when you get home or change your clothes, save yourself a step. Don't leave dirty clothes on a bathroom hanger, a bedroom chair, or directly on the floor. Pick it up right out of the way and take it to the laundry basket or put it to wash.

If you do not have space to have a laundry basket, as I do, you can have a maxi bag behind the bedroom, bathroom or kitchen door. Apart from taking up little space, depending on the bag you choose, it even looks pretty.

Fold clothes directly

It is also very common to pick up clean clothes from the clothesline or the dryer and pile them up to fold them later, with which we again have a double task and a visual focus of disorder.

In my case, as I do my best to avoid ironing, I tend the garments so that they are already well stretched or even with hangers. And as I am taking them off the clothesline, I am folding them one after one, and immediately I take them to their place so that they finish settling down and ironing them with the force of gravity.

Put the shoes away

Shoes are another of the most problematic points of the mess, but also one of the easiest to fix. Instead of accumulating them at the entrance or at the foot of the bed, assign them a specific place and as soon as you get home, put the pair you were wearing in their place. Which is easier, save a pair of shoes or a gazillion?

If you don't have space for a shoe rack, you can place a narrow piece of furniture at the entrance, in a corner, or in a hallway. Here are some good ideas for organizing your shoes.

Put clothes away

With the clothes that you take off and that do not have to go to wash, the same. Do not leave it lying anywhere for the laziness of taking it to the closet or the coat rack.

It costs you almost the same effort to remove it and hang it on a hanger inside the closet as to leave it in any way on a chair and then end up taking it to the closet. In this way, you save an intermediate step and the house looks more orderly.

Keeping the countertop clear

It seems like a no-brainer, but most people pile things up on the counter and then it gets so uphill that they put off the task of tidying it up later.

To prevent things from accumulating, I have a rule in my kitchen: the things that I use occasionally, cannot touch the counter. Let me explain: if I am going to make rice, for example, I take it from the pot, put the amount I need directly in the strainer where I am going to clean it or in the pot where I am going to cook it, and I put it back in the cupboard without leave the jar on the counter at no time. So, what I use, what I keep and the countertop stays clear and tidy.

Clear the table after eating

Dining tables are another black point of clutter. Even if the after-dinner is extended, as soon as you get up from the table, collect the things. Don't do the typical thing to do a little break on the couch first and you'll pick it up later. Later, it will make you even more lazy and you run the risk of more things accumulating.

To make work easier, a good idea is to have an auxiliary cart on hand. So you collect everything in one go.

Wash dishes immediately

What do you prefer: wash four plates and a few glasses or all the dishes? If you don't wash the dishes right after picking them up, you run the risk of dirt becoming encrusted and accumulating those from other foods due to laziness in getting down to business.

As soon as you clear the table, remove all food scraps and put them in the dishwasher or wash them. This will make it much easier for you and you will keep the kitchen tidy with almost no effort.

Clean the stove

As in the case of dishes, the sooner you clean the stove or the hob, the easier it will be to do it. The more time passes and the more dirt accumulates, the more difficult and cluttered it is and the less you want to do it.

For vitroceramic and induction hobs, just pass a kitchen paper with a specific product. But if the stains are already dry, rub them with an ice cube and then use the scraper to finish removing them. More tips for cleaning the stove, oven and range hood, here.

Save the purchase

Another common source of clutter is leaving your groceries somewhere and putting them away later.

As in the case of the countertop, you can create the rule that everything that comes out of a bag has to go to its place. Nothing to leave it until you feel like storing it in no man's land (like the counter, the kitchen floor, the top of the fridge …).

Clear the work area

If you have to telework or have a work corner at home, at the end of the day give it a review and leave it clear. With five minutes, you will have enough so that papers, stationery and other things that give a feeling of clutter do not accumulate.

A trick to keep everything in order is to have a drawer unit with wheels next to this area, for example, where you can store all your things instead of having them in sight. Another option, if you work at the dining room table and do not want office items, is to camouflage the space where you keep things. How? Opting for a pouf or a bench with storage, a folding table with drawers …

Fix the sofa

Like making the bed, repositioning the sofa cushions, putting the plaids or auxiliary blankets well and leaving the coffee table free, costs almost nothing and gives a feeling of order. And it is one of the tricks to do the weekly house cleaning in just 45 minutes.

Before you go to sleep, take a look at the sofa area. It will take you a few minutes and, when you get up, you will find the house tidy to start the day on the right foot.