Simple Sustainable Sovereign

How does the status of your home impact you?

For me, if my home is a mess, I have a hard time functioning. If I have seriously neglected to keep up on chores, I sometimes get to a point where I don’t know where to begin. This leaves me struggling to focus on much of anything because everything around me feels chaotic and the list of things to do seems far too long. On the other hand, when my home is clean and everything is in its proper location, I feel a sense of calm invigoration; I am inspired to start a new project, get focused on a task, or do an activity I have been putting off.

I know that everyone has a certain level of messiness they can tolerate before it begins to weigh on them, and I certainly have a lower threshold for this than some, but I’ve never met someone who actually prefers to have a messy home, rather they typically have the issue of wanting it to be tidy but finding that they struggle to keep it that way. 

Finding quick and simple methods that allow one to maintain a tidy home in a way that is sustainable to their lifestyle is an important task. The status of your home makes an impact on your daily life, and by creating personalized solutions to the issue of an untidy home, one’s daily rhythm can be optimized to better support their endeavors and ability to thrive in their personal genius, without the minute details of physical and mental clutter impeding them. 

The Cleaning Cycle

The way you view cleaning is directly related to the attitude you have around it. While one can choose to view cleaning as a surprise every time the need arises (“Another sink full of dishes? How does this happen every single day?”), one could opt instead to view it as a cycle that ebbs and flows with the rhythm of life. I recommend trying this.

Cleaning, for better or for worse, is repetitive. It is a cycle that must be consistently completed if one wants consistent results. It is up to each individual the length of this cycle, and this is an important choice. For example, if you complete a certain cleaning task in your home just once a month, it will likely take more time to accomplish, as the mess has been allowed to accumulate for a greater length of time. You may also spend more time with the burden of the thought that this job needs to be done. However, if you instead do the same task weekly, or even daily, the job will likely be much quicker, since it is regularly completed. You will also likely not spend as much time thinking about it because you know that it is incorporated into your routine. Going a month before repeating a cleaning task is an example of choosing an extended cleaning cycle, whereas repeating the task weekly or daily is an example of a shorter cleaning cycle. Neither cycle length is necessarily better, it is simply a variation of the choice we have to make when it comes to maintaining our living spaces, and one should acknowledge the benefits and costs that accompany this choice and do what works best for them.

My Guidelines for Maintaining a Tidy Home:

Below you will find my top tips to maintain a home that is clean and neat. These are things that work well for me, and I hope that they will be an inspiration for creative solutions to the issue of completing the cleaning cycles in your own life. 

Tip #1: Create a Cleaning Routine

The most helpful thing I have done to be able to sustainably maintain a neat and clean home is to create a weekly cleaning routine. I avoided doing this for a while as I had grown up with a chore chart on our fridge that assigned a different task to each day and I absolutely despised it. I didn’t have an understanding of the repetitive nature of cleaning then, so each week that Monday rolled around and I had to vacuum again I was rather irritated.

Because of this experience, I took a more “clean as you notice it’s dirty” approach in my own home for a while. This worked alright for a time, and if you find this to be a good method that’s wonderful. Eventually, though, I found that all of my cleaning tasks would pile up; I’d be trying to get everything done at once, which I couldn’t do, and I would feel very discouraged. So, to break this cycle I created a routine for myself that works very well. I encourage you to take a look at mine and create your own that would work with your schedule, if you so desire.

My weekly cleaning routine:

With this routine, my home feels very clean and fresh by the time the weekend rolls around, which enables me to focus on whatever we have going on, without the stress of coming home to a messy house. Obviously this list doesn’t include everything, so I incorporate seasonal decluttering/ organizing as well. Checkout my guide to spring cleaning for more on my approach to this.

Tip #2: Every Item Needs a Home

My Aunt Rhonda always said, “A place for everything, and everything in its place”. Her house was always super clean, despite having four children and pets, so I am definitely a believer in this rule. The first part of it is quite simple, every item in your house needs its own place. If you have items in your home that don’t have a designated location where they “live”, then you really just have clutter. So, to avoid this, make sure that whatever you have or bring into your home has a home. If it doesn’t, either decide on one or consider getting rid of it.

Tip #3: Once You’ve Used It, Put It Away

As the second half of Aunt Rhonda’s saying goes, “. . . everything in its place”. Every item has a place, and it should be in that place unless it is being used. When you finish using an item, don’t leave it out. If you do, the next person who goes to use it will not be able to find it, or you yourself may spend time trying to hunt it down. Instead of leaving things lying around, make a habit of putting them back where they belong. It may seem slightly inconvenient in the moment, but it is a simple habit that will save you time and irritation in the long run.

Tip #4: Take the Time Now

If you’ve read my post five life-changing habits, you know that I do my best to follow the rule that “If it will take five minutes or less, do it now”. This may seem similar to the last tip, but it applies to more than just putting things away. Basically, if there is a task that you notice needs to be done, and it can be completed in just a few minutes, try doing it now. By doing this, you can skip the annoyance of forgetting and re-remembering, or holding the task on your mental to-do list for hours or days and then still having to spend time doing the thing later on. You will spend less time overall on the task because you can notice it, do it, and stop thinking about it, instead of noticing it, not doing it, thinking about doing it, and then finally doing it.

One of my favorite applications of this philosophy with regard to a tidy home is in the area of tasks like dishes or folding laundry. It’s not going to take that long to wash the pans right after you use them, or to fold a load of towels that has just dried, but if you put these jobs off and allow the dishes or laundry to pile up, you will have a bigger mess to clean later. So give it a shot, just do the thing.

Tip #5: Practice Continuous Decluttering

My final tip for maintaining a neat home is to be constantly re-evaluating your possessions and eliminating items that are no longer serving you. For a long time I held on to things I didn’t need, “just in case” one day I did. I justified this as being for the sake of sustainability, as it allowed me to use what I already had whenever a situation arose that required these items. However, while this may seem more sustainable with regard to the environment, it is certainly not sustainable in creating a welcoming and functional living environment.

Now, instead of holding on to random items I no longer use, I keep a donation pile in my closet at all times and place items in there as I notice they are no longer functional for me. Then, I might end up throwing them away, or if they have some life left in them I either take them to the thrift store, sell them online, or pass them on to friends or family members who have a use for them. I have come to understand that this is actually a more sustainable solution than what I was doing before, because it promotes a circular economy and allows my space to evolve to fit the current needs of my lifestyle.

In reality, nobody has a perfectly clean house.

It is possible to maintain a tidy home though, and finding solutions to make the repetitive cycle of cleaning bearable, simple, and even enjoyable will go a long way in improving your mood, environment, and ability to focus on your most important work. 

If you struggle with keeping your home clean and tidy, I encourage you to give some of these tips a try and see if they help. Let me know if any of them work for you.

Do you have a great tip for a tidy home that you want to share? I’d love to hear that as well. Leave a comment and let me know!

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