Map a Cleaning Route

For a one-story house or an apartment, start with a corner room and work inward. If you have a two-story house, start with a room at the top corner of your home and work your way in and down. Clean each room completely before moving on to save energy and time wasted from walking back and forth.

Break Up Chores

Instead of spending an entire day or weekend cleaning, clean half the house, or one level, on one day or afternoon. Clean the other half or other story on another afternoon. Take on projects such as an attic, basement, or garage during a blocked off time.

In the Kitchen

Keep your kitchen in order by creating a place for everything. Store cookware and utensils near the range or cooktop so they are within reach when cooking. Keep a spray bottle with a solution of one part bleach to four parts water or an all-purpose spray cleaner in the kitchen for cleaning after meals.

In the Bathroom

Stash a spray bottle with all-in-one window and surface cleaner and an extra roll of paper towels under each sink for surface cleanups.

In the Hall Closet

Introduce storage bins with separate drawers for gloves, hats, and scarves. Stock up on stackable see-through plastic containers to store lightbulbs, batteries, and emergency candles.

Create a Cleaning Center

To make your cleaning efficient, use baskets, bins, and caddies to store products and supplies. Consider integrating your cleaning center into an existing laundry area or room. Create customized cleaning and supply checklists. Post daily, weekly, and monthly chores on a small bulletin board in the cleaning center. When running low on a product, add to list before the next shopping trip.

Laundry Room

Keep all laundry supplies together in a pretty basket or box. This will save time when doing loads of laundry and will keep the laundry area tidy.

• Doing the laundry once a week is generally sufficient, but plan for additional loads if you wash uniforms, work clothes, or gym clothes. If dress shirts and suits are part of your attire, add a weekly trip to the dry cleaners.

Think of putting your garden to bed the same we put our children to bed…you know brush their teeth, wash their face and getting one last drink of water and then relax and read a bedtime story. Well treat your garden the same way. Be sure everything is cleaned up including dead plants and debris. Tidy it up and make it look good. Now is a great time to mix a little compost in each box and smooth and level it out so it will be ready for the sprnig planting. The little extra work you do in the fall will only help your garden look attractive and neat looking all winter and make springtime a breeze!

1. Cupboards – Go through all you kitchen cupboards, one at a time of course, and you will be amazed at what you find that can be thrown out! Don’t be surprised if you find things like spices that are about 10 years old and/r baby spoons that are no longer needed!

2. Bedroom Closets – The saying goes – If you haven’t worn it in a year, get rid of it. This is a great rule to follow…

3. Bookcases – Look them all over and get rid of the ones that don’t sound interesting. Also, go through knickknacks, papers, magazines, or anything else filling up those bookcases.

4. Kids Room – This is something that needs to be done about twice a year in my house. Kids go through their clothes, toys, video games, etc and out goes anything they are no longer interested in.

5. Bathroom – We know how cluttered and overflowing those vanities and medicine chests can get. Go through all those goodies and if it has hardened, softened or changed color, get rid of it!

6. Linen Closet – Towels, sheets, curtains, etc, are also things that need to be periodically sorted and tossed.

7. Under Your Bed – This part of the decluttering can be quite scary. Proceed with caution and always have a weapon, such as broom, vacuum cleaner or bug spray with you!

8.Organize – There are so many great products these days that hold everything. Get some inexpensive plastic boxes and neatly store all your items that are not in display or not used daily. You can get small ones in the dollar stores to organize your CDs, use them in your pantry or cupboards, store odd and ends, letters, papers, you name it!

9. Throw Out the Old – One thing you must absolutely remember when decluttering is you have to THROW AWAY the NOT USED or WANTED. DO NOT just take everything out and rearrange!!! That is a temporary solution and is not sufficient!!!!!

10. Everything in its Place – Once you have everything decluttered and organized, get everyone to keep everything in its place and your home will remain clutter free forever! Well not exactly…but you will feel on top of things