One Habit That Will Improve Every Space in Your Home

For as long as I can remember, my Grandmother has always told me to leave a room in better shape than when I arrived.  I now think she was actually trying to convince her little tomboys to slow down and behave like ladies, but I always took it literally. If you can get into the habit of doing one small extra every time you go into a room, all of the spaces in your home will start making progress.

When you are able to break down an overall job into small bites, it becomes easier to accomplish.  If you can learn to continuously clean your home one small step or adjustment at a time, it will seem as if you spend less time cleaning overall. You will not remember the many little things you add while going through your normal movements, but you will notice the time savings the next time you purposely set out to clean a space.

Each time you go into a room try to do one little thing to improve its appearance. This doesn’t have to take more than a few seconds. Pick up one thing to be put into the trash. Pick up one thing that can be put away. Remove an item that belongs somewhere else.

After you wash your face at the sink, quickly wipe down the counter or the faucet before putting the wash cloth in the dirty clothes hamper. This will not sanitize the sink, but it will mean that the next time you do clean the bathroom, less scrubbing will be needed. Next time you are in the shower, wipe down a small section with your soapy washcloth when you are done with it. The soap scum will be kept to a minimum. The next time you clean the shower or tub it will take much less time than normal.

As you pass by a cluttered spot like a table or desk, you do not have to clean the whole space, just do a one second fix. Remove something or pick up a pile of papers and tap them to straighten the pile into a neat square. Put one thing away.

When you are walking along and see something on the floor, you do not have to pick up the whole room or sweep or vacuum the whole room. Reach down and pick up that one thing. If your family is less than timely about taking the dishes back to the kitchen, each time you get up, take one glass or one plate back to the kitchen. Offer to take someone else’s with yours or take it the next time you get up to leave the room.

Do not keep yourself running in circles by taking an item from one room and moving it to another only to pick up another item and move it to yet another. You can spend the entire day going from room to room wasting time that you could have used to accomplish other things. This is a habit to simply work into your regular movements. If you are headed that way, take something that way. If it would be going out of your way, just move it closer or leave it.

There are so many little things you can do that it would be impossible for me to list them all. One extra handful, one extra second, one little thing that is on your way anyway. Just leave a space a little better than you found it.