Ask UfYH: 7 Habits of Reasonably Tidy People

Or people who’d like to become reasonably tidy people.

1. Put it away, not down. By getting things back to their proper homes right away without setting them down somewhere else first, you reduce  not only your clutter, but the amount of effort you have to expend keeping the place clean.
2. Wash, dry, and put it away, goddammit! Leaving clean dishes to linger in the dishwasher until you’ve pulled the last item out to use only means your dirty dishes are piling up elsewhere. Letting clean laundry sit in the dryer or a laundry basket is going to contribute to an overall sense of chaos.
3. Make the most of your “waiting” time. We all have things we do regularly that require us to do a bit of waiting around: making coffee or tea, filling the bathtub, waiting for a pot to boil. Use that time to complete a few small tasks in the area where you are.
4. Prevent the floordrobe. By putting your clothes, clean or dirty, wherever they belong instead of just dropping them where they land, you’re taking a big step in avoiding one of the most common household disaster areas: the bedroom floor.
5. Deal with it now instead of later. This applies to almost any task you can think of that you regularly put off. Instead of dreading doing something, just do it and move on with your life. The longer you put something off, the worse it gets.
6. Keep your flat surfaces clean. Nothing makes a space look more cluttered than counters, tables, dressers, and other surfaces being piled high with stuff. Try to keep as much off of these surfaces as possible, and you’ll always feel like things are a little bit cleaner.
7. Do something, anything, to improve your home or your mess every day. This not only helps keep you ahead of the mess, but helps to build habits that make cleaning less of a dreaded chore and more of something that just happens in between the rest of your life

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