The chaos and indulgence of the Christmas period can leave us all in a spin. Once the wrapping paper has been cleared away, and the food has been eaten, the big clean-up can begin.

While many people wait for spring before they do a deep clean, we believe New Year is the perfect time to develop new habits.

Why tidiness matters

In order to keep a house clean, you need to keep it tidy. This is the number one request we have of clients who hire us to clean their homes: have a tidy up before we get there.

If we arrive at a house that is messy, it takes us much longer to complete even simple tasks, like hovering the carpet or wiping the surfaces. The longer we spend moving things out of the way, the less time we have to clean.

When you have kids, pets and visitors using your home, it can be very difficult to keep it looking tidy. From experience, we can provide a number of tips that will lighten the burden for you.

Making tidiness easy in 3 simple steps

There are three simple things you can do which will make it easier to keep the house tidy, both today and for the whole year to come.

  1. Have a massive New Year clear out. It sounds dull, but it really works. Scan your home and locate items that aren’t serving a purpose. Sell anything that is valuable on eBay or Gumtree, and do a few trips to the recycling site with newspapers, bottles and boxes. If you have a garage, spend one sunny day emptying everything out onto the patio and going through it. To develop habits, we love the minimalist technique of throwing a few items away each day for a month. It really makes a difference.
  2. Store everything away. Find a place for everything in the house, and make sure things go back to their ‘home’ each night. You might have to replace storage furniture, or invest in a few new boxes and baskets, if your possessions have outgrown the storage you have. Remember: small children love to sort things, so you can make this a game and enlist some little helpers with the task. Effective storage makes your home look better, and it also stops things from getting lost.
  3. Declutter like a demon. Broadly speaking, anything that you don’t use and don’t love should be thrown away. If you have a sentimental attachment to an object, make sure it’s safely stowed in a logical spot (see step 2). Otherwise, be ruthless: it gets recycled, or thrown out. Have a look at the KonMarie method for to learn decluttering principles that work.

Tidiness leads to cleanliness

A tidier home is a more efficient home, and a home that’s more pleasing to be in. You’ll find that your new, organised house looks a lot bigger, and it’s also easier to keep clean.

If you’ve got a New Year’s resolution to love your home more, hiring a domestic cleaner could help you create the house of your dreams. For an affordable quote, don’t hesitate to give us a call and find out what we can do to help.