The Primary Skill For Keeping A Clean House
There is a meme about guy’s living in minimalist apartments and not seeing any issue with it. Usually there is a chair, a TV, and nothing else. What’s funny about it for me, is when I was younger I had envisioned a similar set up in my own imaginary apartment. But I ended up getting married and never had a single’s apartment.
I can see now why some people would think this minimalist setup is wrong. It’s because the setup has nothing to do with minimalism, and is probably more likely because the guy doesn’t want to have to clean or tidy anything. He makes no effort to make his place cozy. There are no indicators of his tastes, his interests, his habits, or clues to whether or not he’s a cheap miser or a philosophical minimalist. Maybe more single men would be willing to have a fully furnished space if they practiced just one cleaning skill.
Take care of things right away when you are done using them.
That’s it. That’s the skill. It seems like a no-brainer, but start paying attention to your household chores. When you are done with your clothes, put them in the laundry basket, not the floor. When your laundry basket is full, go ahead and then wash and dry the clothes. When the clothes are done in the dryer, take them out, fold them, then put them away. This is called adulting.
Have you ever known someone who would leave their dirty dishes in the sink? Maybe they leave them on the table after eating and don’t touch them again for a few days, only to move them to a kitchen counter, where they will sit again for days (weeks?). The dishes begin to pile up and the issue is not addressed until it becomes absolutely necessary to reuse them. By then the job has grown large and difficult. Difficult because the dishes were never rinsed, so the leftover food (some of which is molding) has almost become one with the dish, or pot, or pan, or container.
If only this person had taken the effort to do just one thing after eating, by rinsing their plate and putting it in the dishwasher, they would never experience a pileup of dishes. It takes a minute and saves five. Also, if you are done using a thing, whether it be a pencil, a document, mail, a coat, boots, toothpaste, or anything else, put it back where you got it from. That is the key to organization, by the way.
Sometimes people don’t have a designated spot for something. You may know these people to frequently lose their keys, their cellphone, their charger, their wallet, and more. If they developed the habit of putting things away right after use, that habit would involve creating designated spots. Your keys are hanged, your charger stays in one outlet and never moves, your wallet is always on your dresser. Everything should have a space in your home. Random table and countertop spaces should not become catch-all spaces that crowd and grow. Again, when you take care of something immediately after you are done with it, your place will maintain a cleanliness that means you won’t be scrambling and cleaning for hours before company arrives.
Start being mindful of what you are doing with objects when you are done with them. It may seem like extra work to take care of an item right away, but it actually saves you time in the long run, and you may also experience the mental benefits of having a clean and organized space. Anyone can develop this skill and begin immediately. Start by noticing the things around you and asking if the clutter is there because something wasn’t dealt with right away. Take care of what you have most recently used first, and then when you have time work on your backlog of undealt with items.
