There was a list of tips which I thoroughly enjoyed and am using a few. One which many may have used in the past, but am incorporating now while doing some organization...is the folded sheets inside their matching pillowcase. So much nicer to store this way.

Another for every day pickup was not to pick up something more than once. If you pick it up, then go with the next step of putting the item where it belongs. Makes so much sense to me personally and was guilty of wasting time moving things around. Can't remember who wrote this one, please chime in and take credit.

I don't have a schedule for laundry but when I do it as soon as a load is finished in the dryer it is immediately folded and put away. I am anal about how laundry is done and I don't want any help from anyone.

The kitchen is cleaned up every night. The counters are cleared and clean, the DW is done and empty (unless it wasn't a full load), the table is cleared and cleaned.

Floors are swept every morning. The cats tend to run around at night so by sweeping in the morning I get all the dropped fur.

My kids are done school so I have no hints for that. But when they were I had a central daytimer for all their activities. Now, my organizing tip would be to stay on top of the junk mail. I check it everyday and it goes straight into recycling.

Further to organizing - where I live recycling isn't really a choice and we have a very broad and organized recycling system for pick-up. Our kitchen is organized to that end so that we have separate bins for cardboard, newspaper, tin/glass, compost materials and general garbage. It made things so much easier when we got that organized.

I open the mail while standing next to the trash/recycling.

We have a bookcase near the back door/mud room where each family member "owns" a shelf. When I find random kids' stuff around, I put it on the appropriate shelf. Currently all the shelves are overflowing with papers, loose change, hair elastics, etc...

I agree with picking up each day. Really cuts down on the clutter.

Kitchen cleaned every night after dinner.

I cannot stand to have every day/hour scheduled so no, I don't have a certain day for laundry. I don't do it all one day - but as needed. I'm like bflenton in that once a load is washed/dried, it is put up.

We have recycle bins in the garage, just outside the door leading from the kitchen. A must.

tina

Mail gets sorted at recycling bin.
Bed gets made immediately by the last person out.
Clean up coincides with prep.
Dishes are put in the DW by the person who ate from them when they are finished. No dishes get left in the sink, no stuff that doesn't belong there sits on the counters.
Kitty litter gets scooped multiple times a day.
Floors damp mopped several times a week.
Front windows washed every Saturday morning.
Stoop swept every day.
Laundry almost every day.
Shower wiped down after each use.

There is an area on each floor where clutter is allowed (papers to be graded/desk stuff).

The only thing that is scattered about are cat toys.

There are only adults and a cat though so the system works out. But nothing is really let go for a few days or allowed to build up, so it's almost self sustaining.

As background, I'm single, no kids.

Laundry gets done on the weekend. One load of whites--sheets, towels, underwear and white shirts. One load of colors--everything else. It's a comforting feeling to start the new week off knowing there's plenty of clean underwear folded up nicely in the closet.

I have a routine for cooking dinner and cleaning up. Start dinner. Make lunch for tomorrow (if it's a work day). Put lunch in fridge. Eat dinner. Clean up/do dishes. Wipe down counters and stove top and sink.

The beauty of this system is that I clean up *once* after making dinner and tomorrow's lunch. I used to make dinner and clean up, then wander back into the kitchen an hour or so later to make lunch as part of my "getting ready for work tomorrow" routine. That meant I had to wash dishes, or at least a knife and cutting board, twice! So looking carefully at tasks and combining similar ones is a good idea.

Every time I leave a room, I try to take something that belongs in another room back to where it belongs.

A place for everything and everything in its place. I used to be a slob. Nothing ever got put away. That was because a lot of stuff didn't have a "place." I finally realized that things that had places--my clothing, books, silverware, dishes--tended to be put away. It was all the other stuff, the stuff that didn't have homes, that didn't get put away.

One, because I didn't know where to put it and figuring out where to put it would take time. Two, because I was afraid I would just shove it in somewhere and never remember where.

Once I sat down and took the time to declutter and then find a home for everything, tidying up took much less time. Which means I do it a lot more often. Which means the house looks much more tidy all the time.

What keeps my bedroom tidy is a tip I read a few years ago. Get ready for bed an hour before you actually get into bed. Get into your pajamas, brush your teeth, wash your face.

What this does is get you undressed before you are really tired. So you have the energy to deal with your clothes and put them back in the dresser or closet or in the hamper, instead of on the floor. You have the time to tidy up a little bit. It might not work for people who have to walk the dog last thing at light or those who have little kids, but it really works for me.

I am not very orderly nor do I have a system or schedule. One thing that helps a lot though is to take hangers to wherever your washer and dryer are located. I find I find that if I hang or fold things as I take them out of the dryer, I will put them away immediately rather than having the unfolded laundry sitting around waiting for me to get back to it.

One other thing that helps me for some reason is keeping the roll of kitchen trash bags at the bottom of the trash can. So, I lift out the trash bag, knot it and pull the next one up. I buy huge rolls at Costco. Somehow this makes the job of taking out the trash less onerous.

Some great ideas ladies! Thank you all so much. I'll be back to comment more tomorrow, but it's almost three am, I just finished tomorrow mornings article and I am bushed!

Reading this I am reminded that I must be ADD. Clutter REALLY gets to me, and if I'm not really careful, controlling it takes most of my time. Example: I'm cleaning up my kitchen, I see a piece of mail on the counter that needs to be filed, I go to put it in the drawer, I see another document by the drawer that I meant to talk to my husband about, I go to him where he sits in front of the tv watching a rerun of Modern Family. I sit and watch it with him, he gets us something to drink, I glance back at the kitchen and think "oh yeah, I need to clean up after dinner", I get up to do so on the commercial... You can see where this is going. With kids needing things this whole time the original document is forgotten about and this is the story of my life. I clean best when everyone else is gone, either out of the house or in bed. I don't do well with distractions.
Having said that, all the ideas above are really good ones!

Joanie - that is my life too!

I do sort the mail as I come up the driveway, so half or most goes in the recycle bin before I come in the house.

I keep everything neat except in my office by my computer. Yikes. Need to get organized in here.

I have a cleaning lady who comes every other Friday. That in itself keeps me from getting too messy as I have to "clean up" for the cleaning lady. Which means declutter and pick up so she can actually clean.

I'm also thinking about asking for a Zoomba for christmas that will run every day and just keep the hardwood floors picked up.

Some random thoughts.

We have three kids and a dog. There is a post below about keeping a clean house with a dog, you may find that helpful.

One of the biggest problems in many families is piles of paper. Typically it contains a lot of mail, and typically, one finds, that if you let it "season" a bit, you can just grab it by the handfuls and throw it out, to no ill effect!

Failing that, you need to cut it off at the source. First, pay as many bills on line as possible and request online statements. Next, before you enter the house with the mail, go through it. Discard what you can, and take your phone with you. Call anyone who sent you junk mail and get off their list. Do not enter the house until you have done these steps.

One architectural feature we find helpful is what we call our "loading dock". It is a long hallway from our side door into our kitchen. It is where we put things that are on the way into the house or on the way out. Boxes that have to be shipped back. Drygoods that have to be put away. etc etc

Our kids have a chore schedule. Table setting and clearing, dishwasher emptying and loading. Feed the dog and the fish. To my mind is it largely symbolic.

I always have three boxes "on the go". One for Goodwill, one for things to be drycleaned, and one for things that need repairs of some sort. Especially with kids, we drop off at goodwill probably every other week or so.

We all also have inboxes, that I keep in the office. Each person has one for their papers. There is an automatic timer to them; they are cleaned out when they start to overflow.

Everyone has a "mementos" Sterilite box in the basement. If you want to keep something but have no immediate use for it or place to display it, it goes in your mementos box.

I notice you say orderly, and not clean. Really no one can organize for you, I find. As for cleaning, I say subcontract away! At the risk of sounding like Marie Antoinette, I think everyone should have some cleaning help. Ours even does the laundry (folds it and puts it away too!). Other than the house we actually live in, cleaning help would be the last thing luxury expense I would give up. Imported cars, dinners out, fancy vacations. All rank below housekeeping in the quality of life. And BTW, that's backed up by pyschological research that says they regular, small pleasures make you happier than major purchases. It makes our environment so much neater and pleasanter, and all of us less cranky.

One other thing we do is that every one has a laundry basket in their room and have had since they were young. Whenever dirty clothes happen, could be at night or during the day after doing sports the dirty clothes go straight in the basket. They are really good about that. When I'm doing laundry I don't even have to go into their rooms, i just reach in grab their basket and dump it into the main laundry basket. Best thing I ever did.
My husband and I also have one in our room and we're both trained to put dirty clothes there and not on the floor.

One of the main reasons people have so much clutter is that they have too much stuff. Getting rid of excess possessions and clothing makes taking care of what you have much more manageable. We followed the something new in, something old out rule.

So many great ideas! I am much more relaxed now that my kids are grown and I'm not trying to balance their needs, school volunteering and a job. Some of the things that helped, and in some cases still do:

-Landing spots that are easy to hit and easy to find. Mail goes from the mailbox to a table immediately inside the front door. I sort it there and throw out the detritus, then put what needs attention into a basket on the table. Keys in use have a brass bowl on that same table. If they aren't there, the keys live on a key rack next to the door to the garage. Keys are always in one or the other spot.

-For years I did laundry twice weekly: Wednesday which was an early release day at the kids' school, and Sunday. Both sessions gave me enough time to do the laundry and then fold/put it away--I always have thought DOING laundry is a nothing chore, DEALING WITH the finished laundry is the hassle!

-I am not a creative or inspired cook, so I had a 5-night/week menu plan which I would create every Sunday before going to the grocery store. I wrote down all the separate foods needed for each night's meal, then underlined what I needed to buy that week and took it with me grocery shopping. I usually cooked a large batch of something on Sunday that could continue to feed us for several nights. Roast beef became one leftover dinner then another meal of bbq sandwiches. Roast chicken became chicken sandwiches then maybe pot pie. I served dinners Sunday-Thursday. Friday was leftover/snack night and Saturday was dinner out or takeout pizza.

I had a lot of other routines. This morning I asked my daughter what she remembers about being little and she mentioned that we used to lay out school clothes on certain chairs every night. I'd completely forgotten that one!

And, after years of on-off, mostly off, housekeeping help I concur 1000% with mtnrdredux. I've got an incredible person who cleans for me every other week and it's literally changed my life. I think having someone to help with that part of running a house is a godsend and yes, worth far more to my own mental health than fancy vacations, fancy restaurants or fancy jewelry! Such a lovely feeling to come home on cleaning day knowing the house is deep down spotless. And such a lovely feeling to know I don't have to spend an entire weekend day anymore grudgingly cleaning while the rest of the family is out having fun (yeah, I know but my family never ever cleaned adequately, much less to my standards :).

Ann

Mtn how wise of you to pick on my use of the word orderly. Though cleaning is important I was hoping more for ideas on how you all keep things organized and clutter free for this article.
I am seeing many of you do the same things I do and have some of the same problems I do. For the life of me I can't keep a tidy desk. My drawers are orderly, but my desk in constantly in disorder. Part because I have a cat that likes laying on my desk and feels it's his space so he moves my things to make room to spread out. And since he weighs in at sixteen plus pounds he takes up quite a bit of space. The pillow I recently put on my desk does help, but it's not quite big enough so he often stretches over the sides moving my papers as he does so.
I've never had a cleaning lady as like Caroleoh, I'd have to tidy up before she came. Things tend to get messy when I'm busy preparing for an article. It's impossible to keep up with everything else. I'm getting better at juggling though.

Sitting here after my reply I'm realizing how nice it would be to have cleaning help. I might have to rethink that. It sure would give me more time to do the creative things I feel guilty doing because I need to clean. Thanks ladies!

How to keep the house orderly? Invite people over. It inspires me to tidy up the little piles of stuff that can accumulate.

Boy isn't that the truth! I so glad I don't have company coming for tomorrow as I have two extra sofas in the Gentleman's Parlor that were suppose to be picked up today.

I am not very orderly nor do I have a system /schedule either....but 2 things that worked well when the 3 kids were young were: shoes off in the garage and they all cleaned up their own dishes and brought them to the sink. ALWAYS.

Cleaning help, Becky? I was lucky enough to have it after my surgery 5 years ago and let me just say- it takes hours to get ready/clean for the cleaner. But it's also a good thing because it forces you to do this every other week. :)

Hi Lori! How have you been?
You wouldn't know I'm an orderly person if you walked in our home today with all we have going on and the two sofa's waiting for pick up. If you opened closets, cabinets or looked in drawers you'd get the idea, but wonder how such tidiness was in a home in such disarray. The worst part is I have until Saturday at one to get caught up, not to mention a custom tote I'm making for my cousin to finish, because we're leaving for Cali for 12 days. Luckily our son and grandson will be home and can tidy anything I don't get finished.
I'm am strongly thinking of getting help with the daily chores so I can get other things, like sewing and woodworking, accomplished. I feel guilty working on those things because their "fun" for me, even though deep down I know I deserve some fun in my life.

I keep a bankers box for junk mail or old bills. Then when there is a free shredding event, I take the boxes and start over again.

I've never thought of myself as an organized person, but guess I am. Mail is immediately gone thru as soon as I bring it in the house. All envelopes are opened, and I make piles of what stays and what's trash(recycled). This includes magazines, flyers, ads, ALL paper.

In the garage I have a shelf with canvas baskets which hold light bulbs, cleaning rags, small gardening tools/gloves, and anything that needs to be confined. Also on the shelf are cleaning supplies that aren't used frequently such as drain cleaner, bug sprays, etc., as well as trash bags. I recently added plastic bags(all stored in another plastic bag)and paper bags, stored the same way. They were in the pantry, and getting out if control with so many, so threw half away(recycled).

In the pantry I keep small baskets for things that have been opened, and only a few left in the box~I like to get rid of the boxes(recycle!!!). Hot cocoa mix for example. Also if there's only a bit of cereal left in the bag, I'll take it out of the box, scotch tape it shut, and it goes in a basket.

The 3 b's, baskets, bags, boxes, will become your best friends!

Oh Bankers boxes are great for so many things GSC.

This post was edited by justgotabme on Fri, Nov 29, 13 at 23:51

You sound like me Patty in that you like using boxes and baskets for grouping things together. I love your calling it the three B's. Never thought about that. I'd add one more B to that. Bins. I think you gave me an idea for the name of an article.

Well, I'm off to Cali tomorrow and all your great idea will help me help others keep their homes tidy. Again thank you all so very much. I read all the comments twice and have taken notes. You all so helpful!

This post was edited by justgotabme on Fri, Nov 29, 13 at 23:52

Just'me, I'm off to Ca on Wed~DD and family are in Trabuco Canyon, Mission Vjieo area. Are you going for pleasure or work?

Bins should definitely be included, especially if you buy large quantities to store, such as pet food. How about Staying Organized: the 4 B's as your article? I once wanted to be a journalist, so let me live vicariously thru you. ;o)

Hi Patty. We're hear for a mixture of business and pleasure. My hubby works in the Bay area four days a week. I came along for pleasure. We're staying two weeks. On Friday we'll be heading a little south to Monterey and Carmel for two nights to just relax and enjoy being together.
I have to write an article tomorrow to be published on Tuesday and I'm not sure if I'll be going with this right now or something else. He'd like me to go with a Christmas decoration, but we were too busy finishing the railing our deck before we left that I didn't have time to grab and pack anything to make and take pictures of for the article. The last few weeks have been so hectic for me. I thought today we'd just relax, but since we barely had time to pack and leave for the airport after finishing the railing we had to shop for things we didn't have time to get or pack because of the railing. I'd like to just sleep all day tomorrow, but I have to get up and figure out what to write

As for the reason we were doing a railing the week of Thanksgiving.... we were told last Monday that we had to finish it by Saturday or they'd not insure us. What ticks me off about that is the inspector came out over a month before last Monday and could have told us sooner. He was not a nice person. Never let us know he was coming and scared the living daylights out of me by climbing, more like tromping, on our roof. I thought for sure someone was in our home climbing our wood stairs so I went to look out the bedroom door to the porch that needed the railing, to see if our son was home. Not that he ever stomped that loud up the stairs. When I saw a strange car I ran back to the bedroom door and locked it and hid in the water closet of our bathroom thinking someone was in our home. When the tromping finally stopped I looked out again and saw a young man walking from drive to our back yard so I braved it and walked outside. When I found out who he was I kindly gave him heck for not calling to let me know he was coming or at least ringing our door bell. He rudely said he'd knocked, which I did not hear. I told him he ought ought to have known with a house our size that a doorbell would make more sense. I was in upstairs far enough away that I never heard a knock, if that's really what he did. Usually my cats will let me know if they hear someone at the door and none of them meowed so I really don' think he knocked. Two of my cats are Mainecoone which have dog like tendencies so they do let me know when they hear someone at the door.

Geez, don'tcha just love when you're paying someone to scare the b'jesus out of you? And on top of that, a rude ass? Sorry you had to go thru all that, but when it's done you won't be seeing him snymore, and surely won't hrecommend him. Your salvation could be posting an on-line review(I always check a business out on yelp first!)as well as reporting him to the BBB. That's probably why he get's away with what he does, no one has ever reported him~save others the aggravation you've gone thru. I'm.familar with the M'coons and their quirky behavior since I had one several years ago. I believe she must have had 'show-quality genes' as I would hold her above my head by her front/back legs, tail curved and up in the air, and she would literally be posing. This was a full grown female, about 11 lbs, craziest think if you saw it. I tried this w/other cats, but they never co-operated. Lol

I'm leaving for OC tomorrow, for 1 week. GS will be singing in a Christmas program in the private school he attends, and it's also DD's b-day. I lived in SD for 27 years before moving to Austin. For mt son's birthday we took a road trip to(rented a car at the airport)Santa Barbara, and drove to San Luis Obispo to Hurst Castle. Also checked out Monticido and Summerland, a very cute place. I took him to San Fran last year, and next year might go back~just didn't have enough time to see everything we wanted to, and hoping to get to Monterey and Carmel~I've been, but he hasn't.

As for your decorations, check out pinterest to get some ideas~love that site. I did some awesome things for Halloween I found on the site. Glitter and greens can go a long way. Good luck! Let me know what you decide. ;o)

Patty, I'm glad you suggested that. I am going to report him to BBB. We already told our insurance agent which I'm sure he passed it on to the inspectors boss, so I'm sure that's why they waited so long to tell us. I've never used Yelp, but that's good idea too.
I don't have a car so even if I found a decoration on Pinterest I'd have no way to get the supplies and make something in time to take pix and write the article. That railing really messed with my plans. I was going to bring my felt supplies to make things and I could have used that. Oh well. I woke this morning with the idea that I'd use my ideas long with the ones I got here and split it into two weeks worth of articles. Problem solved as I'll be back home in time to do something for the next week.
I think that's so neat you'll be able to be with your grandson for his Christmas program and there for you daughter's birthday.
I wish our Maincoon's were as small as yours was. Mollee is at least 20 pounds now and Joey probably 18. I don't think Jazzy is a Mainecoon but she's about 16 or 17 pounds. Then there's little Tommy weighing in soaking wet at 8 pounds. Though he might actually weigh closer to nine by now since we're now feeding him a special diet to gain weight. I don't think any of mine would allow me to lift them over my head, not that I could except for Tommy, by holding their feet. Most won't let me touch the bottoms of their feet at all.
I need to take a walk around the hotel later as they have four plus kitties that live around here. There were four last time, but my hubby told me there's been two kittens added to the mix since I was last here.
Oh, almost forgot again to mention journalism. Other than a few poems I've never really been interested in writing so having this job offered to me out the blue after the blog's content manager saw my postings and comments on Hometalk was quite a surprise. Many have told me I have a knack for writing, so I guess I'm a writer/author. It's funny since I've wanted to be an artist since I was in Kindergarten. Only one of my poems I would consider as anything noteworthy and it was written when I was trying to write a message to someone I'd recently met through job training. She was training me and the other ladies at new store that was about to open and we got to talking about our Mom's. I'd just lost mine a couple months before. She said she didn't know what she'd do if she lost her Mom like that. A month later she did. When the ladies and I heard we got a card and was passing it around to sign. I couldn't just sign my name feeling the loss of my own Mom so fresh so I told the ladies I felt I had to send my own card to her. When I got home I tried to write a short note and could not find the words so I stopped and prayed. With in minutes I had a twenty line poem written that was everything I felt. To this day I know I wrote it, as I have the original copy in my own handwriting, but I feel more like it was inspired by God Himself as He's the one that opened my mind to be able to express my feelings on paper.

You are a spiritual connection! "Thru God all things are possible". Need I say more?

Enjoy your time away from home and take in a few of those glorious sunsets! I have a feeling all will go well re:your article. Sometimes the last minute decisions are the best ones!

Take care, and God bless. ;o)

Patty, Philippians 4:13 is one of my favorite Bible verses.
Funny you mention last minute decisions as I had to change my article at the last minute because WordPress was having some troubles with coding. If you'd like to read it you can find it here: http://blog.homespothq.com/2013/12/chore-list-printables/
If you want to read the rest of my articles just click on my name in the byline and it will take you to a list of them all.
Enjoy your trip with your family.

I keep seeing this thread . . . and laughing. Orderly? Who says I do?

I'm 'anal' about organizing...to the point where I labled the thread in my sewing box so I could find the color I wanted by looking at the top of the spool!

My laundry routine is one I've used forever-and I never had to worry about never being able to keep up. My SIL has MOUNTAINS in her laundry room-she hasn't seen the floor in 10 years, I kid you not.

Everyone had their own hamper and basket. Every couple days dirty laundry is brought to the LR where I have 6 hampers-one each for whites, towels, sheets/blankets, jeans and grubby work clothes, and two for colored clothes-light & dark. Clothes from the baskets get sorted into the hampers and then anyone can do a load.

The routine goes like this-start a load when I get home from work. While dinner is cooking, I can fold up the load that is in the dryer. As the items are folded, they're put into the empty baskets left in the LR. Towels & sheets have their own basket. I also have one big hamper that all the socks go into...I HATE folding socks, so everyone would pick thru the basket for socks, or every once in a while, someone would fold socks while watching TV. Everyone would then be responsible for putting away their basket of clothes so the cycle could begin again. Every night before bed, the washer would be emptied into the dryer and started before bed. If you don't over load the dryer, you won't get wrinkled clothes.

This cycle repeats daily. On weekends, I can catch up with towels & sheets.

Every night before bed I load the dishwasher and start it. In the morning while coffee is being made, I empty it.

Because we have 3 dogs and 4 cats, we sweep daily. Once a week I sweep under the furniture (can get a full dog worth of hair that way) and mop the floors-we don't have carpeting, so it is easier to keep up with the fur.

I use the master bathroom-DH uses the main bath-so he is motivated to keep it clean because his customers occasionally need to use the bathroom! My bathroom is neat because I'm so obsessive about organizing-baskets or holders for everything-and I group like for like. I HATE cords hanging around, so I make sure to put appliances away in their baskets when I'm done.

I set up a mail station in our garage (where we enter from). DH puts it in a basket, and I sort it right there when I come home from work. There's a recycle bin next to the kitchen door-items I don't need to shred go in there immediately, the rest into my office where they're either shredded right away or put into the bill organizer (also labled action needed, not paid yet, to read, to file). Once paid, they're shredded (I pay on line so I can track it thru my bank). I will admit that I am horrible at filing-so I have a cute picnic basket that I use to hold things that will need to be filed.

I keep receipts in another basket and every couple months I sort thru it for filing or tossing.

I dust as infrequently as I possibly can-I DETEST dusting. When i see too many cobwebs is when I dust. Lol. Same with window washing-just doesn't get done.

Our biggest problem is the kitchen table-it tends to be my dumping ground/staging area. So I bought myself some little handled tubs that I sort thing in to and every couple days I bring the tubs to the appropriate places and put the stuff away. I also keep a basket on the kitchen counter next to the door for things that go outside or that I need to put in my truck.

I'd love to say that I live in a model home-but the reality is that I live with a slob husband and a lot of shedding creatures. But I can honestly say that my house is at least presentable. You might trip over a few pairs of shoes or see coats draped over chairs (my pet peeve) but I'm never embarrassed to have drop in guests.