Get your household in order with a few simple habits

Published on February 5, 2023

Does this happen to you too? Mess piles up around your house, clothes collect on the floor, and the dishes are practically growing legs.

It is frustrating, and you do not even want to start because there is so much. I have the same problem, but recently I discovered a simple principle that creates more order without taking up all your time.

These principles help you fix the current chaos and naturally become more organized.

The problem: mopping with the tap running

The big problem in this case is that a few bad habits keep creating more mess, while we lack habits that clear it up.

Later we will look at these causes and how to recognize them. First, it is useful to start with an easy way to tackle the mess.

Try the principle I describe here and you will be sold immediately. You see results so quickly that I am 100% sure you will use the same method to remove the cause too.

The solution

The real solution combines removing the cause with a simple way to clear the mess. That two-part approach, emptying the bucket and keeping it from filling further, is the key.

Tidy as you go

The trick is to tidy while going about your daily life. Combine tidying with movements you already need to make. It takes hardly any extra time.

The barrier to starting becomes very low compared with facing that enormous mountain of clutter, clothes and mess.

What does this look like in practice? Every time you get up, pick up one thing and think about where it belongs. Put it one step closer. You can pick up more if you want, of course, but at least one thing.

The trick is to realize how quickly this adds up. You enter and leave rooms quite often. Before you know it, there is a noticeable difference.

That noticeable difference, achieved without much effort, is enormously motivating too.

Tidy effortlessly

The difficulty is that it is often a combination of bad habits: leaving dishes, dropping your clothes on the floor after exercise, or not hanging up clean laundry.

Over a few weeks, gradually introduce simple tiny habits for these things. Start easily and expand them over time.

You will see that later you will not…

Keep on top of mounting laundry

Piling laundry was a big problem for me. Washing and hanging it to dry went fine, but putting it back in the wardrobe was a challenge.

It moved to my bed, back to the basket, then back to my bed. In short, that gets you nowhere.

How can you improve this? Two habits: only start a new wash once the previous load is fully hung up, and use tiny habits to put laundry away.

The tiny habit “After I enter the room, I hang up at least one item of laundry” helped enormously. You walk back and forth quite often in the morning and evening. That gives you four or five opportunities to put a little laundry away. As a result, most days the laundry is back where it belongs without effort.

Kitchen clutter

Dishes are another thing you can really dread. You enjoyed your meal, but you are in a hurry and need to go somewhere, so you tell yourself you will do them later. Of course you do not!

Once the counter is full, you have a real challenge. Starting only becomes harder.

I have noticed that making a little room on the counter makes it less intimidating, and I do the dishes sooner.

To take the biggest sting out of it, I use the same tiny habit described earlier. Really, everything comes down to making the step smaller.

“As soon as I enter the kitchen, I put the biggest pan in the sink and turn on the hot tap.”

Once the big pots and pans are gone, it feels manageable again.

There are more anchors in the kitchen to attach tiny habits to.

For example:

When you turn on the water.
When you put a breakfast plate or coffee mug on the counter.
When you open the fridge or freezer.

Clutter in the living room or office

The same principle works in the living room; it is simply a different kind of clutter that collects.

The living room may be large, but you can divide it into smaller areas: the sofa, the dining table, perhaps a desk.

You can use all of these to introduce anchors.

Keep everything tidy effortlessly

Now that you know how to clear that enormous mountain as quickly as possible, the trick is to keep it from getting that far in the first place.

It helps that you now have a tool to use when things do not go to plan. This gives you room to fail, and learning something means accepting that you will make mistakes.

But how do you keep everything tidy? In exactly the same way: do not make something bigger than it is. Apply the same techniques slightly differently.

The principle for preventing things from getting out of hand is to put things back where they belong as soon as you finish with them. Everything else follows from that.

Two questions matter here:

Where does the thing I have finished using belong?
Have I consciously noticed that I am finished with something?

You can apply these questions to every intermediate step too. Take the dishes: you have a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. You finish it; where does the bowl belong? On the counter. That is the first intermediate stop.

The next stop is the sink, followed by the cupboard.

It sounds simple, and it is. The trick is to use tiny habits to apply this principle everywhere. The more areas in which you put things back where they belong, the more organized your household becomes.

Examples of tiny habits for housework

How clutter collects is quite personal, so you will need to become aware of it.

The solution is the same as the way to clear it: small habits. This time, the anchor is at the moment that would otherwise create more mess.

Some examples:

“After I close the front door, I hang up my coat.”
“After I take something off, I ask myself, ‘Where does this belong?’”
“After breakfast, I take my plate to the kitchen and turn on the tap.”
“After I switch off my PC, I clear my desk.”

These are just a few examples. I hope they give you inspiration.

Remember: if a tiny habit is too difficult, make the steps smaller. If you forget to do it, make the anchor more precise.

Habits