Have you ever entered someone’s home and felt that it was ALWAYS clean?  Like effortlessly so?  I’m going to give you the secret to keeping your house looking ALWAYS “clean”.

Now, I put clean in quotations because if you know me then you know my house isn’t clean.  But any more people use the term clean in place of, what my house actually is which is, tidy.  So what’s the secret to an always tidy home?  It’s this equation:

My 6/10 List – Stuff You Don’t Need = Tidy Home

Let me elaborate.  I created my 6/10 list because I was overwhelmed cleaning my home and, at the time, it felt like a losing battle.  No matter what plan or schedule I tried, my house was still messy in no time flat.  Finally, I sat down and made a list of every task I felt was important to do daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly thus creating the 6/10 list.  Once I started, it was VERY easy to maintain.  The simplification and common sense speaks to my soul.

(Find my 6/10 List here: https://organizedchaos4bus.com/2022/02/10/the-6-10-list/ )

Now, you may be working through the 6/10 list and thinking “it’s kind of working, but my house still doesn’t look like hers”.  There’s a missing piece there.  The 6/10 List works at its best when paired with minimalizing.  That’s scary for people to hear.  Believe me, I get it all the time. 

Now, I’m not saying you need to live off of 1 bath towel, the clothes on your back and a couple pair of shoes.  But nowadays, it seems so common for people to take comfort in possessions.  Like I may need this or that belonged to my family member or what if this happens and we need that…

I’m not your therapist, I won’t try to unpack the psychology of your possessions.  I’ll just simply say you can retain memories without keeping all heirlooms and that thing you have only used once but may need again is not worth storing.  Now, there are a couple things from my grandparents that I still have.  But most of the time I will take pictures of items and then part ways with them.

You need to be okay limiting the stuff you own.  If you don’t, you will always be overwhelmed by your house.  Have a place for everything and everything in its place.  And I mean EVERY single item.  Every hair tie, every pencil, every screw, every shoe MUST have a dedicated comfortable home.

Once you get those two pieces of the equation, the cluttered home puzzle will be solved.          

-Aud