3 Tips to Keeping a Tidy Routine When Life Gets Busy

Picture this: you have perfectly curated your home. Everything has a space and nothing is out of place. Life. Is. Good. But what happens when life gets busy? Because if we can count on anything, it’s that life always gets busy. Here are three tips to keep your space tidy even when life isn’t.

Edit - walk around your house and see what you don't need, use or love. Anything that makes you feel guilty or reminds you of something negative, let it go. It’s great therapy for when you are feeling overwhelmed. 

Sort - pull like items together. If your kids' toys are filling every room and you are sick of stepping on legos. Move ALL the toys into one room and edit. Set a new rule: all toys go back into this room before bed. They don't need to be tidy or organized but they all have to be back in this room. Start small and build once this becomes a habit. 

If toys are not your problem, maybe you have loads of laundry or piles of mail. Pull it all together and simply get it done. Organize, edit and hold on to the items you actually need. Set a timer and get all the laundry done. Spoiler alert: this probably won't be fun but it will be terribly satisfying when it’s done. Once you check off these tasks, guess what, more mail will come and laundry will continue to fill the hamper. But this time you’ll only have to wash one load of laundry and sort through 5 pieces of mail. 

The key is not to avoid a task but to tackle it head on.

Last but not least, create small habits to support your goals of being tidy. Create one habit per month to work on each day. Keep it simple and as your continue this journey you can pick more challenging habits to adjust. 

Here are some “easy” ones to get you started:

• Pick up the mail daily - toss junk mail

• Do the dishes - put them in the dishwasher every night

• Breakdown boxes as soon as I open my packages

• Clean out my work bag every friday

• Unsubscribe from 5 store emails/websites