by Stacey Mcclure

Created on: November 10, 2009   Last Updated: November 11, 2009

Here is some advice for keeping your house a little more orderly. Everyone is busy, especially around the holidays. If you are like me, the house gets cleaned on the weekend (when you are supposed to be relaxing). Then, slowly but surely throughout the week, it all piles up again. By the time Saturday comes, you have to do it all again. It becomes a vicious cycle. It is hard to imagine that by doing a few simple things each day, you can break the cycle. Amazingly, if you break it down, these things only add up to a few minutes a day and can save you hours when the weekend comes.

The very first thing you need to do is establish some simple house rules:

- Laundry goes in the laundry room.

- Dishes go in the dishwasher.

- Shoes, jackets, pocketbooks and backpacks go in the closet.

- Trash goes in the trash can.

- After getting ready in the bathroom, everything goes back in its place and the sink gets wiped down.

- Everyone makes their own bed.

Hold a family meeting to go over the house rules to make sure everyone understands them.

Make a list of little chores, preferably ones that don't take more than 10 or 15 minutes to accomplish. Some examples would be, scour a bathtub, sort the laundry, change one or two of the bed linens, etc. Delegate all of the "mini" chores to each family member evenly, and make sure everyone does one of these chores daily.

A good chore to assign to younger members of the family is sorting socks. I despise sorting socks and it is something the little ones can handle easily. Another good one for young children is to round up all of the wastepaper baskets to empty in the main trash, then put new liners in them and return them to the bathrooms, office, laundry room etc.

If you can get the man of the house to pitch in, that would be an extra bonus. Again, make it something easy, but useful. Maybe you could have him sweep the front and back porches, take out the trash, etc.

The best time to do an extra chore is right when you get home from work. Sounds crazy, but believe it or not, if you delve right in as soon as you get home, it sometimes gives you a "second wind". The other advantage of doing something as soon as you get home is if you put it off, there's a better chance you won't do it at all.

When dinner is over, clean up right away. If you put it off, it may wind up not getting done. When you see the mess is still there in the morning, it will set a negative tone for your day.

Before you go to bed, make sure everyone knows what they are wearing the next day. Mornings are hectic enough, and when no one knows what they are going to wear, they tend to rush around and make more of a mess. Be sure to allow enough time for everyone to eat, clean up their messes and make their beds.

If you stick to these simple every day routines, when Saturday morning comes, you will be done in no time!

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