In your house which do you focus on neatness or cleanliness?

Question

It seems like I can't manage both. I can never seem to be organized in my daily activities, job, home, etc.

Answer 1

The bathroom is the only place in my house that is CLEAN.
I hate dirty bathrooms.
The rest of the house is kept neat.

Answer 2

The key is not procrastinating. Cleaning is satisfying. But staying neat has to be an ingrained habit. When you pick up your mail, for example, and dump it "to sort later" on the desk, you are asking for trouble. Have a paper recycler and immediately dump the junk mail. You can always fish it out later. Toss all envelopes and keep a stapler handy so contents of important letters are kept together. Discard them as soon as possible. Filing boxes are pretty useless until you have created a system that works for you. For example, what good is a single "CAR" file if you can write off gas expenses. By the end of they year, you will have to sort it all out again. You would need multiple CAR folders within a larger hanging file. Do you keep clippings? Read or chuck. Did you ever have a relative who sent you clippings? It's because they were procrastinating and couldn't bear to throw it out -- they're not doing you any favours: throw them out! Sentimental letters are not the same as regular greeting cards -- keep the letters, chuck the cards. If you have to keep them, consider scanning them and saving online to a photo-sharing service and mark as private. Then toss the original. Give away clothes you don't wear -- that will free up closet space. Can you give things away en masse to a local charity in exchange for a tax receipt? Do it. Remember, you pay for your home. All that junk you have lying around is costing you money. It's like buying it again. You're not saving anything by keepint it. Chuck, chuck, chuck. It's quite exhilirating. And whey you toss something you shouldn't have, chances are you'll just forget or turn it into an amusing story. Fill the trunk tomorrow and clear out as much junk as possible. Then think twice before buying anything. Leave the credit card at home.

Don Aslett's "Clutter's Last Stand" -- read it or something like it. See link for used copy.

Answer 3

This is a real catch 22 situation. If it is not neat then you can't clean properly anyway. If it is not clean, it's hard to focus on neatness because you feel like it is so bad anyway. A better way to look at it is not to focus on one or the other but on the overall care of your space. People whose houses are neat and clean are like that because they live a certain way, and anyone can learn this.

Visit this site www.flylady.net for how to get out of your situation. Once you have routines and habits established you will find teh house really does seem to clean itself.

Answer 4

You need to clean before being neat how can things be neet if they are not clean. Call a proffesional originazer or find storage thruout your house to put the things that are not in use. The less clutter the eaiser it is to keep your house clean & neat. Just remember if you havent used it in 5 months chances are you wont use it . Give It to charity or have a yard sale. Less Is More.

Answer 5

I have a VERY active 2 year-old son so I try to keep things clean, but I can't seem to get organized. I used my 2 days off this week to get some sort of order and I am still buried under a pile of crap.

Answer 6

I also try to do both, but cleanliness is certainly more important than neatness from a health stand point.

Answer 7

I'm ashamed to say neatness is what I focus on. I can't relax unless everything is in it's place. An example of what I mean by this is, I don't mind if there are dirty dishes in the sink, so long as they are stacked neatly... I guess i'm a weird combination of lazy and anal.

Answer 8

Doesn't cleanliness and neatness go hand in hand? If I would have to choose one though I would say cleanliness for health reasons.

Answer 9

I focus more on keeping things clean because if the house is clean it only takes a few minutes to tidy up.

Answer 10

In my house i have giant russian rats eating my computer, so id have to say neatness