Secrets of a Lazy Housekeeper

If your house is spotless and you can't go to bed if there's a dirty dish in the kitchen, this is not for you. The rest of us need to find ways to keep housework from overwhelming us or just getting left undone.

Do Your Housecleaning in Stages

Think about it and make a plan to break housecleaning down into units you can handle easily. Try cleaning one room a day. Not that you have to do one every day, but consider how many rooms you have and schedule accordingly. The job won't seem so overwhelming if you do a little every day, or every other day.

Another approach is to do one cleaning process a day. Do a "put-away" blitz through the whole house and put everything away one day. Dust everywhere the next day. Vacuum all carpets and/or sweep all floors the next. Do the bathrooms and kitchen. Mop all linoleum or tile floors. Just remember to work from the top down...dirt falls.

This method works with larger periodic cleaning chores like windows or decorating for Christmas.

A note on the put-away blitz: As you take things from one room to another, gather up things in that room that go to another, in a round robin style. Make it a challenge to avoid leaving a room empty handed.

Distribute extra cleaning equipment and supplies

Keep a broom and dust pan in a distant bathroom or closet for non-carpeted areas. Stock each bathroom as well as the kitchen with appropriate cleaning products, paper towels and/or sponges.

Reduce Dish-washing

Empty the dishwasher soon after use so you can store dirty dishes in it instead of having to leave them on the counter.

When you finish a snack or drink, deal with the dishes and silverware right then. Many will do with just a rinse under hot tap water. Keep a sponge laced with dish washing detergent on the sink to give a swipe as needed. Anything greasy, pop it directly into the dishwasher, (See why you don't want to leave the clean dishes in there?) unless there's food stuck to it. Put it in the sink and fill with hot water - dishwasher later. Hot water is your best friend when it comes to reducing dish washing!

This may distress your mother, but consider refrigerating a serving size leftover in the dish you will eat it out of instead of a proper storage container. One less item to wash. Explore your collection of plastic containers for lids that fit your bowls and cups. (The lids from oatmeal cartons fit my soup mugs.)

Organize clothing storage

When spring weather has finally turned really truly permanently warm, move all your winter clothes to the far end of the closet. Pack all gloves/scarves/hats away. Put sweaters and heavy sweat suits behind the shorts and tank tops. When it turns cold in the fall, reverse the process. If this sounds like a big job, move a few things each time you get dressed.

Tame the Laundry

If you have room, set up two tall bins for dirty laundry. Drop whites and light colors in one and darks in the other. Keep a zippered mesh lingerie bag in the whites bin for bras and nylons. Prevents the bra hooks from snagging sweaters and makes it easy to keep all the bras and nylons out of the dryer. They last longer being hung up to dry.

Do one load of laundry at a time, say one each evening.

To make that load easier to handle, spread a shirt on the floor and pile the rest of the laundry on it. Pick it up by the sleeves and the corners of the tails - instant bag!

Collect empty hangers from the closets and take with you to the laundry.

Fold and sort everything as you pull it out of the dryer rather than piling it up to do later - fewer wrinkles, easier to put away, and one less handling. Put everything that gets hung up on hangers right out of the dryer, even those items that need ironing. They will need less, if any, when they're hung up fresh out of the dryer.

And Five Ounces of Prevention

Put an aluminum foil cookie sheet under your pets' food and water dishes to catch what they scatter.

Keep a little laundry basket in the kitchen for cloth napkins, kitchen towels and potholders.

If you don't wear shoes in the house, keep a pair of slip-ons by the back door so you can go outside without having to go find shoes.

Save the plastic bags that produce comes in. Put garbage in one, squeeze out excess air, tie it shut and put in the trash. No more messy stinky trash.

Store the loose parts and accessories to a small kitchen appliance or gadget in a plastic container - from a margarine tub to a plastic shoe box. The thing is supposed to be a labor-saving device, so make it easy to use.