By Leo Babauta | Zen Habits
I’m not obsessive about neatness, but I’ve learned ways of keeping my house neat and clean in a simple, stress-free way.
I call it the “Clean-as-You-Go Principle.”
That’s pretty self-explanatory, but of course I can’t resist going into the details. And also, I’ve found this principle to be great for other areas of my life: finances, email, work tasks, etc.
The basic idea is that, instead of waiting for the house to get really dirty and then having to spend a lot of time cleaning it, you just clean a little bit at a time.
Here are some of the ways I apply it (most of the time, not perfectly of course):
- When I’m done eating, I (usually) wash my dishes instead of leaving them in the sink. I’ll also often put away any food that’s leftover, wash cooking dishes like the pan, knife and cutting board, and wipe up the counters. It just takes a few minutes, actually.
- When I’m done brushing my teeth, I wipe the bathroom sink and counter to keep it clean. Having a washcloth nearby makes this easy.
- When I use the bathroom, I will use the toilet brush to clean it if it’s getting a little dirty. So my toilet is usually fairly clean.
- If I see a mess as I walk through the house, I’ll usually put a few things away. Takes just a minute, and no more mess!
- I’ll often sweep up the kitchen if I see some crumbs on the floor. Not every day, maybe every other day.
- If I see dust on the floor, I’ll wipe it up or get the broom and sweep it up.
- If I lift weights in the garage, I use my rest periods to clean the garage, a little at a time.
- When I cook, if something has to simmer for a minute, I clean up my cooking area as I wait, in between stirring the food. So when I’m done cooking, there’s not a big mess.
You get the idea. None of these takes more than a minute or three, but by doing it as I go, it takes very little effort and I never have a really messy house.
Of course, a deeper cleaning is still required sometimes, but not as often, and it’s not as hard. Overall, this is an easy system that works really well for me. (Note: My kids don’t always follow it, but I either pick up after them or ask them to clean their messes whenever I see them.)
Applying the Principle to Other Areas of Life
OK, so a clean house — big deal, Leo! Give me something important to try out.
Alright, I like your attitude!
So let’s apply this to other areas of our lives:
- Emails: Every time you go into your inbox, clear out a batch. Like, archive/delete the ones you don’t need (or better yet, unsubscribe), then do some quick replies. Put ones that require longer tasks into a folder and add the tasks to your to-do list. You can do all of that in 5 minutes. Then get out of the inbox. Repeat later.
