Good Habits

I was getting my spare room ready for AirBnB guests last week when something dawned on me: often, the guest room is the tidiest, cleanest, most peaceful room in my house. Granted, it doesn’t see the chaos of every-day life so keeping things neat isn’t quite such a challenge, but I think the real reason it stays tidy is because I make the effort: when a guest leaves, I reset the room immediately. I know it takes 20 minutes to change the bed, empty the bin, lay out towels and clean it ready for the next friends or guests, but I do it even if I’m not expecting anyone. It’s a habit I’ve formed and it means I always have one small but immaculately presented room.

I started thinking about how I use small habits to maintain a semblance of order elsewhere. Here are some of my easy wins that keep things under control:

- making the bed as soon as I rise

- opening and dealing with mail immediately

- putting shoes, coats, bags and keys away as soon as I arrive home (saves looking for them later)

- throwing dirty clothes straight into the laundry basket

- starting the dishwasher before going to bed

Of course, sometimes there isn’t space in the cupboard for all the coats or shoes and I realise I need a bigger reset. Sometimes the laundry basket in every room has already overflowed and I feel like the whole house is teetering on the edge of chaos. Sometimes I lack the motivation to start the dishwasher before bed or deal with mail, but most of the time these little habits keep me sane.

What habits do you have that bring order to your home and life?