Home Clean Home: 20 Ingenious Tips and Timesavers

Keeping a clean house doesn't have to be a (total) chore. Our experts reveal their favorite housekeeping shortcuts to spruce up your home in no time (22 Photos)

Jennifer Kantor on Mar 1, 2013 at 11:59AM

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Home Clean Home: 20 Ingenious Tips and Timesavers

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Get Clutter Under Control, STAT!


Before you swish a bowl, wipe a counter or mop a floor, you must de-clutter. “It make makes cleaning anything much easier, ” says Marla Cilley, a house- and life-keeping expert known to her devotees at the FlyLady. For starters, “put things away, right away, the minute you walk through the door. Everything needs a place.” To that end, find accessible, logical locales for things to live: key hooks by the front door; trinket dishes for change and knick-knacks; sturdy hangers for an edited coat closet (donate excess outerwear to charity). Routinely take inventory of your stuff, asking yourself the following for each item: “Do you love it? Do you have a place for it? Does it make you smile?” If all of the above are true, Cilley says keep it. If not, onto the “give away” or “throw away” pile it should go.

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