Starting with a Clean Slate

The goal of a weekend clean-slate cleaning is to get to a point where the house is clean and you can pick up on maintaining the clutter-free space. Get everyone involved and make it an event—when the day is done, you’ll be glad you did.

Step #1: Throw it out! The first thing to do is to go through the house and find anything that can be thrown away. Trash, old mail you don’t need, magazines you’re finished with, old food products, expired medicine—if you don’t plan to use it and it’s not in good condition, throw it away!

If you do have some things that you aren’t going to use that could be helpful to someone else, donate. Just make sure you’re ready to take the things your donating to the charity organization right away so you're not tempted to leave them sitting around!

Step #2:Put away the clutter. Whatever’s left after you’ve thrown away or donated everything you don’t need should be given its own home. To maintain an organized space, the most important thing you can do is make sure there’s a designated place for everything in your house.

Step #3: Dust everything. If your house has been under a lot of clutter, there’s bound to be quite a bit of dust built up. Work from the top down so you don’t end up getting additional dust on something you just cleaned.

Pay attention to things that are known to attract dust, like the back of the TV and your favorite light fixtures.

Step #4:Clean and disinfect. Vinegar and water is your best bet because it’s an all-purpose cleaner and handy mold and mildew killer. Go through the house with a bottle of it, spray surfaces, let sit for a minute, then wipe clean.

You’re guaranteed to feel better about your house when it’s all clean!