Progressive Tidying

True, I am a natural neat freak. Not quite as bad as Monica Geller but I do love to clean. Getting rid of dirt is so satisfying. Now you see it. Now you don't.

But I am not wonder woman. It's hard to keep a house truly clean, let alone tidy.

Here's the secret of my success: I do it in stages. Let's face it, tidying up is mostly about moving something from one room to another. You do NOT have enough time to do this every day. So move it someplace closer first.

Anything outside our bedroom door goes someplace else in the house.For example, when we've stockpiled a few DVDs in our room (Between morning sickness and breastfeeding baby, we've spent a lot of time on our bed watching movies over the past ten months!), I'll set them outside our bedroom door.

Things that need to go downstairs end up on the kitchen table or on the top stair. If it's going in the trash or into the car, it's by the back door. You get the idea.

Piles are great. Reduce them as you go.

It sounds simple, but if you're not a cleaning type person, I suspect it's not. You probably get overwhelmed with piles.