Jan
25

Tidy

by Sofia   -   in Random

I´ve had requests about posts regarding home keeping. So I thought why not!? I sometimes wonder if writing about such matters makes one easily sound somehow “Stepford wife´ish” giving silly ideas about how to keep your home tidy. But then again I always like to read about great tips and hints to ease my everyday life. I know some are not that interested in such subjects and then for some these are matters of heated discussions ( honestly, I´ve had wonderful conversations about shiny countertops that would bore some of my friends to death). But I will actually try to make this a new fairly regular subject on the blog. If you love reading about people´s housekeeping because you want to read their confessions about how their laundry pile is so high then this series is not for you ( yes yes, mine gets too high sometimes too but I´m not one for taking pictures with my laundry hanging in the background if you know what I mean). I want this to be inspirational and I would love to also learn great new tricks from you in the comments.

But I do have to make a few comments ( or confessions) about tidiness before I start the whole thing. I was asked how I run my household chores so that for example the magazines don´t pile up and everything runs smoothly. I don´t. I mean I don´t do it by myself. My home is definitely not always in absolute spick and spam order but I do like it orderly and clean. It just makes me happy. But I´m fairly sure that without my husband the house would not be quite as nice as it is. So I´m going to share a few very easy tricks that he  ( as a very neat and orderly person) has taught me by example.

1. Put everything in it´s place after you have used it. Let´s say clothes. After you used it put it either back to the closet or in the laundry. Don´t leave it lying around on a chair. If you don´t put used clothes that you tend to still wear back in the closet then have a designated space for it but then use it again and don´t let things pile up. 

2. Clean as you go. If he spills he wipes up immediately, if he cooks he puts everything in the washer, if there is hand washing he does it right away. It really makes a difference.

3. Do it now, not tomorrow. This is my weak point. If I´m tired, I want to drink my cup of tea and watch something on Netflix so I think I´ll just take that box of Christmas decorations to the attic tomorrow. He does everything right away. It takes 5 minutes and then it´s done. It´s worth it! I´m also a procrastinator when it comes to filling any formal forms ( In Finland for instance those maternity papers for Kela were a nightmare for me) or such. He does it immediately when it comes, it´s done and won´t bother you after that.

4. Recycle immediately. If he´s read a newspaper or a magazine he throws it away ( honestly sometimes too efficiently as I find the newspaper in the paper trash when the girls are out the door with him in the morning and I finally have time for my coffee and reading). But the point here is to not leave that stuff around too long. Take the bottles to the store, the glass and metal to a sorting station ( luckily we have on in our building) etc.

( People often ask me about some kitchen details. Our kitchen is by Kvänum from Creanno, the stove is Ilve and our white wooden shutters with grey ribbon are from Aletta.)

Photos by Ullamaija Hänninen for Glorian Koti ( and our home looking nice and tidy).

I know we are all different types of people but I´m sure if we do the small things as we go it really helps with smoothly running a tidy household ( or at least just keeping it that much nicer if nothing else). I know I try and it really helps. I have outside help too, so I can´t take credit for all the cleanliness. And I know many of you have kids as do we and we all know they make it that much harder to keep things in place. So I don´t aim for perfection!

Lattemamma

p.s. Do you have a messy drawer? You know the kind where you put all these little things that might come in handy later on but don´t really have a place. And then there is that one lip balm, some mints, an empty Pez container and the magnet your kids love and you hate and keep taking off the fridge just to find there again the next week. I think everyone should have their messy drawer. I obviously know one person who does´t need one but I tell you it´s a treasure box and keeps me sane ( and from making piles of weird little things in bowls everywhere).