How to Keep a Tidy[ish] House

My house is little.  It's super cute when it's clean, but even one pillow out of place makes it look disheveled.  I've learned the hard way how to keep it from getting too out of hand.  Here are a few of my tips for keeping your house tidy.

1.  Put rooms to right twice a day.
For me, that means folding throws and putting away the remote and dog toys right before I head out the door to work, and right before bed.  I also put away anything out of place in the bathroom whenever I'm in there.

2.  Put things away as soon as they come in the door.
I don't know about you, but I have someone in my house who walks in the door from work and leaves a trail of belongings behind him: coat in the living room, mail on the kitchen counter, wallet and keys on the couch...it's Sam, of course.  Just can't seem to train that dog yet ;)  But anyway, one of the things that clutters up a tiny house quickly is not putting things away as soon as they enter the door.  I have a routine for putting everything away before I do anything else--keys and lunchbag in the cupboard, purse on its hook, and laptop bag in the spare room.  All ready for tomorrow.  It takes me a couple minutes to get in the door and get everything settled, but then I don't have to worry about my stuff cluttering up the place.

3.  Make the bed.
Amazing how just a tidy bed can make your whole bedroom look better.  Don't believe me?  Try it.  Making the bed seems unnecessary but it can give you a real boost.

4.  Do the dishes.
We're really bad at this one.  We fill up the dishwasher and run it, then the dishes stay there.  And all the new dirty dishes back up.  Then we spend an hour on the weekend cleaning up a disgusting kitchen.  I've tried banning the dishwasher and instituting a no-tv-until-the-dishes-are-done rule, alas, to no avail.  Right now I have a sinkful of dirty dishes, and absolutely no motivation to clean them up.  Obviously we have a lot of work to do to fix this habit.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes.  Just be sure not to follow my example and do your own dishes.  It will make you feel better.

5.  Do periodic decluttering.
If I look back on the past seven years, I have transformed from a person who couldn't have anyone over because of my messy place (Awesome will tell you this is true.  He didn't get to visit my apartment for a very long time when we were dating), to a place where I could have people over comfortably in the next 15 minutes (very kind people who love me a lot and who won't go into the kitchen).  This is primarily because I started decluttering and organizing on a regular basis.  I realized at one point that all my stuff was just responsibility hanging around my neck, making me feel stressed and inadequate. I asked myself,  If my stuff equals extra work, emotional baggage, and responsibility, then do I really want it? No, emphatically NO!

We still have a long way to go before my house is as clean as I'd like it to be, but these 5 tips have helped me over the years.  I hope they help you too.

What tips do you have for keeping your house tidy?