Home Neat Home: How to Declutter, Organize and Clean Your Space!

1. Introduction: Hello and welcome. My name is Caroline Solomon and I'm a home organizing expert here in New York City. I work with clients all over the New York area to declutter organized, streamline their spaces so that they can become the best version of themselves in their homes. And I'm super excited you're here because I really want that for you too. I want to share the tools, tips, techniques, and tricks that I've implemented with my clients and really share that these concepts like decluttering and organizing don't have to be as overwhelming and complicated as they're made out to be. They can really be simplified and streamlined with a few tips tricks and I really want to share that with you today. So head on over to my first course, we're gonna talk about decluttering, where to get started, how to get started. So welcome and I'm super excited to have you here. 2. How to Declutter Like a Pro: Hi guys and welcome. In today's video, I'm so excited to share all the steps that you need to take to declutter like a pro. If you're overwhelmed, you're not sure where to start. You're not working with someone, you're just going at it alone. I'm here to help walk you through the process and make it seem a lot more manageable. There's a real method to it that will make it a lot less intimidating. The first step to decluttering is really to ask yourself why declutter et al. Decluttering your home is really about eliminating the excess, eliminating the noise, the stuff that you don't need anymore, the stuff that's not bringing you joy, so that you're distilling everything in your space down to items that you need, use and love. Your home is overwhelmed with clutter, your way down by it. You're stressed. You can't focus on other things, even things like maybe baking some cookies in the kitchen because you have no idea where the cookie sheet is. It's really about eliminating all of the excess so that you can have a home that runs smoothly and efficiently and you can actually be excited to be in your home. With that in mind, it's really about asking yourself, why am I decluttering? Am I doing it so that I can have friends over so that I can have a dinner party and have a place to sit that's not necessarily on dog toys maybe so that you can keep that momentum going. Okay, so step two to decluttering is to actually grab the essentials if you show up empty handed a decluttering session that you have set for yourself. You're telling your home and you're telling yourself, I'm not serious, grab some garbage bags and bins. You're showing up for yourself and you're saying, I'm really serious about this. You're gonna need some heavy-duty garbage bags. These are not those flimsy white garbage bags that are just going to hold like some tissue paper, but you can easily jaws trash in here. It'll be super durable. You're also going to grab some reusable bags who doesn't have one of those Ikea bags lying around some Trader Joe's bags. These are really great for items that you want to sell or bulk of your donation items like kitchen appliance, a blender, or something like that, that you can't just toss in a garbage bag. Have maybe three or four of these on hand. We're also going to have a bin on hand for those and maybe items. This is not a maybe item. This is a bin that you're going to put that stuff that you're unsure about. You're just going to toss it in there and revisit later because you want to keep that momentum going. We're going to have a bin as well for all those items that you encounter along the way that don't necessarily go in the place that you're currently decluttering. So this is the does not belong been. Finally, you're going to have some post-its and a Sharpie. You're just going to label those heavy-duty garbage bags, toss, donate or sell. You want to do that so you're keeping track of the garbage bags. You'll be able to separate them out between items that are going to the goodwill or the Salvation Army versus items that you want to sell maybe on thread up or the real, real versus items that are just trash and can be dumped immediately. Okay, so step three to decluttering your home is to start with the trash rabbit trash bag, scan your surfaces in your home and start throwing out items that are clearly identifiable as trash. We're not attached to our trash. And it's really great primer for when we're doing some more heavy duty decluttering around shoes, clothes, items that are more emotionally charged, throw out those crumpled receives, recycle that Amazon cardboard box that's been sitting in your entry way when we see clear surfaces such as immediately makes us feel better and gets us curious about this whole decluttering business. So step four to decluttering your home is to just start decluttering. You can start small or start big, but really just start. This is one of the big questions that I often get. How do I start? Where do I start? Where do I know where to start? And it really boils down to this. Are you someone who gets overwhelmed easily by clutter, by these kinds of projects? And if so, that might be a cue that you should start small. But if you're someone who relishes a big project like this, then start big, start with the space that bugs me the most. Start with the room that you spend the most time in. If you cook in the kitchen, in your kitchen is a disaster. Start with a kitchen, but if you are overwhelmed easily and you want to take this in steps, then start with a junk drawer in your kitchen. And once you see that, it's pretty painless to declutter your junk drawer, you'll want to move to greater projects. So step five to decluttering your home. And this is a hugely important one. It's about overcoming those mental hang-ups that we have around our clutter most of the time, we hold onto things because we think we might need them in the future or we feel guilty getting rid of them because it was a gift from a family member. And we don't have to feel guilty. We don't have to feel bad for wanting space, for wanting more freedom in our homes to do the things that we want to do that we can't do because we're bogged down by clutter. At the end of the day, this is your home and you are the boss of your home. So you get to decide what comes in through that door, what stays, and what goes. So don't forget that you run the show in your home. So I hope this video was helpful. So go and grab a garbage bag. Don't second guess yourself, you know yourself and your stuff best. And in the next video I'm going to share some best practices and techniques that will set you up for success. 3. Top 5 Decluttering Tips: Hi guys and welcome back. In today's video, I'm super excited to share with you some of my top five decluttering tips. These are going to set you up for success. Make the whole process a lot more manageable and dare I say, even enjoyable. Let's get into the very first tip, which is to set the mood. You really want to make this experience as fun as you can for yourself. I recommend lighting a candle. I recommend getting a really fun, upbeat, energizing playlists going and this is really going to set the mood, energize you, make you feel happy to go through those piles. I also recommend wearing comfortable clothes. I'm aware of some soft leggings. You don't want to wear stiff highways to genes that are going to constrict movement. I also recommend wearing a brightly colored top. This is going to energize you when you were dark clothes, that can be more serious if you are someone who gets distracted easily putting your phone on airplane mode, it's only for a short while and this will prevent you from drawing your attention towards notifications will help you stay focused and stay the course. Tip number two, take care of yourself. Decluttering can sometimes be an energetically draining activity, so you really want to help yourself out, stay hydrated, have a water bottle close by at all times and take care of your body to if there's something heavy that you're encountering along the way, it's really not worth grabbing yourself. Ask for help, especially if you have an injury, if you have a lower back issue or some bad knees, It's not worth it because then you're just going to be put off decluttering in the future. Tip number three is to work your way around the room. You're going to chunk out your decluttering. You're not gonna take all the stuff that you've ever owned, Ever and put it into one big pile because that's just going to make you overwhelmed. You're gonna get exhausted, you're gonna give up before you even started. We often get tripped up because we think decluttering also includes organizing. We're not categorizing and sorting all of our Keeps stuff. We're only subtracting stuff that we don't like, need or love's. You're going to set a timer for about 15 to 20 minutes. That will keep the momentum going. Because knowing that you have a hard out will allow you to see how much you can accomplish it. You are strapped for time. You could either declare for 15 minutes at a time each day or set aside a couple of hours on a Saturday or Sunday. Tip number four, along the way, it's perfectly normal to encounter stuff that you're unsure about whether you want to toss or hold onto it. I recommend having that maybe been on hand and it's okay to have a maybe been. Because this will keep that momentum going. Sometimes you can go into and decision paralysis and that can slow the whole process down and revisit them at a later date. You can either revisit it at the end of your decluttering session or you could box this up, put it in random area of your home where you're not going to think about it. And maybe three months out from now, if you haven't thought about it, if you haven't wondered where that stuff is, it says good an indicator as any that it might be time to donate those items if you're getting tripped up a lot, ask yourself, one, do I like this item to what I buy this item again today? And these two questions really cut to the core of what this whole decluttering businesses all about, which is two, only surround yourself with stuff that you need, love and use today, not five-years ago, not ten years from now. Just what you need, love, and use in this present moment. Okay, so tip number five, this is arguably one of the more important tips. But that is close the loop. It's really important that when you're done declaring, you have all those toss, donate sell bags that you don't just dump them in the entryway or just dump them off to the side if you really want to tend to those bags as quickly as possible so that they don't just become a different form of clutter. And this is especially important if you are someone who is indecisive so that you don't rifle through those bags and pull out stuff that you thought you were going to get rid of get rid of stuff so that you have more space in your home so that you're hitting the reset button and starting fresh. I hope this video was helpful. In my next video, I'm going to share some ways to prevent clutter from making its way back into your home. Happy decluttering. I know you can do it. 4. How to Prevent Future Clutter: Hi guys and welcome back. In today's video, I'm really excited to share some ways to prevent future clutter for making its way back into your home. And he talked a lot about how to get rid of clutter the stuff that we don't need anymore that we don't like, that we don't use. And today it's really all about implementing some habits and systems so that we're not doing that same song and dance anymore of accumulating clutter and then decluttering really two forms of clutter that we need to be concerned with. The first kind of clutter is what we've been talking about, the stuff that needs to be dealt with that we don't need in our homes anymore. This is often the hardest kind of cluttered to deal with. The second form of clutter is clutter that's just hanging out on surfaces lingering maybe a little too long. It's stuff that we need and use that we just haven't yet found at home for. So let's first talk about the first kind of clutter to prevent that clutter from making its way back into your front door, it's important to really say no from the beginning saying no to those freebies, say no to those hand me downs because then they're just going to become future clutter. It's okay to say no to your mom if she's offering you a sweater that you don't like or your sister, or if she's saying, Hey, it really liked this dress anymore, do you want it? You don't have to say yes. If you don't like the sweater and if you are a yes person, it's going to be hard to say no upfront, but this will help you in the long run. The second step is to make more mindful purchases. It just means giving yourself a grace period between when you add something to your cart and checkout. So take a few days to maybe like contemplate, do I really need that? And there are other things that you can do to satisfy that urge to impulse shop. We all have that knee to like, ooh, I need that, I want that, I have to have that. Now we can satisfy that urge with an experience. Can you go treat yourself to a pedicure, got a manicure, go for a massage, gets some cake. I'm just basically speaking to myself right now. This is what I would do. Think of what experience would resonate with you that you can treat yourself to. That isn't another thing that you have to deal with in your home. The other way to deal with clutter on a more practical level is to set up some systems in your home. I'm a huge fan of the outgoing been because all you have to do is just plunk it down in your entryway and you're going to use this to toss and all those nagging to-dos like the dry cleaning, the gift you need to give your friend, the library books you've been meaning to return. This is going to really up the chances that you'll actually get that stuff out the door as opposed to them just kind of lingering on surfaces. The second practical tool that you can implement is to create a bend in your closet. This is a bin. They are going to designate for all those items you try on that you don't like anymore that don't make you feel good about yourself that don't really fit anymore. Once that bend is full, you can give that stuff to your friends. You can donate it, you can sell it. Okay. Let's talk about the other form of clutter. This is the kind of stuff that we just haven't yet dealt with. It really boils down to this. You want to put all that stuff away and find homes for this stuff to live. That's really all it takes to really maintaining an organized home. And we'll talk more about that in the next series on how to organize your home. Then all it takes now is just remembering to put it back when you're finished using it, set a tidying routine. If you're not used to tidying up at the end of the day, Shea, initially, I recommend setting up a reminder on your phone just to tidy up for ten minutes. That's all it takes. Put those dishes in the dishwasher, maybe put those books back, put the dog toys back in a bin, otherwise clutter as a funny way of just multiplying and this is going to keep that all in check. So I hope this video helps head on over to my organizing series where I talk more about how to get organized once you've declared, because that is the order of operations declare first organized second, I will see you in my next series. 5. How to Organize Like a Pro: Hi guys and welcome back. I'm super excited you're here in today's video, we're talking all about how to get organized at home. So before we dive in, it's important to just ask why organized at all? What's the point of organizing? Who cares? And it's really all about adding some order to our everyday lives. It's about having our homes run on autopilot so that we can spend more time doing other things that we're not wasting time looking for a keys, are Wallet, our shoes, our coats. They're all in the same place. And when we give everything in our home a place to live, then we can actually just feel more at peace. We can feel more creative, though it's basically a win-win situation. Let's dive into the very first step, which is to declutter your home first before you organize. And I talked about this in my series on decluttering, but it's so important to get rid of stuff that you're not using first before you arrange any of your Keeps stuff because then you're just going to push piles around. You're gonna rearrange stuff and you're never really going to achieve that level of organization until the next step. So let's talk about step number two, which is to create systems. It's about taking all the stuff that you want to hold onto and simply combining it into like categories. This is such an easy step. And so if we're talking about our junk drawer, it's about combining the rubber bands. It's about combining the same pencils, the same battery so that we're not going out and buying unnecessary duplicates of items because I didn't realize we had double a batteries, but no, they were just hiding in a different place where the batteries should really go once you give homes to all of the same kinds of items, this is going to really up the efficiency in your home and in your life. Brings me to step number three. It's about creating zones for all of the items that are now combined and categorized. I've talked about this in my decluttering video about how to give items at home. You can call it homes, zones, whatever you want. Just reliably put that same stuff back each and every time, then you're not going to spend unnecessary time finding a new home for something because there's no space there, there's no space over there. It's just going to go back in the same spot every time and you're not even going to think about it. Let's take our fridge, for instance, if we decide to put our milk in the same upper-right shelf every single time, then the milk is going to go there. We're not going to wonder, hey, where's the milk today? Do you want to add some storage products to upgrade your fridge? You can definitely do that, but it's by no means necessary. All you have to do is just commit to putting it back in the same exact spot. And that brings me to my next step, step number four, How is the time to judge up your space, if you are like, Yes, I want to get some bins for my closet. Yes, that would be really cool to get a three-tier organizer for my pantry. Now's the time to March on over to the Container Store, but no sooner because you don't want to buy unnecessary amounts of products and then find that they don't really work for your space before you really had a chance to zone out your space. And that's really all there is to it. It's just about creating zones for like categories, committing to putting those items back in the same zone every time now your space will basically run itself. It will run on autopilot, and this brings me to my next step, step number five. Don't be afraid to tweak your space. Don't be afraid to tweak your systems because we're constantly changing, we're constantly evolving. And with it, our space should evolve with us. You will never just like arrived like I am now a fully organized person. It's always an evolution. And so just accept that things are gonna change as you change, and that is totally okay. I hope this video was helpful. Stay tuned for my next video where I'm going to share some of my top five organizing tips that will set you up for success. So happy organizing. I know you can do it. 6. 7 Golden Rules of Organization: Hi guys and welcome back. I'm super excited you're here because in today's video, I am sharing my golden rules of organization. In the first video on organizing, I shared really a basic five-step process to getting organized. And today it's really all about fine tuning those best practices and techniques so that you have a home that's organized that suits you and nobody else. So let's just dive into it. The very first role is to organize in chunks similar to decluttering. There is no need to spend a whole day organizing every last crumb in your home. Otherwise, you're just going to get really exhausted and you're not going to do as Thoreau of a job organizing your home as you would if you just spent in 15 to 20 minutes organizing one room or one space in that room. So slow and steady, wins the race. And when it comes to organizing your home, Let's talk about the second golden rule of organization, which is to know your organizing style. We all have different brains. Our brains work differently and therefore, our homes are going to be organized differently. What works for someone? Maybe on Pinterest or Instagram, might not necessarily work for you. If you are super visual person, then having opaque baskets in your pantry that are covered up might not work for you because you might forget what's inside. Go with your gut, go with what it really works for you at segways nicely into my third rule, which is to balance form and function. We sometimes get swept up in these really beautiful pantries, just not really attainable or realistic on an everyday basis. Like if you don't think you're going to color coordinate your blueberries and raspberries, then don't buy bins specifically devoted and labeled berries. If it's a nice-looking basket that you are just annoyed to open every time I'm just going to become more clutter. So I recommend really going to The Container Store and feeling those products, seeing if you enjoy using them. Because otherwise it's just going to become a pain to use. That brings me to my fourth rule, which is to aim for realistic over perfection. If you have organized your closet and its color coordinated and it looks beautiful, but you're actually losing track of the color coordination, no sense and beating yourself up, just move on and do what works for you and no one else. Let's get into some more practical golden rules. This rule is really important because we want to take care of ourselves in our homes. We don't want to lift things that are too heavy. So it's important to keep heavy items around your home on lower shelves. If you've got a super heavy Vitamix blender, It doesn't make sense to store it in an overhead shelf because it's just gonna be a hazard to you and it's gonna be a pain to constantly take down. I'm a huge fan of keeping items that you use most frequently, whether that's in the fridge or in your medicine cabinet, in your bathroom at eye level. And this will just guarantee that you're going to use those items on a regular basis and not lose track of them. So your morning routine, moisturizers, serum, sunscreen, bam, you're not wondering where they are. It's all there, spelled out for you, it into seven. This is the very last golden rule, and I'm so excited to share it because it's so simple. It's the best hack for staying organized. And it's really all about owning less stuff, less is more when it comes to having an organized home. This is the ultimate hack because you're not going to spend time organizing all that stuff. You're not going to spend time rearranging it, looking for stuff. It's all going to be pretty much laid out there for you. And of course, it's easier said than done initially once you experience how good it feels to just have a space that has less stuff, you're not really going to be as tempted to bring all that new stuff into your home, knowing that it's going to come at a cost. It's gonna take time to organize that stuff, to maintain it, to clean it, all of that fun stuff. So I hope these tips were helpful. Please stay tuned for my next video where I share some ways to maintain an organized home. Happy organizing. I know you can do it. 7. How to Maintain an Organized Home: Hi guys and welcome back. I'm super excited you're here in today's video, I am sharing some really great ways to maintain an organized home because it's one thing to get organized, but it's quite another to keep it that way. So let's dive into it. The very first tip is to set a daily tidying routine similar to decluttering. I've talked a lot about tidying routines there and it's just the same idea here. You want to set a reminder on your phone at first if you're not used to doing this and this is really going to keep your surfaces clear. It's, you're committing to putting those items back in their homes. It's going to be like any other habit like brushing your teeth or brushing your hair or making your bed, and then it will just become second nature. So if you're able to master this, then you're really more than halfway there, PIP number two. And that's really about being flexible with your space. If you were finding that you're reluctant to constantly put certain things back in their homes all the time, then maybe investigate why that is if your laundry basket is too far from where you're constantly dumping the laundry, then just move the laundry basket closer to where you are. Plunking your laundry and make your life easy for yourself. You want to meet yourself in the middle. Let's talk about tip number three. This is one of my favorite tips. It Command Center is something I talk about often and it's an area in your entry way where you can drop off your keys, your wallet, your mail, your shoes, you'll have an outgoing been for stuff that you need to get out of the house. And this is just a really great place where you can put these things away upfront so that the clutter isn't migrating to other areas of the home. And it's also the first thing that you see when you walk in the door. So if you have a nice-looking entryway where everything has a home, then you're going to be more motivated to keep the rest of your home that way as well. So that brings me to tip number four, set the bar high for the stuff that you're bringing into your home. Because once you bring it into your home, then it's your responsibility to find a place for it to live. And if you don't currently have the space and you do have the inventory and you're buying like duplicates of stuff that you already have. And you're going to have to find a home for that stuff. And it's just gonna be frustrating. Make sure that the stuff that you're buying that you actually need and is stuff that you actually love and we'll get you out of. Otherwise, you're not going to have that same level of respect and diligence for maintaining an organized home. Not brings me to my final tip which is to make list for yourself, take inventory of what you need as soon as I run out of red pepper flakes, for instance, while I'm cooking, I'll add it to my grocery list in my Reminders app. And that is just really the easiest way for me to know what I need from the grocery store. Also recommend taking a photo of your fridge as well. So if you're in a hurry, you can take a photo, see what you have so that you avoid buying unnecessary duplicates. The whole point of maintaining an organized home is really so it have space in your home to feel at peace, to feel less stressed, to feel more energized. You can work on creative projects, do really fun stuff as just about having clean open surfaces for a happier home and then you're happier. Everyone's happier. I hope these tips were helpful. Head on over to my cleaning series next where I'm going to share some awesome ways to clean your home using some very simple ingredients, simple tools, and a cleaning schedule that is going to make your life so much easier. 8. Cleaning Essentials: Hi guys and welcome. I'm so happy you're here in today's video, I am sharing my cleaning essentials. These are the tools and ingredients that you need to maintain a clean home. And the whole point of planting on home is not just for hygienic purposes to make sure that your home is free of dust, dirt, grime, bacteria, germs, viruses, but it's also so that you have these clean surfaces that can lift you up, make you feel good to be in your home were such creatures of our environment. And if we spend a lot of time at home, in our homes or dirty, it's not going to make us feel great as a result. So cleaning your home is really also about taking care of yourself as well. Let's talk about cleaning tools. The very first cleaning tool that I recommend is the microfiber cleaning cloth. I recommend maybe having eight to ten of these. These are super, super effective cleaning cloths because they are slightly positively charged. They attract negatively charged things like dust and grime, kind of like a magnet. And they've just last a very long time while we're on the topic of cloths, it's important to have some cleaning rags on hand as well. If you have a bunch of old t-shirts, you can just cut them up and make your own cleaning rags that way. But these are really great, sustainable alternative to paper towel use these for dirty jobs around the toilet may be in the bathroom floor, just general purpose cleaning. Really good to have these on hand. Speaking of Dirty Jobs, I recommend having some rubber gloves on hand. I don't wear these every time I cleaned, but I do wear them for a dirty cleaning job or if it's cleaning the toilet. Nice to have a pair on hand. I recommend having a scrub brush like this on hand, George, cleaning your tub or cleaning your kitchen floor. I have a floor mat. Let's talk about this little guy. Any surface that's gross and it's a hard to reach spot. This is your guy, the spray bottle. I love these spray bottles. I got them on Amazon for all of your DIY cleaning products don't be put off by the term DIY if you're not a DIY or these are very basic recipes. I recommend having a duster on hand for cleaning tops of artwork, dusting surfaces, dusting electronics, dusting base boards. This thing will just last you forever. The vacuum, this is, unless vacuum by Dyson, you don't have to get a cordless vacuum, but just get some kind of vacuum. Otherwise that dust and durable set into your wood floor and make it harder to remove over time this frame up. I don't want to haul a big bucket around with a big stringy mop. It has a reusable pad. So definitely look for a spray mop or some kind of map where you don't have to buy refills because that's just going to be a pain. It's always a good idea to have a cleaning caddy just makes cleaning so much easier. You're not backtracking constantly makes cleaning a breeze. Cleaning ingredients. I love to talk about the cleaning ingredients that I use because they're just so simple, they're non-toxic. We haven't cleaned before. We can get really overwhelmed by the cleaning aisle at the grocery store, we see all of these brightly colored cleaning products and we're like, I don't have any idea what's going on. Let's start with my very favorite which is vinegar. It can remove grease and grind from surfaces and yes, it smells like vinegar. But if that bothers you, you can add some essential oils or with time you'll truly just get used to it. Baking soda. I'm a huge fan of having a lot of baking soda or around the house because it's ineffective abrasive. It really is great at lifting Greece from surfaces. I use it to clean my sink, to clean my bath dish soap. I use dish soap in my all-purpose cleaner as side from just using it to clean the dishes and pots and pans. If you don't like the idea of using detergents in your all-purpose cleaner because dish soap is a detergent, It's full of synthetic ingredients. Then you can use Castile soap, which is plant-based hydrogen peroxide. I use hydrogen peroxide to disinfect my home. This is really what I use to spray on countertops sinks, high-touch areas. You can get it at the pharmacy, you can get at the grocery store loved hydrogen peroxide. I also recommend having some rubbing alcohol on hand. Great thing to have to disinfect. Doorknobs, light switches, essential oils, these are by no means necessary, but they can pep up your cleaning products and just make them smell nicer, especially if you're using vinegar or rubbing alcohol. But do check with your vet if you have pets because they can sometimes be toxic. So double-check with your beds before using essential oils and you're cleaning products. I hope this video was helpful and if you're not someone who enjoys to clean, hopefully this will make cleaning a lot more manageable because these are simple tools and ingredients. In the next video, I'm going to share all of my tips on how to clean your home like a pro, so happy cleaning and I'll see you in my next video. 9. How to Clean Your Home Like a Pro: Hi guys and welcome back. I'm super excited you're here because in today's video, I am sharing exactly how to clean like a pro blot is cleaning like a pro sound cool. Well, I'll tell you why. It means that you're going to spend less time cleaning. You're gonna spend less time scrubbing, dusting, and you're just gonna clean smarter and better and more efficiently. The first tip is to establish a cleaning routine. This is so important and I can't stress this enough. If you are someone who gets super overwhelmed cleaning for hours at a time on Saturday or Sunday and you're like There has to be a better way. This is the way this is so efficient because you're spending each and every day devoting ten to 15 minutes of your time, you're actually going to be a lot more thorough cleaning because you know, you just have one task or two tasks to complete on that given day. Recommend having a whiteboard in your kitchen where you can notate all of your cleaning tasks or just put it in your calendar, in your phone, your home will naturally just be at a much cleaner baseline because you're routinely cleaning certain areas of your home, just make it sparkle and shine and who doesn't like that? The second tip is to use simple products over toxic ones. Not only because they are easier to make them more cost-effective, but also because most of the time these store-bought products are toxic, they're not really good to inhale or interact with. And so we want to make sure that the products that we're using are gentle on our skin, on our lungs and our eyes, and also on our environments. Number three, work your way around the room and from top to bottom, this is the way to clean any space in your home. When I started cleaning, I had no idea what I was doing. I would just clean one corner of the room and then see like Dustin another corner and then run over there and it's not very efficient. So that means you're going to dust surfaces. The dust is going to fall to the floor and then eventually you're going to vacuum that surface. It doesn't make sense to vacuum first and then dust because then you're just gonna have to vacuum over again. Tip number four, I never tire of recommending this tip and it's just to bring a cleaning county with you when you are cleaning, fill that cleaning County up with all of the products that you need to clean your space and you'll have a much easier time cleaning. You're not going to backtrack, run back to the utility closet. Oh, I forgot my all-purpose cleaner and my disinfectant whereas everything nope, you're gonna save yourself so much time. Tip number five is to not get so caught up in the weeds. The details of like the little dust and the random corner. Save this for your more monthly cleans where you can devote more deeper cleaning to these kinds of areas in your home. Number six, Let's talk about technique. There is definitely technique involved when it comes to cleaning your home properly. Now sometimes when we're starting out, we just it do something like this and then there's still dust and dirt there. So we'll make a huge difference and how clean your home looks and feels. Always recommend using the S pattern to clean your home. It's better than using the circular pattern. You're just going to clean more at once. You're going to clean more thoroughly. I also recommend decluttering those surfaces before you clean them, remove everything, then wipe it all down. And this just guarantees you reached all of those nooks and crannies, all the crumbs. It's just going to be a better clean every time. Let the cleaning products sit. I love this tip because you don't have to do as much work if you spray down a surface walkway and then come back five minutes later, it will have had a chance to marinate, breakdown that dirt, and then you can just lightly wipe things down without having to work in so much elbow grease. I hope these tips were helpful. The goal here is to make cleaning simpler and more manageable, not more overblown than it needs to be. In my next video, I'm going to share the ultimate weekly cleaning routine, exactly what to do on each day so that you have a roadmap for a cleaner home. I will see you in my next video.