I talk to my daughters about the idea that, technically, we’re always tidying. I know that sounds bizarre, but if you think about it, it’s the only way to manage the chaos and to always have a clean environment. And it’s not hard.
Always tidying simply means that after we use something, we put it back immediately. That’s it. That’s the secret.
Nothing’s really ever out of place because everything goes back to its home after we use it. This includes mail coming in and papers we must either sign, discard, save in a file, or display.
I tell my daughters that they learned this from Ms. Juli, the preschool teacher, who said, “Everything has a home.”