Welcome to My Messy House

Here’s a problem from a reader. If you guys would like, you can take a shot at solving it:

Help! I have two dogs that make a mess of my house! They stay outside in the back yard while I’m at work - the problem is when they come in! They are both still puppies, one is 9 months and the other is a year and four months, so they love to play and wrestle and get DIRTY! I wipe them off really well before letting them in the house but they still have residual dirt and mud on their paws and coats. I already tried wood chips in the kennel to help keep the mud down and rotating them between two yards to let the grass grow back, but so far it hasn’t done much to keep the dirt out of the house. I sometimes let them in the basement to dry off before coming inside. We have door mats as well. Any suggestions to help keep the floors and carpets cleaner (at least not dirty brown) and keep me from scrubbing and shampooing all the time????

If you have any ideas, go ahead and post a comment!

One thing we messies are good at is having too many things. Too many papers, too many books, too many shoes, and too many clothes! Organization experts recommend purging your closet every six months or so, but if you’re anything like me, you probably haven’t purged your closet in years. If that’s your situation, you’ll need to do a major purge. You can choose to do this in one long day, or you can spend 20 minutes on your closet every couple of days or so. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know why it took me so long to get this book. It took years for me to decide to order it, and another three months to actually read it. Do yourself a favor if you haven’t read this one and read it as soon as possible. Read the rest of this entry »

Getting Organized by Stephanie Winston is the very first organizing book I ever read. My dad, who is a bit of a messie, had that book while I was a teenager. After I moved out, I bought my own copy. I love the ideas this book has, especially for kitchens and small spaces. This book is just plain fun to read, too.

Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell and the Clean Team is truly a great book
if you want to get very good and very efficient at cleaning. He can clean
a house from top to bottom in two hours, and so can you when you follow
his instructions. If you can only buy one cleaning book, this should be
it!

The tips in this book will be difficult to put into practice until you have decluttered pretty significantly. Campbell’s methods resemble Sandra Felton’s Mt. Vernon method, although her method is for decluttering only, while his is for cleaning only. It would make sense, though, that if you work well with the Mt. Vernon method, that you would also work well with Campbell’s methodical, but fast method.

Campbell gives great advice for what sort of cleaning supplies you should have. Since he is a professional cleaner, he would know what products get things the cleanest… the fastest. I believe the concept of the popular Swiffer mop resembles his Sh-mop, although the Sh-mop heads are washable and reusable. One thing I want to put into practice is the cleaning apron. I think that alone will make a big difference in my cleaning speed.

If you’ve read this book, feel free to comment below!