8 CLEANING TIPS FOR
MESSY PEOPLE
If you came to my house, you might not say it, but I really love being tidy. If you have three kids, a super tidy (I quote photographer Liselore Chevalier) house is an impossible goal, but believe me, under the circumstances, I do quite well, if I may say so myself. Household management is a job, and the same applies here: practice makes perfect. I personally think I'm getting better at it each year. So, dear friends, and because the sun is shining, I'm sharing my tips. Oh, you’re going to be so grateful to me.
1. Close the doors
At the office, this is my second biggest annoyance. After the jackets that are hung over the back of the chair, that is. I’ve really tried hard to find a style-wise responsible office, but everyone just throws their jacket over it. Goodbye white flow. Goodbye feng shui. So in the mornings, I’m already tidying up the jackets and then I close the cabinet doors. They’re not there for nothing. Closed
they must be.
2. Labels facing forward
Really, I don’t have a polished fridge à la Yolanda van den Herik, uh sorry, Foster pardon, I mean Hadid. I feed at least five mouths, but usually seven, so it’s a crazy mess in the fridge, because everyone has their preferences. But what helps to bring some order to the chaos is this. Place the bottles and jars at height. From large to small, place like with like (wine with wine, vodka with vodka, and yogurt with yogurt) and, importantly: turn the labels forward.
3. Don’t turn clothes inside out
You’ve looked too deeply into a glass and those pants were already tight at the beginning of the evening. You want one thing. That thing has to come off. And quickly. So you pull it down, free your left leg with your right hand, sit on the edge of your bed, and pull it down inside out from the top. Are you still there? Well, those pants. You shouldn’t leave them inside out in a crumpled heap. Just, quick, stick your arms in the legs, pull it neatly, and oh, while you’re at it, just fold it up.
Everything I take off, I hang back up with the right side out. It makes a difference in appearance, even if there’s a Mount Everest of clothes in that corner of your room.
‘While you’re at it, just fold it up’
4. Just hang it in your closet
Yeah right. Whether you toss it on a chair or hang it on a hook in your closet, that’s exactly three seconds more work. But really.
5. Nice hangers
And the same ones. Those hand-tufted specimens from the dry cleaner should not enter your house. They can’t be uglier and they’re bad for your clothes too. Just go to IKEA and throw nice, wooden hangers in your cart. Choose brown, black, or white, but for heaven's sake: choose the same ones.
6. Like with like
Although I’m against storage baskets (they have a pulling mess effect), the like-with-like principle works very well for me. Hairdryers and related hair products in one basket and everything that has anything to do with nail polish in a box. And put it away immediately when you’re done.
7. Long live the vacuum cleaner
You might dread it, but vacuuming your room takes exactly five minutes. Unless your name is Melania Trump, of course, but then you have your people for that. Or you buy a vacuum robot, also a treat if I may believe my colleague Daniëlle.
8. And also
Glass candlesticks and flower vases really want to take a spin in the dishwasher every now and then. You’ll see how much that helps.
So. Now I’m going to busy myself again with the traffic problem/the refugee issue/the Groningen gas and the earthquakes.
