You'd be surprise how big of difference your bedroom feels once you open up the curtains. I try to "clean sweep" my bedroom area (i have a studio) once a week when I do my laundry. It's my little "detox" stradegy for myself.

Now I want to pick up my room! It's been a dumping zone since the holidays! :)

As Flylady says - you can do anything for 15 minutes.

When I am not in the mood for cleaning a room, I set a timer for 15 minutes and work briskly...iwhen it pings, I stop. It is actually amazing what you can get done in just 15 minutes.

Oh, man. You should grab "The House that Cleans Itself" by Mindy Starns Clark. While the bits about religion can put some off, it's an eye opener about how much we put off things that only take seconds because our brains tells us they take hours. I use the tips in that book on a daily basis!

What a fun before/after picture. I think I'll do that in my place today--take a picture of each room before I do my "Saturday sweep"

I'm pretty good at keeping most rooms straight but with the holidays I missed a couple of recycling pickups. Finally got the bulk of it out yesterday but there's still some left -- we have such a huge snowbank in front of the house that there wasn't room for it all!

I have trouble with time management, so when I first lived alone, I timed literally everything I did. I can tell you it takes 2.5 minutes to unload my dishwasher, another 1.5 minutes to load it, 5 minutes for my shower, 3.5 minutes to put my makeup on, and the list goes on. Seems pedantic, but it's the only way I can be on time and bring myself to do things!

I have a basket system where I take 2 laundry baskets into each room, one for me and one for my boyfriend. Anything that doesn't belong in that room goes into whomever's basket it belongs to. It's a super quick way to clean up quick when guests are coming over at the last minute and each person can deal with their basket later on!

AND.....you found your kitty cat under the huge pile of clothes!!!

Posting a link to this on my home organizational blog. Good reminder! And I love the bit about opening your curtains to let in the light.

OK you've done your room, will you come and do mine?. Please.

Excellent post! Perfectly illustrates that you don't need a whole lot of time to straighten up and make a huge difference.

Opening up the curtains makes a huge difference! My husband and I always bicker because I love them open, but as soon as he walks into the room he closes them :(

Great post... my room takes about 15 minutes to clean as well!

I love that lamp!

LauralInCancun: I love the windows open too, and so does my husband. We bicker because he opens them while I'm in the shower ... leaving me on display to the neighbors to get to my clothes.

When I went off to college, I had to start doing for myself the things my mother used to do for me. One of those was making my bed. I asked her for advice on how to do it and she said, do it first thing when you step out of bed. It becomes automatic. I tried it and lo and behold, it became an easy routine in only 5 days or so!
I wish I was still in that good habit, but I lost it when my boyfriend (now husband) moved in and slept late. I couldn't do the bed with him in it, and so got out of the habit of doing it first thing.

Things that go upstairs get put on the steps for the next trip up. Things that belong downstairs go on the landing for the next trip down. Works well.

mtlyorel: the discipline thing only works if you're the only one who lives there! LOL

really great advice form hongkonger. Sometimes it's hard to get myself motivated to clean up but I could justify 15min so setting the timer is a brilliant idea. I am guilty of convincing myself that everything takes hours.

I love your bed...where is it from?
And I love making my bed. It just makes me feel good. Great article!

@urbancricket: we have that same problem at our house!

I could only do half of that in 15 minutes - If I'm lucky!