Recently, my wife and I had our apartment in complete shambles (which is uncommon for us). It felt like everything we owned was out in our living room (we have a one bedroom apartment, and a 4 month old), and it had reached a point where we needed to clean everything.
I’ve cleaned our apartment many times before, but it had never occurred to me how quickly we get everything back together. I’ve helped clean many places of differing size, and even for the size of our apartment, it got done very fast. It took a little bit of thinking and talking together, but we finally figured out why:
Everything has a place.
What I mean is that we’ve pre-decided where our laptops go and cords, books, papers, etc have their designated location. We’re not always perfect about putting things back immediately, but when it comes time to cleaning (whether a major or minor session), we are able to get it done quickly. We’ve had to make this a habit whenever we get something new, but I can tell you that having a specific spot for everything you own can drastically reduce your time cleaning and organizing.
So take those few items that constantly get moved around in your house, office, or car – and take a moment to put it in a specific spot. Knowing that it’ll get moved around, but that it has a place to go to when you clean or organize helps move everything along just that much faster.