Keeping house is like building Pisom and Ramses; every day your work is undone and you have to start from scratch

Let’s pretend this is a therapy session, and I’ll share all my deep dark habits (you’re not reading this Ma, are you?). More specifically, let’s talk organizing and cleaning.

I’m of two minds; I love a clean house but hate to clean. I suspect most of you agree with me, even if you won’t admit it. I have the “oif’n spritz unten shmitz” approach as my mother calls it (on top you spray, underneath is dirt). I also believe in the adage, “if you don’t see it, it doesn’t exist.” So cabinets and drawers are closed, and there’s no telling what’s inside.

On top of that, I’m very sentimental. That scrap of paper with the sketch I drew in fourth grade — I still have it. Correction, my mother still has it, in the junk drawers she asks me to clean every time I’m in Brooklyn. Meaning, not only is there clutter, it’s clutter I don’t want to get rid of.

I’m a big girl though. Or at least I’m supposed to be. And my husband hates clutter. So every once in a while I try some type of cleaning/organizational approach. Most are one-offs. Some actually stick, like stacking board games and folding clothes vertically.

One time I made a list of all my household chores and made a six-week rotating schedule. I put everything on there, from washing walls to scrubbing baseboards to polishing silver. I think I kept to it maybe one week. It was too overwhelming, I’d rather do jobs as they come up organically (which really means too late, and I can see weeks of fingerprints on my walls to the point of embarrassment.)

Keeping house is like building Pisom and Ramses, every day your work is undone and you have to start from scratch, not really my thing, I prefer a do-it-once-and-it-lives-on-for-perpetuity type of task — like writing.

So this month’s Life Lab is simple: Take three organizational/cleaning methods, try ‘em out, and see what sticks. I tried the FlyLady method, Julie Morgenstern’s from-the-inside-out approach, and the ever-popular Marie Kondo method.

How It Went Down

I started with Julie Morgenstern. She has such a nice Jewish name, how could I say no? She was the only one I hadn’t heard of previously — Bassi Gruen suggested I check her out. Hello, Google.

Julie’s method is called the from-the-inside-out approach. The idea is that there is no-one-size-fits-all approach to organization and time management, everyone needs to look at their personality, needs, and goals — and then see what organized looks like to them. For example, she believes organized chaos is legit, as long as it’s working for you.