If you've successfully begun, or better yet, completed your spring cleaning, congratulations. You're in the minority. If can see the floor, if you've actually thrown items away and/or given them to your local charity, and you have indeed achieved "the illusion of clean," you've accomplished quite a feat. Most of us dream of spring cleaning but never do it. Why upset the "order" of things? After all, that might look messy to everyone else, but there's a method to your madness. If you were to rearrange your possessions, you'd never find anything again. Think of the time you'd waste just trying to find things afterward.

Sorry ... that's a flimsy excuse. Sooner or later, you've got to clean the clutter, and you'll feel better for it. But how do you keep it clean after you've finished the job? The fact that the house becomes messy so soon after cleaning only provides ammunition to us pack rats and slobs. Do you have to lock the family out? Crack the whip? What does it take to keep the house in order for longer than 10 minutes?

For starters, take comfort in the fact that it is, indeed, easier to keep a neat house once you've achieved a neat house. Getting from messy to neat is the hard part, and once that Hurculean task has been accomplished, simple maintenance is all that's required of you and your family members.

We're really talking about a few lifestyle alterations here. If you come home each day after work and toss your keys, your briefcase and your coat on the sofa, you've started a precedent that others will follow. The kids will dump their backpacks on the sofa, your spouse will drop his or her coat and bag there, and the dog will park himself on top of the mountain. You've got to remind the kids and the spouse that each time they arrive home, they're to bypass the sofa and head to the hall closet or their bedroom closets. You could purchase a coat tree if you want your belongings on display at all times. Your chances of getting the family to cooperate with your requests are probably greater with a coat tree, which is closer to the door than the sofa, anyway. The point is that you've got to create an easy drop-off spot for your clutter. Closets require more discipline and a lot of reminders to the kids.

We're all "spammed" with paper junk mail. If you can throw it away before you even enter your home, that's best. If not, head immediately to the garbage can upon your arrival at home. Too many of us let those paper sales pitches collect in haphazard piles throughout the house -- on the kitchen table, kitchen counters, coffee tables or side tables, even the floor. A week's worth of junk mail represents a tree; a month's worth, a forest. Get rid of it. One additional benefit: You'll feel less stressed, too. When you receive important papers or bills, place them in one organized spot -- a drawer, a small basket by the phone where you can't miss them. Many of us are guilty of tossing bills throughout the house, only to scramble for them later ... that is, if we don't forget to pay them altogether.

If you're being an environmentally conscious homeowner, and you're making an effort to save your daily newspapers, you may have access to plastic bins provided by your city to encourage you to recycle. If not, purchase a similar large-size container at your local grocery store or home-improvement store. Place it in the garage or other out-of-sight place, and establish a family rule that at the end of each day, all newspapers are to be placed in the bin, finished or not finished.

Other tips for maintaining order and sanity in your house:

Published: March 15, 2000

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