How to Tidy Your House in Five Minutes

Got clutter and not a lot of time? Use this strategy to get your house looking a lot better in about 5 minutes. Start with the most important rooms first. Got company coming over? Do the living room/kitchen/stairs first and don't worry about the bedrooms.

Things You'll Need

• An empty trash can lined with a clean trash bag
• A laundry hamper (or two)
• An extra large box or basket
• Air freshener spray

Instructions

1. 

   One Minute: Fly around the house with the trash bin in one hand, throwing away all trash. Trash makes up about 50% of all household clutter. Do this and you'll be half done. Make a second sweep in each room; you're always going to find more trash that you missed. Any rooms that have a small trash can in them, empty those cans into your large bin.

2. 

   One minute: Fly around the house with the laundry hamper in one hand, throwing all laundry in it. Don't worry about sorting, just get it off the floor and furniture. Put the full hamper in a closet, or better, the laundry room, and shut the door.

3. 

   30 seconds: Close all drawers, doors, and cabinets in every room.

4. 

   30 seconds: Straighten the furniture. Fluff toss pillows and couch cushions, fold throw blankets, straighten rugs, push chairs into tables.

5. One Minute: Collect dishes from every room and put them in the dishwasher. Close the dishwasher to keep them out of sight.

6. One Minute: Finally, take the big box or container to each room and whatever clutter doesn't belong in that room, put it in the box. If you have time, put the things away; if not, hide the box and do it later. Bring the air freshener with you as you go and spray each room. Done!

Tips & Warnings

• This is not meant to be a top-to-bottom transformation, just a way to tidy up most of your clutter if you're in a time crunch. If you have a larger house with two floors or more, this may take more time.