Has your home ever been messy?

For some it is a rare occasion and for others it is a constant state. However, we all have times when our living spaces need to get in order very quickly. The challenge is knowing where to start. Is there a simple way to do it?

In a recent NPR article, author KC Davis shared tips on how to pull together a living space in five easy steps. According to KC, the first thing to do is take out the trash.

Get a trash bag or a trash can. Move around the room, collecting the garbage.

But don’t take out the trash yet. “The more times you leave that room, the more likely you are to get distracted on some different project,” Davis says. The point of this method is to get the space back to livable and functional.

“I can function with a trash bag sitting by the back door. I can’t function with too much trash all around the house,” Davis says. “I will have all the motivation in the world to do something and I’ll do it for like 30 minutes and then all of a sudden the motivation will fly out of my body …. And so knowing that, I want to get as much done to make the space livable as I can.”

Once all the garbage is cleared, KC suggests tackling the dirty dishes.

Gather up all the dirty dishes. You can put them in the sink if it’s nearby. Or you can pile them up. Davis likes to use laundry baskets that don’t have holes in the bottom. You could also get a small rolling hamper, put a basket on top of it, “and roll that sucker around and collect all those dishes,” she says.

To learn the final three steps, please read the rest of the article on NPR.