How to Keep a Clean House

No, a tornado didn't come through here, I just have kids.

However, no matter overwhelming it is, you can actually have a neat house and kids at the same time.

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Let's face it, we all wish we could keep a cleaner house. No one likes coming home to laundry mountain and a dust bunny brigade. Here you can learn how to keep the chaos at bay.

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Keep track of all your family's favorite meals. All your recipes can finally live in one place, plus you'll have a list to browse when you can't figure out what's for dinner.

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Need a Reset?

Our 14 Days to a Clean House bootcamp takes you through your entire house in two weeks, with step by step instructions.

More importantly, once your house is clean, it gives you the secret of how to keep it that way.

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Articles on Household Management

10 Ways to Make Your House Less Cluttered

Parenting can feel like swimming through a pool of legos, orphaned dirty socks, and discarded craft supplies. Here's to a house that looks like grownups live there.
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10 Super Mom Strategies That Will Buy You More Time In Your Day

Feel like you would benefit from an extra hour or seven? These strategies will help you get more done in less time.
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Keeping Your Home Clean With A Toddler In The House

Wondering how to keep your home clean with a toddler? Here are some tips and tricks to maintain a happy home and baby!
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How to Create a More Open Feeling House

Even if you're just reorganizing, here are some important rules that you should try to stick to when you're trying to create a more open-feeling house.
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How to Make Your House Feel Cosy

Having a few zones in your house that actually relax you, even if you only get to spend 10 or 15 minutes of time there a day, will make you feel so much better just to know that they're there.
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Make Your Home Feel Bigger

Whether you recently downsized, your family recently expanded, or you’ve just started accumulating more stuff, sometimes houses can start to feel a bit cramped. Here's how to get your house feeling roomy and spacious again, without too large of a bill.
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How to Keep Your House from Feeling Dated

All houses do start feeling dated after a while. Here are the best tips I’ve run across to keep your house from starting to feel old.
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Cheap Alternatives to Make Your House Feel More Spacious

If you’re low on funds (or simply hate sawdust), try these cheap alternatives to expensive renovations.
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5 Easy Steps to Keep Your House Perpetually Ready for Company

It is possible to have kids without living in what looks like a perpetual war zone. Here are a few simple steps you can take to make sure your house is company-ready every day.
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3 Simple Steps Towards Zen Simplicity

Technology is a miraculous thing, but it has made our lives immensely more complicated. Here are some ways to simplify your life and bring more peace to your house.
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3 Steps to a Clutter-Free Home

Reclaiming your house amidst all the clutter can seem daunting, but by taking things step by step you can take control of the situation and avoid being swamped in stuff.
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Why Are We Going Over Budget...Again?

Contents: 3 top mistakes that prevent you from hitting your budget, including my actual savings account plan for our family budgeting.
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Top 10 Financial Habits for Moms

As the mom of the family, the “financial head honcho” often falls to us. Develop these 10 habits and you'll be in a great position to set your family up for financial security.
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How to Make Your House Smart(er)

A smart home is one that utilizes “smart” technology which saves you work on a daily basis. Here are my top tips for smart-ing up your house without breaking the bank.
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3 Easy Ways to Futurize Your Home

There's a lot of talk about modernizing, minimalism, and cleaning...here's how to bring your home into the future. Flying cars and hoverboards sold separately, of course.
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Easy Ways to Deep Clean Your Home

There are times when we think we have it all in hand, then life hits us, and the chores can mount up. Before we know it, the house is a mess (again). It can be pretty overwhelming to get on top of it...and stay there.
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9 Cheap and Easy Upgrades that Will Make a Huge Difference in Your House

These cheap and easy tips on sprucing up your house so you can get rid of that feeling your house is starting to get run down without breaking your budget or devoting days to the project.
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5 Dirty Financial Secrets of Homeownership

Here's the guide to the top five expenses that you don't expect when you buy a house.
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How to Create a Top-Down (aka Failproof) Budget

This post will take you through and almost fail-proof budget creation strategy that will help you prioritize your expenses to make sure what's coming in is actually paying the important stuff first.
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12 Ways To Manage Your Finances After Buying A House

After buying a house, your financial responsibilities change. Get a handle on your money with these 12 ways to manage your finances after buying a house.
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10 Tips for Stress-Free Home Renovations

Here are ten things that you can do to make the renovation process a little more bearable.
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4 Ways to Give Your Home That Luxury Hotel Feel

Want that "I just want to roll around on the pretty bed" feeling without the price tag? It's actually not that hard (or expensive).
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3 Easy and Cheap Methods to Make Your House Feel Like New

Even in a mostly clean and largely well-organized room, I am going to get sick of my own house after a few months. Here are three easy, quick, and relatively inexpensive methods for transforming a room or area of your house to look like new.
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5 Easy-to-Teach Rules for Kids to Help You Keep Things Clean

Keeping the house clean can be very difficult. If you have kids, it can feel downright impossible. Fortunately, just by teaching your kids a few simple rules you can actually cut down on a huge amount of the clutter that is created on a daily basis.
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5 Easy Steps to a Clean Garage

For those of you out there who are dreading what could exist in the back of your decoration infested garage cabinets, here's how to change your garage from a clutter-filled nightmare to almost a real room in your house.
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Break Glass In Case of Messy House (5 Ways to Get a Dirty House Clean Fast)

These five tips are ways to get your house out of pigsty status as fast as possible. If you need help how to give your house that emergency jolt to get it from messy to livable, look no further.
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How to Keep the Family Car Clean and Crumb-Free

When you have kids, it's a constant struggle to keep your car from looking like it just took a bath in granola and cracker crumbs. Here's how to keep your car from looking like a french fry graveyard, without getting rid of your kids.
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4 Ways to Spruce Up Your Home on a Budget

If you take the right steps and know where to look, you can make a major difference in your home even on a really tight budget.
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6 Reasons Your House Feels Dingy (and How to Fix It)

Sometimes houses can start feeling a bit...yuck. Here are the top 6 reasons your house doesn't feel as clean, spacious, and beautiful as when you first bought it and how to fix it.
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How to Organize Your Home Like a Model Home

We've all gone househunting and wanted to move into a well-staged home. Here's how to recreate the magic in your own house...minus all the realtors.
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How to Have Kids and a Beautiful Yard (at the Same Time)

It's very hard to have nice things when there are tiny humans running amok and strewing their toys everywhere. Here's how to have a yard that's both fun for your kids to play in and respectable in front of the neighbors.
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9 Strategies to Brighten Your Home

No one likes a dark, dingy, or enclosed space. Here are 9 easy to implement strategies to make your home feel bright, spacious, and airy.
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The Ultimate Guide to a Clean Kitchen

Your kitchen is the hub of family activity. Here's literally everything you need to keep it spotless.
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Household Management for Dummies (or Nervous Moms)

Being an adult, keeping a household running, and all the lovely tasks that come with it are not something they teach in school. Here's what they should be teaching us in senior year instead of advanced calculus.
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How to Maintain Your Home (for Less Money)

You think you're done with the hard part after you buy a house, but taking care of it is equally difficult. Here's how to maintain your house without breaking the bank.
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5 Things I Wish I'd Known Before We Bought Our House

Buying a house can be an emotional, stressful process. Here's a list of things I wish we had known going into the negotiation process so you can learn from our experiences.
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3 Simple Ways to Make Your Small Space Look Chic and Organized

Not all of us can live in mansions. The rest of us need to design and organize our rooms carefully to maximize the space we have and make rooms feel bigger.
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How to Keep You and Your Family Safe

The "mama bear" instinct is incredibly powerful. Here's how to take measures to keep your home, kids, and identity safe.
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25 Survival Strategies to Stay Sane as a Mom

If you're at the end of your rope, here are 25 ways to keep yourself sane in this crazy job we call "mom".
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How to Keep a Clean House Long Term (3 Easy Tricks)

It's hard to get your house clean for a special event (guests coming over, the queen coming to visit, etc.). Especially with kids, it's dang near impossible to keep your house clean on a long term basis. Here's how to do it.
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The Broken Windows Theory (and What It Means for Your House)

What does criminology have to do with your kitchen counter? It turns out a heck of a lot! Here's how the Broken Windows Theory (borne from 1980s policing strategies) can help you keep your house clean!
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How to Plan and Time Thanksgiving Dinner

For those of us about to do battle with Thanksgiving, you might have noticed that the "how to cook" thing isn't nearly as hard as the "how to get all the dang food to come out of the oven at the right time" part. Here's how to make sure nothing gets cold.
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