Touch it once

When it comes to cleaning -- touch it once!

This idea is from Don's brother, Rick Dowdle. I am not sure if he made it up, if he got it from his mom, or what. Cleaning is made a lot easier if you clean up along the way. For example, say I want to clean up the living room. I am tempted to take some of Stuey’s items and just toss them into his room to take care of them later, but honestly that makes another job for me to do. It is far easier to just walk a little faster and put the items where they belong. If I'm cooking eggs, instead of during the egg shells into the sink to rest until I do the dishes, I can put them directly into the compost container, which is under the sink. It seems like it would just be obvious, but it helps me when I consciously think of eliminating steps.


This book that I once read, The Art of Homemaking, suggested something similar. The author reminds us that it is easier to immediately clean up a jam jar that has stickiness on the outside, than it is to later clean all the services that it touched, and have to scrub the stickiness off. Good point.