Keeping a clean home can feel like an endless battle, especially when life is already full of responsibilities, deadlines, and unexpected chaos. But what if there was a way to simplify the way we think about mess?
In How to Keep House While Drowning, KC Davis breaks it down into just four categories:
- Things with a place
- Things without a place
- Trash
- Laundry
That’s it. No need to overcomplicate it. Understanding these categories can help you clean with purpose instead of feeling paralyzed by the mess. Let’s break it down further.
1. Things with a Place
These are items that already have a designated home but have wandered off—shoes by the door, cups on the counter, blankets on the couch. The good news? You don’t have to overthink where they go. The task here is simple: put them back.
How to Handle It: Do a quick reset at the end of the day. Take five minutes before bed to walk through your home and return items to their places. If you have kids, make it a game—set a timer and see who can put away the most things in two minutes.
2. Things Without a Place
This is where clutter starts. These are the random items you don’t quite know what to do with—mail stacking up, a gift bag from a recent birthday, or those odds and ends on the kitchen counter. If an item doesn’t have a designated home, it creates decision fatigue, making cleaning feel overwhelming.
How to Handle It: Ask yourself: Do I really need this? If yes, assign it a home (a drawer, a bin, a shelf). If no, donate it or toss it. Having a “clutter basket” can help—anything that doesn’t have a place goes in the basket until you decide its fate.
3. Trash
Some mess is just trash—empty snack wrappers, old receipts, junk mail. This is the easiest category to tackle, yet it often blends into the background when we’re overwhelmed.
How to Handle It: Keep a trash bag in hand while tidying up. Make it a habit to do a daily “trash sweep.” Keeping small trash cans in every room also makes it easier to keep things under control.
4. Laundry
Laundry is its own category because it has a cycle—dirty, washed, dried, folded, put away. If one step in the cycle gets stuck, it piles up quickly.
How to Handle It: Try a system that works for you. Some people do a little bit every day (one load start to finish), while others dedicate one or two days a week to laundry. The key is not letting clean clothes sit in a pile—fold and put them away immediately.
Why This Approach Works
Instead of feeling like you have an impossible cleaning to-do list, this method breaks it down into manageable steps. If your space feels overwhelming, start by identifying which of the four categories is causing the most mess. Focus on just one.
Small wins add up. If you don’t have the energy to deep clean, just pick up the trash or return items to their places. Progress is progress.
Next time you look around and feel discouraged by the mess, remember—there are only four types. You got this. Or contact Absolutely Clean and we got it!
