Welcome to the 75-Day Tidy Home Challenge! If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to keep a house running, you’ve found it! Just kidding. We all know what it takes to keep the house from becoming a wreck. The hardest part is doing it day after day.
In this Tidy Home Challenge, we’re going to use a format similar to 75 Hard but this is gentler as we can’t have people quitting on their homes, as much as we may want to! So the goal here is to never skip a task more than one day in a row. Even if you can only manage 4 of the tasks, just make sure you do them the following day.
I may have to swap out the laundry one for handling paper but honestly, these are both items that could be handled less frequently than daily, but in the worst case, we’re looking at 4 days per week.
The Goal:
Do 75 days in a row of the key task to a tidy home. You can dictate how long you spend on the task but I’d suggest that you don’t worry about getting the task 100% complete in all parts of your home. Instead, just get what you missed the following day.
The tasks include:
- Make the bed
- Sweep the floor
- Do the laundry
- Pick up trash
- Put things away
- Wipe counters & table
- Clean the dishes
The Rules:
Really the only rule is to never miss two days in a row. This is so we don’t break the habit, but sometimes life gets a little rough and we need to let off a bit. Never skipping two days in a row is old advice to make sure that you’re break of pattern doesn’t become a habit.
Depending on the size of your house and how many people are helping, you may not be able to complete all of these tasks 100% each day. That’s okay! Do the area you skipped the next day. Laundry also may not be a daily task for you, and if it’s not, you can simply look over your linens to make sure they don’t need to be swapped out or laundered and then check it off.
Confirming the task isn’t needing to be done is the same as doing the task for this challenge. The same goes for dishes or other tasks.
Additions:
I highly recommend that, if you are struggling with motivation, you take some before and after photos to help motivate yourself. You can post these on Facebook and Instagram or share results on either with #75DayTidyHome and include @lhl.ogranizing for visibility on Instagram.
Have a robot? Excellent! Let it sweep your floors and simply clean it off as your task. Just like a dishwasher, you can use automation to complete these tasks. Just make sure that you finish unloading the dishes to complete the task 100%.
Sign up to get your free tracker below:
My hope is this streak tracker helps you get your daily tidy firmly implanted after 75 days! I’d love to hear more about your results!
If it’s taking too long:
Difficulty completing the tasks in a reasonable timeframe is a sign that you either need more family members’ help or you need to declutter for this phase of your life (such as with a newborn or toddler or helping an elderly parent). That’s okay! In fact, it’s a perfect reason to hire a professional organizer. We are more affordable than you’d expect.
If you want to go it alone, but are struggling, you may wish to just start with one task. For instance, if your dishes are piled everywhere it may take several days of doing lots of dishes before it can be done in a reasonable amount of time. Be patient. In one week you will know how long this task will take. If it’s still unreasonable, you need to reduce the number of dishes that can build up to force you to wash them more frequently.
Once the first task is in order, then you can add a second one. You must keep doing the first one but then add in the second one until it’s also in control. Feel free to pick your own order but if you’re looking for inspiration Dana from A Slob Comes Clean has a great book on building up to these tasks in her latest book.
