4 tips to tidy up your house quickly before Tet

As Vietnam’s Lunar New Year Tet is just around the corner, many of us are up to our eyebrows in both work and home duties. “How to tidy up house efficiently in a short time?” is the question of many Vietnamese before Tet. And, to help you tackle the universal issue, Häfele Vietnam recommends the following tips.

1. Keep things that “spark joy”

That’s the first and utmost rule of the organizing method KonMari that has been applied by millions of people around the world. According to its creator, Japanese organizing consultant Marie Kondo, you should hold your belongings, one by one, in your hands and feel them. If they “spark joy” in you, reminding you of fond memories, keep them. Otherwise, throw or give them away.

The rule, as proved by many followers, is much more effective in helping you tidy up your house, compared to the rule of “keeping what you need.” In fact, almost each of us at least once told ourselves that: “I have to keep this, just in case…” only to end up continuing to live among piles of things that would never be used for once for many years. Those things, in the end, would be lost somewhere in our house or thrown away.

If you are not sure what to do with something, Maxwell Ryan, another consultant for organizing living space, recommended putting it into a box that should be left behind your door or in a corner. After one week, you should feel absolutely detached from that thing and be able to decide to whether throw it away or donate it, he said.

2. Clean up in an order

When we are in a hurry, we tend to act by instinct, forgetting that without a plan our doings only take more time and energy. Therefore, when cleaning up your house for Tet, you should follow your usual patterns or routines.

If you don’t have a pattern, do your house in accordance with these rules: from top to bottom; from left to right; finish one spot before starting another; and don’t move to a new room until you complete the room you are working on. That way, you will never miss anything or waste time to clean back and forth one place.

3. Choose the right tools, get them handy

As long as you make good preparations, everything will be quick and easy. So, you have to get a right tool for every cleaning job. Following are some tips you can apply in choosing your tools:

Feather dusters are for sweeping blinds, pictures, books and other places with light dusting. Meanwhile, cloths and vacuums are best for those with heavy buildups.
Kitchen grease can be removed effectively with usual detergents, but tough ones must be treated with baking soda mixed with water.
For rust stains on floor, you can squeeze lemon juice directly on them, and after 10 minutes, wipe them off with a cloth. But, you have to use hard brushes to scrub old stains.
To make your bathroom faucets sparkle again, you can pour white vinegar into a cloth and wipe them.

Once you get the right tools, keep them within your reach to save time from moving back and forth to get them. When you clean up high places, an apron or a carpenter’s belt is useful for carrying cleaners and other necessary tools with you.

4. Make renovation at places that count

Besides cleaning up, you can consider several solutions as follows to renew your house, especially when you have budget and time:

Painting: either to cover cracks or molds or to redo the whole wall with a new paint. If you are repainting your walls, do not forget the 80/20 rule, meaning strong colors should account for 20% of the room and light or neutral ones 80%.
Treating windows: as windows can affect our feeling about the whole room, you can make them look new again by replacing curtains or decorating around the frames.
Fixing lights: lighting is as important as windows, so you should replace your lights, if possible.