apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i had a method of cleaning like this when i was a kid. (my mum didn't presort, it was all up to me). i actually found a book in my elementary school library when i was in second or third grade called "how to clean your room" or something.
basically they process is:
take everything off the bed.
make the bed.
put *everything* on the bed. even if it's already on something else (i.e. clear off the tops of desks, bookcases, chairs, etc.).
dust and sweep or vaccum.
then pick up one thing at a time from the bed and put it away where it belongs - DO NOT PUT IT BACK ON THE BED!
clothes can wait until last - just toss them to the head of the bed until they're the only thing left. sort clean/dirty items - put them in the hamper or closet where appropriate.
it seems like it would take a long time, but after getting used to the process it was amazingly easy and fast.

Each of my kids has a big rubber tub (tubtrugs or something like that) in their room. Quick cleaning means picking everything up off the floors, tables, beds and dumping it into the tub. Good cleaning means going through the tub and putting everything in it away where it belongs. We also have a tub that collects everything from downstairs to carry upstairs and vice versa.

My mom typically used the dump everything on the bed method ( I still use it! ) but when that didn't work, or I would just simply get lazy and throw it all back on the floor, she would get a few huge trash bags and pack EVERYTHING up and put the garbage bags in the hall for a week or two, and I wouldn't be allowed to have ANYTHING out of them, including my favorite teddy bear! Let me tell you, she only had to do that once! :)

that's how I unpack when moving. The bed goes in the room, everything that goes in the bedroom gets unpacked onto the bed. It works great and usually I'm fully set up and unpacked by the time I go to bed (hopefully!)

I design kid's rooms for a living so my daughter's messy room was really driving me crazy! It doesn't help that the room is long and narrow with the walk-in closet door right in the middle of the best wall for her queen-size bed. Our solution? We put everything in the closet that she doesn't use everyday but isn't quite ready to get rid of and blocked the door with a folding screen we painted and put fabric panels in. All her clothes are now either in her dresser or in various bins and a couple of storage ottomans. So far so good! It gets a little messy now and then but since relinquishing control (this was key) and passing on the organization torch to her, she's really maintained it very well.

hmm... i didn't realize, but i still clean like this.

I loved the New Kids on the Block!!!!!

My sister still cleans like this, my oldest son dumps everything in a pile on the floor and my youngest son really doesn't make much mess. He kind of puts his stuff away when he's done with it.

I'm doing this right now....I'm moving at the end of the month, so I'm packing AND severely decluttering.

The bed is usually the largest flat surface in your house, aside from the floors.

And I'm getting too old to be doing this on the floor, lol

Would love this to work for me. My DH just dumps the clean (but not yet folded) laundry onto the floor so he can crawl into bed! Then the clean pile gets confused with the dirty pile.... hmmmm... guess I should go fold & put away instead of commenting on this site! Ha ha ha ...

my mom yelled and threatened a lot. the ace was to give a deadline after which she would come in and do it herself. my mom is not a tidier. she goes through every item and scrap of paper.

My mum's solution when I was a teenager was simply to close our bedroom doors, so that she couldn't see the mess! I would eventually get frustrated and annoyed with the mess and tidy up on my own accord!