Top Tips for a clean tidy home

I have read through this thread with interest....

JoJo, I can't believe you've had to live in those conditions. I recently read a book called "The house we grew up in" by Lisa Jewell, I don't know if anyone here has read it but the main character is a hoarder and I had pictures in my head how the house would have looked. Very good book.

I do struggle to keep things tidy in my house. There are 4 of us living here, 2 adults and 2 kids. My husband complains about the place looking a dump, but he is one of the worst culprits for leaving things lying around.

* We have a coat rack on the left hand side as you walk in through the front door....yet when hubby and the kids come in the coats gradually gather on the bottom of the bannister and I have to keep moving them back onto the coat rack. Plus keys gets left on the side instead of being hung on the key rack.

* I'm sure that hubby does things to create extra jobs or breaks something so we have to buy a new one. We had a blocked plug hole in the bath tub and he poked it with some wire that resulted in the bath leaking and water leaking down the wall in the room below. As a result, the bath was out of action for 48 hours, while we got a new plug hole and u-bend pipe and got my Dad round to help fix it.

* Last Saturday I came back from Slimming group to find towels all over the kitchen floor - hubby had left the tap running in the kitchen, forgot about it and flooded the kitchen. Spent the rest of the morning clearing out the cupboard under the sink as some stuff was ruined, namely a nearly full box of Persil washing tablets that ended up in the bin as they dissolve when they get wet. Plus had to get the electric fan heater out to dry out the floor.

Perish the thought of my house getting so full that we can't move in there!