Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

When it's time to vacuum under/around/behind the recliner (or any other relatively moveable chair), just flip it forward upside down. Then you can pick up all the crap that accumulated back there, (So much crap! I can't believe I just did this two days ago!), and vacuum the whole space in one go without having to dig out the crevice tool.

Okay, so maybe moving a chair to clean under it isn't exactly revolutionary, but if you flip it carefully forward on its axis, then it's super-easy to get it back to the exact position it was in before you moved it. Before I started flipping my chair over, I sometimes spent so much time trying to get the feet back in their carpet grooves that it was hardly a time-saving technique. This way, it's a quick matter of "pivot forward, vacuum, pivot backward."

Added bonus: If anyone has been eating carelessly in the recliner, and it is full of crumbs, flipping it forward will dump out most of the crumbs, saving you even more crevice tool time.

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

If you want to record a cute video of your kids dancing, or make a tutorial for your other blog, and you don't feel like cleaning up the living room, just shovel all the crap to one side of the room, then crop the messy half of the room out of sight.

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

When you’re tidying up downstairs, pile things that need to go upstairs on the bottom step. (If there are lots of little things, put a tote bag or box on the step to keep them all together.) The next time you go upstairs, grab a load from the step and take it up with you. This saves you a lot of trips up and down the stairs.

(Alternatively, if you’re trying to lose weight, don’t do this. Just think of all the extra exercise you’ll get running up and down the stairs!)

A few side notes:
-Make sure to leave enough room beside the pile so that you can walk right past the stuff and forget about it.
-If the bottom step is full, use the next step. If the second step is full, use the third step. If all the steps are full, then you're probably at my house.

Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

Pick a space in your house that you can resign to mess. Preferably one with a door that closes. A walk-in closet, basement, or bedroom works well. Then, when you're cleaning in a hurry, you can shove everything that doesn't have a place (or that would take too long to sort and put away properly) in there, and close the door.