Being neat and organized has been a lifelong struggle for me. Of course, as far as challenges go, it’s not the worst one to have. But it does lead to frustration and aggravation. As I work on getting rid of unneeded things, I want to introduce habits to help us keep the house in good shape.

In The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo suggests that people don’t keep their homes tidy because they’ve never learned how. When I was a kid, I remember my mom telling me to clean my room, and I’d sit and stared at the clothes and toys and not know where to begin, so her idea resonated with me. And it seems idiotic, the idea of being taught to clean a room. Cleaning is a pretty self-explanatory concept.

But organizing is not. So when I think about the imprint my childhood has made on me, and what Emma needs to learn, I want to focus on teaching her to organize her things instead of cleaning her room. At age 8, she likes to decide where she wants her things, and her approach works well for her. She had a busy week, and for the first time in a long time, her room needs some attention. I promised her I’d help her this weekend, and when I do we’ll talk about starting a routine so she can invest ten or fifteen minutes each day over an hour or two once a week.

When I left home to attend college, I was determined to keep my small space neat. Every Friday, I changed my sheets and gave my half of the room a quick once-over. It was a great time to get into the laundry room too. The lure of long naps and happy hour ended my brief Suzy Homemaker routine, but I found myself recalling it when I went back to work. Our office is too small to need ongoing janitorial service, so each Friday I run the vacuum around my desk, empty the trash and declutter my desk. It’s made me think I should do something similar at home on Fridays. I think I’d like to start the weekend by knocking out a few short chores before it officially starts.

So I chose a couple things I can do in 20-30 minutes. I’ve already considered and dismissed vacuuming, because Bob does it. And at the moment we need to vacuum daily. My love for fall always helps me forget my loathing of the constant flow of leaves into my house. They blow in the front door and the back door and stick to everything and require constant attention.

These leaves are beautiful, until they blow into my house.

Since my home office desk accumulates lots of stuff throughout the week, I’m putting it on the list for a weekly reorganization. I’ll also confess to dusting only when it’s noticeable- it’s not something I think to do regularly which makes it a good second item for my new Friday routine. Decluttering tabletops was an idea I discarded, because like vacuuming, it really needs to happen daily. But two tasks is a good place to begin.

And I’m going to re-think my usage of the verb clean.