Jesus. These tips are freaking spot on EVERY TIME.

Since I started scheduling everything my life has been so much easier. The simple act of jotting it down on my planner helps me remember to do it.

Life is so much simpler when you take care of routine tasks routinely.

…something I learned when I lived in Sweden: To minimize dust mites, your bed needs to get absolutely as much air as possible.

Making your bed helps dust mites survive, grow, and reproduce. Air kills them.

This was excellent—thanks for posting it!

A cleaning schedule is just what I need, and this one seems quick and easy. Dusting with the laundry is perfect since the noise of the machine keeps me from getting to really relax anyway.

Not stupider? I'm the world's laziest type-A personality and this is pretty close to my routine. I'd make two Lazy Person adjustments:

Let gravity help: Work top-to-bottom. Dust before you vacuum. That way you can dust with a dry cloth or feather duster, and just push all the dust to the floor, then vacuum it up.

Time is on your side: It's no crime to let your really crusty dishes (or laundry) soak.

I agree that scheduling things is a good idea, but I think you need to be flexible about it when important things happen. For example, if you’re a creative writer and you have a brilliant idea for a piece on Saturday morning, you’ve gotta strike while the iron’s hot. In other words, the laundry can wait if you’re about to scribe your brilliant first novel.

I’m a big fan of a place for everything because I hate wasting time trying to find something - my man and his sons on the other hand, are hopeless about putting things back where they belong. My mom’s trick: hide stuff!!! ;-)

I much prefer pulling the covers on my bed down at night to let the bed air out. It feels cleaner/fresher when I do that and it looks just as neat since I layer the covers nicely at the foot of the bed.

It’s also more inviting to me because the bed is already “open”.

Otherwise, this is a great article. I’m a firm believer in Flylady.net and these tips are exactly what she advocates. I’ve been following flylady for years and it’s amazing how much more relaxed I am when I have a schedule for getting things done.

You need to dust first (with washer) so that any stuff that is accidentally knocked off the counter tops, tables, etc while dusting will be picked up by the vaccuum cleaner. So I say-Dust with washer then vaccuum with dryer. Doesn’t everyone do it this way?

I got the make-your-bed lecture firsthand from LLH on the phone one night. It was part of a larger conversation about how I was approaching an unequivocally adult age and yet still didn’t feel I had my sh*t sufficiently together. She offered bedmaking as a good place to start my journey toward acting more my age. Still haven’t done it regularly, though I’m getting better at it, but I had to admit (and did, to her on the phone that night) that it was a good idea.

On a tangential note, it’s amazing to me that I still remember every single conversation I had with her. Miss you, Leslie.

Dusting first makes some sense, granted. I have a Dyson and it sucks up everything, but my old vacuum used to throw out a lot of dust because it sucked (because it didn’t suck?) so I got into that habit.

As for what makes up a made up bed, the point isn’t necessarily to tuck everything in tightly — though I do that, myself — the point is more about “looks good” than performs a valuable function, so that the tidy appearance cascades to other areas. If you prefer an un-tucked bed, I’d still recommend straightening it up a bit, keeping the sheets folded over in a nice line or, per Tali’s suggestion, open up the bed and keep the blankets and duvet nicely layered at the foot.

As Merlin will soon learn, these ideas are great for the single, married without kids, or married with school-age kids. For those of us with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, well… Let’s imagine what a few of Leslie’s Rules of Thumb would end up like.

1. Water your plants. This actually came off without a hitch. This is because I long since had to give up on houseplants after the last few were knocked off their shelves on to the floor to provide a makeshift sandbox (or dirtpile). Now my plants are in an AeroGarden out of child reach, and I just need to fill the reservoir.

4. Vacuum your entire house while your laundry is in the washer. Yeah, that seemed like a good idea. So I put the laundry in the washing machine (after giving one or more children a ride downstairs in the basket with the laundry—ow, my back!). The kids helped fill the washer with the clothes, and then helped get out the vacuum. Then we spent the next 20 minutes in a tug-of-war with my kids constantly grabbing for the vacuum handle or power cord, and me having to move them aside. Then for the next 10 minutes, they began laying down in the path of the vacuum because they liked the shade of red my face was turning. After finishing two rooms, I turned on the television to try and distract the children, but the vacuum drowned out the sound of the TV. I gave up after two rooms and 45 minutes.

5. When you put your laundry in the dryer, dust the house. Going to the laundry room I am once again accompanied by my 2 and 3 foot tall satellites. The simple act of moving clothes from the washing machine to the dryer is interrupted by: my son getting in the dryer, my daughter dumping out all the dryer sheets, countless socks and pairs of underwear captured during the transfer process, and finally a fight over a t-shirt leads a new dust rag. That only took 10 minutes. Then, off to start dusting. The satellites continue to follow, reaching for anything I move to dust under, and constantly getting underfoot.

Mind you, I see the value in this guidance, but I wish there was a similar system that would work with young kids in the house. I wouldn’t trade my kids for the world, and so for now I just have to deal with the fact that my house isn’t as clean and nice as it once was, or will be again!

Sometimes these productivity tips stray from the ingenious and original across the banal and then stride confidently into the Department of the Bleedin' Obvious. May I suggest that tips 1 & 3 are firmly in that territory, or did none of you have mothers?

Could you also please tell me what a web mandarin is, and what differentiates a cutting edge modern web mandarin from their old school rivals?

I am moved that you want to do this as a memorial to a friend who was clearly very dear to many of you, and hope you don't think these questions impertinent and disrespectful.

I have no idea what washing machine from the future you guys have, but mine (a whirlpool from 2001) takes at least 100 minutes to wash anything (120 for washing at 95 degrees celsius), except when I put on a rapid programme. But that is only to be used for stuff that’s pretty much not dirty.