The "one-touch" cleaning rule keeps your home tidy

We have a myriad of excuses for clutter. In fact, bad human habits are the main cause of clutter in the home, and breaking these habits is essential to creating a clean, tidy space. The "one-touch" cleaning rule helps you do just that.

Quy tắc dọn dẹp một lần chạm giữ nhà cửa ngăn nắp - 1 — The "one-touch" rule helps us give up the habit of littering (Photo: Niche Interiors).

One of the biggest mistakes we make when cleaning our homes is leaving things in the wrong place. Arranging things properly and in the right place is important to tidying up a room and managing things better.

Here are some tips shared by professional decluttering and organizing consultants to help eliminate this clutter once and for all.

What is the "one touch" rule?

One-touch cleaning means putting things away after you "touch" them. This concept is probably familiar to anyone who has heard their mother say, "When you pick something up, put it back where it belongs."

In fact, the “one-touch” idea was originally used in the corporate world as a method to increase workplace productivity.

"Coined by productivity consultant Ann Gomez, the 'one-touch' rule is the act of putting things away or completing one task before you start a new one," explains Di Ter Avest, a professional home and lifestyle organizer and owner of Di is Orgaized.

Quy tắc dọn dẹp một lần chạm giữ nhà cửa ngăn nắp - 2 — Capital rules are applied in businesses to increase productivity and labor efficiency (Photo: Pluck).

This is great for keeping track of paperwork or keeping up with personal tasks. You can also easily apply this rule to household activities.

“Touching an item once means not leaving it where it is after you’ve used it, but putting it back where it belongs. Doing this will save you time and limit the amount of clutter that accumulates in your home,” says Di.

However, this rule only helps to limit clutter, it cannot make the room tidy. To create a tidy space for your home, you should combine this "one touch" rule with some other methods.

Here are three tips recommended by professional organizing consultants.

Combine the "one-touch" rule with the organizer

To keep everything in the house neat and tidy, you cannot ignore organizing tools such as storage bins, drawers or stackers. Depending on your personal needs, you can choose the appropriate organizing tools.

“The one-touch method only works best when you have systems in place to maintain this habit. If you don’t have a dedicated space for everything in your home and don’t have an organization system in place, you’ll have a hard time applying this rule,” Di says.

Quy tắc dọn dẹp một lần chạm giữ nhà cửa ngăn nắp - 3 — Storage and organization tools are essential to creating a tidy space (Photo: Zeke Ruelas).

Instead of leaving receipts scattered on the kitchen counter, put them in a file bag and store it on a shelf. For keys, hang all the key rings in the house on a hook next to the door.

Find out the root cause of the mess and then find a suitable solution.

Avoid applying mechanically

Sometimes implementing a decluttering rule can be frustrating when you don't see immediate results. "One Touch" is one of the best ways to change your daily habits with everyday items you use, but it's not the only one.

In fact, this rule can be ignored if you want to remove certain items from your home.

“I find this method doesn’t work for decluttering,” Di says. “Let’s say you find a few pens in your room and you decide to keep them, putting them in a box. But when you’re done cleaning, you have a box full of pens, so you’ll need to go through them again to clean them up further and find a more suitable place for them.”

Quy tắc dọn dẹp một lần chạm giữ nhà cửa ngăn nắp - 4 — Apply cleaning rules flexibly to each situation (Photo: Rei Moon).

In situations like this, you'll want to apply a more targeted rule, such as a 6-month removal rule. Don't apply the "one-touch" rule to every situation, or it may become more of a hindrance than a help.

Allow exceptions

There are many things you rarely use. You put them away and then take them out again after a while. Or there are many situations where you need to use a few things urgently. So you should not apply the "one touch" rule to medicines or other essential items.

"While the 'one-touch' rule can be helpful when it comes to organizing furniture and things in your home, there are some specific situations where you shouldn't use it," says Ben Soreff, a professional organizer at House to Home Organizing.

Quy tắc dọn dẹp một lần chạm giữ nhà cửa ngăn nắp - 5 — Consideration is an important step in the home decluttering process (Photo: The Royal Senses).

According to experts, looking at things is the most important step in cleaning and organizing your home. Because you have to select items and look at them, touching them all at once is not feasible.

When you consider storage solutions, getting an item to its proper place requires you to “touch” it a lot. So you always have to be realistic when applying the rule and keep its real value in mind.

“It's all about habit and intention. Practice doesn't make perfect, but practice makes perfect,” says Ben Soreff.

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