House Cleaning

My daughter Gretel called and said she is having difficulty keeping her apartment clean because of her super busy schedule. She asked for suggestions. My first husband always complained that the house was cluttered. With six kids and a dog you can bet it was. Now I must admit with all the things I could complain about my first husband(isn't that what first husbands are for?) he was a generally tidy man and it was me who left the clothes on the floor and such. Now my second husband says I always have a broom in my hand. I don't have the six kids or the dog. (Hubby says men could live in a cave. His would be a messy cave.) One of the suggestions I gave Gretel was to pick up 15 things in each room then go back and repeat the process for as much time as you have. Another thing I used to do was pretend a television crew was coming in 15 minutes. That didn't help much with closets or drawers. My Mom used to pull out the piano bench and play a hand of rummy with my brother and I. The winner picked up 10 things the second place person 15 and the loser 25. You could do it anywhere in the house and no one worried if you counted a pair of socks as two things or your counting wasn't accurate. After everyone was finished we played another hand. My Mom also payed us a penny for every 50 Dandelion flowers we picked from the yard. Sometimes we cheated and picked the neighbors dandelions.