If you aren’t a naturally clean and organized person, trying to get your life in order on a daily basis might feel like an impossible uphill challenge. But it doesn’t have to be. A few easy habits can change everything.

• Get Rid of Stuff

Research shows that 84 percent of Americans worry they aren’t organized, which shouldn’t come as a surprise when you learn that the average home contains roughly 300,000 items. It’s hard to keep a tidy home when you have excessive stuff.

Decluttering is one of the best things you can do for your mental health and sanity. When you get rid of things you don’t need, it makes it easier to stay organized and keep a clean house. Try getting rid of 100 items every week for three months. You’ll be amazed by how freeing it is!

• Never Leave Items on Surfaces

Make a household rule that every item in your home has a place. This place must be hidden away and can’t be on a surface (like a counter or shelf). Unless it’s a decor item, it gets put away. Eventually, your commitment to this rule will train you to never leave stuff lying around. 

• Make Your Bed Each Morning

If you want to be organized in every area of your life, begin each day by making your bed. This might seem like a small and inconsequential task, but it really sets the tone for the kind of person you want to be. There are a lot of things in life that you have no control over, but you have absolute control over whether or not you make your bed. Don’t miss out!

• Organize at the End of Each Day

Take 10 minutes at the end of each day to tidy up. If you’re following the “never leave items on surfaces” rule, this shouldn’t be very difficult. The idea is that by cleaning up at the end of the day, you’re more likely to wake up feeling organized and tidy. This has a snowball effect, which makes you more likely to continue acting in an organized manner throughout the day.

• Use a Bidet

While most Americans have grown accustomed to using toilet paper to clean up after using the restroom, people in many parts of the world use bidets. And while there’s certainly an environmental benefit to using bidets, that’s not why Europeans love them. It’s because it’s much cleaner than toilet paper.

“Bidets are a safer, healthier alternative to toilet paper. They keep your hands away from the mess, and keep harsh bleached paper out of your life,” Bidet Mate explains. “Regular bidet use can lead to fewer rashes, hemorrhoids, urinary tract infections, and other issues.”

Thankfully, you don’t have to buy a standalone bidet and rework your bathroom’s plumbing. A simple bidet toilet seat or bidet attachment will do the trick.

• Scrape Your Tongue

If you’re only brushing and flossing your teeth, you aren’t getting your mouth nearly as clean as it could be. You need to clean your tongue, too. More specifically, you should scrape your tongue.

Tongue scraping, which requires nothing more than a simple plastic strip with grooves, removes bacteria, debris, and dead cells that cause bad breath and negatively impact your overall health. Scraping on a daily basis will lead to better taste, improved appearance of your tongue, fresher breath, and a lower risk of oral health issues, like gum disease and cavities.

• Clean Your Cell Phone

As much as people talk about washing hands, there isn’t nearly enough talk about cleaning your cell phone – which the average person touches more than 47 times per day.

According to Northwestern Medicine, “Your cell phone is dirtier than you think. From home, to work, to the coffee shop around the corner, your phone picks up germs everywhere it goes. In fact, cell phones carry 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats.”

Imagine touching a toilet seat 47 times per day. You’d feel filthy, right? Well, that’s basically what you’re doing when you pick up your cell phone. And unless you’re washing your hands immediately after handling, it’s probably making you sick.

Make a habit of cleaning your cell phone at the end of each day. You can either use a phone-safe Clorox wipe or a dedicated phone sanitizing device that uses UV rays to disinfect.

Be Cleaner, Live Happier

Cleaner people tend to be happier people. If you want to be more productive, enhance your focus, get sick less, and enjoy better relationships and more emotional stability, prioritize cleanliness in your daily habits. It doesn’t take much – just a few intentional decisions each day!