I Asked My Absurdly Tidy 9-Year-Old For Cleaning Advice — and Her Tips Are Genius

No exceptions! Decide what goes where and stick to that decision. For my daughter, that means every toy gets put away when she's done playing with it — leaving it on the kitchen table is a no-no. For me, I have to remember that depositing a half-read book on the couch or dumping papers on the coffee table is just clutter in the making and breaks the "designated space" rule. But once I have it in my mind that things have a right place to be, everywhere else starts to feel like the wrong place, and it gets easier to remind myself to put items away properly.