A short ebook on the difference between what a clean house truly is and what everyone seems to always think a clean house is.

1. Why Your House Isn't
Actually Clean!
By DG Fletcher

2. Intro
There are two types of 'cleaning your house':
- Literally cleaning your house
- Tidying up your house.
Most people end up spending a lot of time--and I mean a LOT of time--
reading about and learning about good ways to clean clean their house, while
not spending any time learning how to tidy their house up.
Then they wonder why their house is still a giant mess.
That's because tidy is not the same thing as clean. Never was, never will be.
Germiphobe Clean Versus Chemiphobe Clean
Consider this: I know two people. One of them is a germaphobe and one of
them is a chemiphobe. The germaphobe cleans their house all the time, using
lovely bunches of cleanes, scrubbies, and a lot of other things.
The chemiphobe cleans with vinegar. Every once in awhile. Sometimes.
On the other hand, if you were to walk into the germaphobe's house, it kinds
smells a bit like cleaner, ish. Kinda. You clear off the couch and move a few
things around to try to get some space to move the cushion into position.
If you want to get something out of the kitchen, everything's clean. To tell if
something is spotless, you will have to pick it up and hold it to the light
because you can't just glance around.

3. The chemiphobe on the other hand... if you've ever seen the show Monk,
think the tidy quality of his house, minus the chemical cleaners. You walk in,
sit down, have a conversation.
If you go into her kitchen, you'll end up using paper plates because there's
nothing 'safe' to clean dishes with according to her, but you know where
everything is, everything's accessable, and completely functional.
Ok, the paper plates gets a little weird, but at least they don't fall out and
whack you on the head when you open the cupboard, which is what the
germaphobe's dishes do. Once. Not fun. Both of these people are extremes,
but they're true.
Clean Versus Tidy
The point is that people really don't notice when you clean your house to
death with cleaners. You're literally clean, but that's not what people see.
People see tidy. Always remember that.
There are thousands and thousands and thousands of websites showing you
how to clean things, as in clean clean things. Consider the following 4
examples.
1. How to do laundry
See, here's the thing. When you went to college, you probably knew
how to put the soap in the dish and then use it to wash your clothes.
Do you remember when you learned WHEN to do your laundry? (As
in, don't do it when you have absolutely nothing else to wear)
THAT'S the thing about clean versus tidy. Tidy is more useful.

4. 2 How to dust
Here's how I dust: "did I notice dust? wipe it off, problem solved."
Why exactly do you need to know 'how to dust'? Seriously.
The only really large thing in your house that really and truly need
'dusting' is your tv. It can be a tad tricky to dust that without zapping
yourself. Okay, just use a freaking paper towel when you can't watch Dexter
without it being in gray tones.
Seriously. How hard is it to know how to dust? (Unless you have
asthma issues or something like that, but that's not what we're talking about.
3. Vacuuming.
Okay, vacuuming is something that does require a bit of knowledge.
Sometimes, your vacuum actually does require things that you wouldn't
otherwise need to worry about. That's specific to your vacuum.
Throw in this. If you know how to have a clean house, you will be able
to vacuum a lot more often.
4. How to clean your bathroom
Um. How about how to organize your bathroom ?
Ever been in a bathroom that is disturbingly full of crap? Everything's
'clean'. You open up the shower, there's not a ton of mildew, there's not a
whole bunch of stains on the bottom of the tub, but there's soap, shampoo,
lotion, potion, gunk and other crap all over the place.
Still unpleasant, but no one ever trains you how to fix that.

5. Organization
Now, howabout something to really get you to a clean house?
That's not difficult.
It comes down to one really simple word: Organization.
Not what you're organizing with, but HOW you're organizing. It's easy to set
things up in the right way so that you have a house that almost seems to keep
itself clean--both clean clean and tidy clean.
There are a lot of ways to do this, but I'm starting a club. ^ ^
A club for neat freaks.
Join me! (I'm a neat freak. Seriously. It's easy)