How to Keep a Clean and Organize Your Home

Audra: Now, as Elizabeth was just saying with our busy schedules, the kids running around, pet hair everywhere, it's really tough to keep a clean and organized home. Marni Jameson is here though. She’s the author of House of Havoc. Marni has got a laundry list of ways to solve any house related crisis and really just cleanup the mess around the house. Good to have you here Marni.

Marni: Thanks, good to be here.

Audra: I really love what you're talking about because a lot of people will come in and say “you got to declutter, get rid of things” but you say start off with a little mess to begin with.

Marni: Right, decluttering is important but not cluttering in the first place is a great way to get ahead so, keeping the wine closet down to a minimum, keeping the linen closet under control or some ways to do that.

In my book, I talk about one thing—

Audra: Really just keeping it simple right?

Marni: Yeah, keeping it simple.

Audra: With the glasses though, a lot of people have different shade, different types of wine glasses and you have a way of just kind of pairing things down, keeping it simple.

Marni: I like to just get one thing and what you want is good function and a good look. So, let’s start with function. What do you want a wine glass to do? I've done it all wrong so, I'm not here to say I've done it all right but I do know what I should be doing.

Three of these glasses are not what you want. So you want to see wine and you want to smell it. So, can you see it in here?

Audra: No, not at all.

Marni: So let’s take out the blue one. This is lovely. It's Waterfur. It's the most expensive glass on the table and it's beautiful and it reflects the candle light but you can't see and appreciate the wine. So you really want to see it. So, we’re getting closer now with these two right?

Audra: Right and smell—

Marni: And you see these are megaphones, so they let all the aroma out. So you want a little pear shaped glass so you have the bouquet when you put your nose in the glass. So these are the right shape. But this one, if you look closely, it has a little collagen injection on the rim so the wine has to hit a speed bump before it gets to you and you want a smooth flowing glass.

Audra: This is good to know though especially when you're registering for weddings. I mean, everybody, you go for the Waterfur usually.

Marni: You go for these expensive glasses. You want a thin, clear, not colored, not high crystal.

Audra: Because you're going to end up going back and buying those glasses anyways right?

Marni: Yeah, exactly! This will get everything you need and it’ll make you appreciate the wine a little more.

Audra: Have a nice set of those and you're good to go. Now, when it comes to the towels, you’ve got towels that are colored obviously and then white towels.

So, what’s the best thing here?

Marni: Women are just a sucker and men too. I guess they go in and they think their towel should be the accent in their bathroom and you really can't ask your towels to be the accent any more than you should ask your toilet paper to be the accent, okay?

So, get the accent in your bathroom from the color around the walls, the window treatments, the flowers, the light fixtures but don’t ask your towels to do that. You want white. Here is why. Because what do you want a towel to do? You want it to be clean and you want it to be thirsty. So, you can't put this in hot water and bleach them and make them really super hygienic because you're going to mess up the color.

These are beautiful if nobody touches them.

Audra: Also the fabrics, there are certain fabrics that you should stay away from and something that you should stick to. I want to hold it up here, can you tell us—

Marni: This is what I call my x-rated home design board. This is adults-only. It's beautiful but don’t do it because if you want to live with your family and you don’t want to have havoc in your home. You got to meet them halfway. So, you don’t have things that make them all stressed out and no white carpet, nothing with a loop in it because buckles and pet claws will just tear it and it will run it, the same with this beautiful fabric, it will pull it. No silks, it's too fragile.

Audra: All the nice things, right?

Marni: And the sleek finishes and no velvet.

Audra: I am going to the next board here.

Marni: This is my g-rated board, family friendly furnishings. You could drop a loaded hotdog on this Audra and you'd never find it. It makes everyone relaxed, just stressed wood that looks better with scratches distressed. Leather looks better with scratches, print carpets and area rugs will hide the dirt and paint the color of your fingerprints.

Audra: Something that’s not going to give you a heart attack.

Marni: That’s right. You want low blood pressure and you don’t want to get voted off the island.

Audra: Exactly. It was good to have you here Marni. Thank you so much. If you guys want to get other home design tips including the top 10 cheap tricks to budget decorating, just get a copy of her book. It's called House of Havoc and its available now.