Since I was a little girl, my mother and my grandmother, especially, taught me order. Everything had its place in the house and if I took something, I had to return it to the place where I had found it, and this rule also included toys, clothes and books. When you grow up with rules of cleanliness and discipline it is easy that in adulthood, based on the fact that we are beings who learn by imitation and repetition, we try to maintain a certain harmony in the spaces that belong to us.

Personally, I keep certain habits that I have made for myself and that have helped me to maintain that balance that makes me feel good. I don't know if these habits can be useful to others, but they are so easy that I think they don't lose anything by trying to do them.

One of the things I do is not to accumulate dirty things. If I'm cooking, I wash what I get dirty or I ask someone else to help me clean up. I don't like to see dirty dishes in the sink. Likewise, if we finish eating, the dishes are washed immediately. This, if we have washed everything while we are cooking, should not take long and we avoid cluttering the sink with dirty utensils.

The same goes for washing clothes: I try to fold them or put them away when they are already dry. If we accumulate clothes in baskets, we will be too lazy to fold that mountain of fabric and it will seem like a never-ending job.

Another thing I do is to take a day for cleaning. In my case it is Sunday. On Sundays I not only clean the house, tidy it, tidy it up, I also like, at the end of the afternoon, to dedicate a few hours to wash my hair, exfoliate my body, paint my nails. It is part of the reward I give myself for all the work done during the day. In other words: not only do I make the house pretty, I also make myself pretty.

One thing that also works for me is to clean in parts. One Sunday I clean the room thoroughly, the next Sunday I tidy up the library and so on. This way I don't feel like it's a marathon and I see the result more immediately. I also like to clean to music. Listening to music while cleaning is a tradition I inherited from my mother and I think it is one of the best inheritances I have received.

While I'm cleaning, I throw away, without any remorse, everything that I don't plan to use again. It is very easy to fall into the temptation of keeping things in case we need them in the future or worse, keeping them because they remind us of certain moments. I clean my wallet daily of bills, candy wrappers, notes; but I also clean the closet, the fridge, the kitchen, the desk from time to time. For example, I clean the closet every year (in December). I like to take out things I no longer use and give them away. This is one of the cleanings that my friends or sisters look forward to the most, and that I really enjoy doing.

I once read that it is easier to see our reflection in still water than in turbulent waters. If there is chaos, it will be very difficult to reflect ourselves, to find ourselves. Clutter brings chaos: in the end, having too many things ends up weighing us down. We must keep what is essential and let go of what is no longer used. Organize the spaces, but also our mind. Remember that our mind is our most intimate home.