We all make mistakes – it’s just human nature! However, a mistake isn’t valuable unless you learn from it, and we’re here to help you learn from your cluttering habits! Minor gaffes like forgetting to change your car’s oil or common laundry mistakes can add up to a major problem. The same goes for clutter! Some organizing mistakes can be unavoidable in the moment, but acknowledging that these lapses are creating a bigger mess is the first step to finding a simple solution.
Watch for these little clutter mistakes in your life and prepare to be wowed by what a few shifts can do to stop clutter build-up!

Not Folding Clothes

The accumulation of clothes – clean or dirty (or in between – hello bedroom chair!) – outside closets and dressers is a leading cause of bedroom clutter. Sometimes, putting clothes in their correct place or washing them immediately isn’t always possible, but not folding these in-the-open clothes makes the problem look much worse than it is. A pile of clothes on the floor sends a chaotic message, whereas a neatly folded stack in a corner or on a chair says you’re a tidy person… even if you’re actually not. The next step, of course, is to put clothes where they belong right away.

Letting Clean Dishes Sit in the Drying Rack

Anyone without a dishwasher or with a large assortment of hand-wash only dinnerware knows that drying dishes is a pain. Enter the drying mat or rack: a clean place for dishes to air dry, no dishcloths required! Of course, if those clean dishes don’t get put away once they’re dry, there will soon be a clutter problem. Drying every dish may be a tall order, but putting away dry dishes the next morning or before your next meal is an easy, quick fix. Tidy up the rest of your kitchen by keeping your sponge squeezed out of excess water on the side of the sink, and tuck away your favourite Nellie’s One Soap to an easy-reach spot.

Buying Extra Supplies

Planning ahead is usually a clutter-buster, but when it comes to surplus toiletries, cleaning supplies, and more, planning to far ahead can encourage clutter! Having an extra roll of paper towels on hand in case of a big-time spill is smart… having 18 extra rolls is a little excessive and can strain storage space!
Avoid buying more toothpaste, toilet paper, and other household essentials until just a few days before they’re actually needed. If buying in bulk is a necessity, set aside a specified storage spot for overflow.

Allowing Mail to Pile Up

This one goes for magazines, newspapers, and other recyclable paper-based reading materials. Setting aside bills, greeting cards, and other important mail items for the weekend or a slow night is to be expected. However, letting these to-be-dealt-with items pile up for weeks or even months at a time with the promise to read them eventually encourages a mess. Set aside time each week to flip through the mail and cut down on subscriptions that aren’t being read.

Leaving the Shoes Out

Taking off shoes at the door is smart. Leaving a pair at the door for quick trips to the corner store or walk the pup is even smarter. But letting the entirety of your shoe collection pile up in the entryway, garage, mudroom, or kitchen is a habit to kick! Make a household rule that only one or two pairs per person is allowed in the space, and encourage everyone (including yourself!) to take extra pairs to their permanent spaces, even if that’s at the bottom of the closet, at the end of every day.

The toilet is one of the most-used seats in your home and – no surprise, here – one of the ickiest! But rest assured it doesn’t take tons of time of loads of elbow grease to get that porcelain throne sparkling clean. Here’s your no-fail, no-germ-left-behind guide to get the job done!

Get Your Supplies

This is not a job where you want to stop mid-task to get some extra paper towel. Instead, have all your tools within arm’s reach.
Nellie's All-Purpose Spray
Paper towels
A sturdy pair of cleaning gloves
Nellie’s Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Tiff-bristle toilet brush

Make the Outside Sparkle

When cleaning the commode, most people tend to focus on the bowl’s interior, but every inch of the toilet deserves attention. Use the All Purpose Cleaner and liberally spray the entire exterior, including hard-to-reach areas like the base and underside of the seat. Also be sure to spritz the walls behind and beside the toilet.
Major key – let the cleaner sit for at least five minutes. Give it time to do its thing, and then wipe away While you wait, move on to cleaning the interior.

Clean the Inside

With the Nellie’s Toilet Cleaner, apply the cleaner around the interior of the bowl, up against the rim. Allow it to set for a few minutes, and then scrub with a toilet brush and flush to rinse. And just like that, your toilet is fresh and clean, and all without harsh chemicals, phosphates, dyes, perfumes, and SLS and SLES.

Even on the longest, worst days, every one of us can take five minutes to make a room look a bit better (and hopefully, as a result, feel much better too). Whether you’ve got guests coming over and forgot to clean, or you just want a nicer looking space, you can make a major impact in just five minutes! Here are five things you can do quickly to make a big change.

Let in more light during the day or dim the lights at night

Is it daytime? Throw open every curtain, roll up every blind and try to get as much natural light into your home as physically possible. Though that might seem to shed more light on a less-than-clean home, when you've got great natural light flooding in through windows, everything just seems nicer. Have a few more minutes? Give your windows a quick swipe to let even more light in. Is it nighttime? Do the opposite. Turn off overhead lights and focus a room into dimly lit pools of warm glow from lamps and candles.

Break decluttering rules

We often argue against things like junk drawers and overflowing baskets, but when you've only got five minutes, ignore all those rules and start tossing clutter into hidden spots as quickly as you can. But only if you promise yourself to declutter those areas when you've got more than five minutes to spare.

Straighten things

I don't know what I do in my home that makes every chair, book and table askew all the time, but just the simple act of aligning things back to where they belong can bring order and pleasantness to a room. So readjust any ottomans that aren't where they go. Realign any tables (especially that coffee table) that have been nudged out of a place. Adjust a stack of books or magazines. Even straighten any crooked art pieces. It's not about trying to always live in a state of perpetual perfection — these little straightening movements are just easy things to do to create a pleasant effect on the overall feel and look of the room.

Pick up or dust visible dirty spots

It might be the coffee table, it might be that rug made of a material that is like a dust bunny magnet — use whatever tools you have at hand (even if it's just your hands) to quickly remove the largest and most visible spots of dirty. Stray pieces of paper or trash that have fallen on the floor. A quick swipe of a table top that catches the light with the All-Purpose Cleaner, or a quick swish on the dusty floor with the WOW Mop. Yes, a full cleaning would of course make the entire room look great, but the 5-minute refresh is about keeping up the look of a clean home in between regular cleanings, and doing it quickly so you can get back to enjoying your beautiful home.

Spritz a good smell

Wait a minute, this post title says "look" nicer. Well surprise! Our noses are tied to our eyes in such a way that a room that smells nice and fresh will magically look a bit cleaner and fresher to us. It's a powerful illusion, and the Wrinkle-B-Gone works as a perfect refresher for couches, pillows, and linens! Just spritz, smooth, and inhale a deliciously fresh lemongrass scent.

With the holidays just around the corner, it’s already time to start ticking things off your holiday gift shopping list! We wanted to help, so we’ve put together a list of Nellie’s favourite must-haves. These are the items that are perfect for your grown-up baby living at university or in their first apartment, new & expecting mamas, the hostess with the mostess, or any other wonderful person in your life. Everyone could use a little more clean and sparkle, especially this time of year!

WOW Mop

It’s no secret that the WOW Mop has become a beloved must-have! The cordless, lightweight, and rechargeable mop makes cleaning your floors effortlessly easy. Featuring oscillating pads, a high-frequency motor and a long-grip handle, you can tackle dirt and stains with just a swipe! For the full package, the WOW Mop Bundle comes with everything you need: Nellie’s WOW Wet Floor cleaning pads, Nellie’s WOW Dry Floor cleaning pads, and a 50 load pouch of Nellie’s Laundry Soda to clean the pads!

WOW Stick

With all the imbibing this time of year, we’re bound to end up with some stains! Enter the WOW Stick Stain Remover. Made with natural ingredients and free from dyes and synthetic fragrances, the WOW Stick contains lemongrass and sweet orange essential oils, which work in combination with the cleaning ingredients for a delicious clean. It’s perfect to use on food, wine, and coffee stains - and even blood (but don’t ask us how we know that one).

Oxygen Brightener

Make it a white Christmas with the Oxygen Brightener. White tablecloths, towels, linens, bed sheets… they all get dirty quickly when the aunts, uncles, cousins, and in-laws are around! Use the power of oxygen to penetrate stains, stripping away dirt, odor, and grime to keep your colours bright and your whites white. Our chlorine-free formula is colour-safe, septic-safe, hypoallergenic, environmentally-friendly, and biodegradable.

Fruit & Veggie Wash

We all know a friend that is health-food obsessed, but you can ensure they’re eating clean fruits and veggies! Most fruits and vegetables are covered in pesticides and contaminants – yes, even the organic ones! Nellie’s Fruit & Veggie Wash helps remove surface pesticides, preservatives, and other contaminants from your produce. Most importantly, it’s odorless and tasteless, gluten-free, biodegradable, and made with no animal by-products. Yum!

Take Care of it All

For the hostess with the mostess, take care of everything in a pretty box! Perfect as a gift to yourself or the one that’s hosting the holiday dinner this year, Nellie’s Host Bundle includes all the necessities you need to breeze through the holidays! It includes some of our favourites, like the Fruit & Veggie Wash, the 50 Scoops Dishwasher Powder, the One Soap in Melon, and the WOW Stick, AND a secret mystery item! Limited availability, so order it now!

Last weekend was Daylight Savings – did anyone else have a tough time getting out of bed?! We're officially switching gears and getting ready for winter, and that means getting some things done around the home. These things should be done about every six months, and they’ll help you settle into autumn and get ready for winter!
First off, of course:
Reset your analog clocks back an hour if you haven’t already.
Then, use the next week to tackle any of these tasks that apply to your home life:
Change your smoke alarm batteries. Whether or not they’re drained, do it now. The low battery alarm never sounds at a convenient time, and a smoke alarm is not something you want to be running low on juice.
Flip or rotate your mattress. Newer layered foam mattresses aren’t designed to flip like those simple old-school spring mattresses, but you can still rotate them around to even out wear. Better yet, use this time to clean your mattress! Click here to see our how-to blog post!
Flip and switch your couch cushions. Moving things around will ensure even wear and keep your couch looking nice and cushy longer. While you're at it, give them a refresh with the Wrinkle-B-Gone to ease any creases and take care of any odours.
Reverse the direction of your ceiling fans. During winter, your fans should spin clockwise to bring warm air back into the living space from the ceiling. While you’re at it, give the fans a wipe with your All-Purpose Cleaner!
Decorate. If you haven’t already, set out the decorate pumpkins and squashes, hang a seasonal wreath, or plant some mums.
Declutter winter wear. How many mittens are missing their mate in your closet? Start cold weather dressing off right with winter wardrobe staples pared down to the best, the favourite, and the necessary.
Clean your gutters. Most of the leaves have left the trees by now, so use this time to remove dirt and leaf build up from your gutters.
Change filters. HVAC, air purifier, water, refrigerator – all of them!
Try out a new evening routine. Taking after-dinner walks may no longer be an option when it gets dark earlier. What might you do instead? We recommend a family game night – whether it be Monopoly or a simple card game!