Has your home gotten out of order? Use the next few days to quickly bring clean and calm to your surroundings.

Does your home get out of hand sometimes? Clutter everywhere, dishes in the sink, clothes strewn about, junk mail that should have been tossed, just plain messy? Busy schedules and active lifestyles tend to do that. If you?re ready to take action read on.

This article series is designed to help you bring back some order to your home in a week's time.

In the next few days you are going to do some basic cleaning for each room in your home.

Each room or section should not take over 30 minutes to complete. This is not deep cleaning, it is what is called surface cleaning. If you have small children try and work around their nap times or involve them in little ways. Small children love to "dust" and "sweep". Don't overwhelm yourself. That's why you're spreading the cleaning of your home over a week's time.

To make this program work you should continue to keep up the order in your home by putting things away each day. Wash up dishes as you cook and eat. Put away clothing. Clear off surfaces and toss junk mail asap! Start off the morning with a clean slate.

You can work through each room in the order that is most comfortable for you. The layout below is based on how I tackle my home. Based on energy level and what else I have going on that week. You can follow that or do it your own way.

I also find it helps immensely if I have a list of what I have going on for the day and the current week. This keeps me from becoming sidetracked which ends up with nothing getting done.

That's where the checklists in Household Notes Home Organizer come in. There are cleaning checklists for each area of your home including pre-populated checklists for the kitchen, bathroom to name a few. Even if you know how to clean sometimes it helps having the steps in front of you.

First up we'll tackle the bathrooms...