Perfect House vs Perfect Mess

Keeping your house in good working order can be very distressing, children's toys everywhere, no storage and finances in a mess.

However, help may be at hand as we recently interviewed TV's 'Perfect Houswife' Anthea Turner about getting your home in ship shape. If you have kids and are fed up with the constant clutter around your home then maybe Anthea's tips will give you some much needed inspiration to get your house in full working order.

Amongst other things Anthea spoke to us about de-cluttering, cleaning, managing the home finances, avoiding wastage and had a definitive top ten list of things you should do today to change the way you live forever.

Anthea's Top Ten tips

1. You can't run a home that's a mess, so first of all you have to de-clutter it. If it's not beautiful, useful or seriously sentimental - IT GOES. Charity shop or bin (you decide what's best).

2. There's no getting away from it, you have to clean - often and frequent is my tip.

3. When cleaning always start by dusting first, once everything's cleaned down then hoover and wipe floors.

4. Make your house a home. Consider your house from an aesthetic point of view, does it make you feel good. If not what can you add to it to make it more appealing.

5. Run your home like a business and treat it with the same attitude. Think about how you could run your home more efficiently, certain days for food shopping, budgets etc.

6. Storage is very important, for instance - don't have winter coats on the coat rack during summer, store them away, think about shrink wrapping them if necessary. In all seriousness it saves room in your house and keeps them clean and tidy.

7. Teamwork is also really important, when your children get to a certain age they can help with household chores, putting dirty washing away, cleaning and tidying away their toys. Plus, if your children don't like doing chores be strict with them, no chores no telly no fun. Simple!

8. Avoid Wastage. If you cut up a lemon and have a dishwasher put the left over half into the dishwasher. It adds a little ting and sparkle in your wash. Plus, rather then using industrial cleaning products, why not consider using vinegar and water in a spray can, it does just as good a job if not better.

9. Get organised. Purchase a diary you can pin on your kitchen wall and put every event and birthday into this diary. This will seriously change your life, people will be amazed out how you remember everything.

10. Finances, keep them up to date - if you have bills to pay keep everything in one place or buy a folder to keep them in, it will make your life much easier to manage.