After months – maybe even years – of planning and saving, and then enduring the painful process of the actual renovation, you are in the clear with a stunning new space fit to the height of personalization.

You finally have the space and features you’ve been dreaming of and admit it, there’s a small part of you that hopes it always stays this immaculate and organized. But then life just gets in the way and messes everything up. But it doesn’t have to ruin a perfectly good thing. Here are some tips and tricks when it comes to keeping your remodeled room nice and tidy.

Everything In Its Place

As much as you’d like to have a top-of-the-line interior decorator come in and handle all the fuss of putting everything back in its place, the reality is this is your space. These are your things, they are your habits, and you’ll be the one hunting for what you need as you go through your daily routine. It’s best if you man up, accept the challenge and arrange the space the way you want, the way that makes the most sense to you.

Luckily, since you’re starting carte blanc, it will simply be a matter of choosing the right spot for every little thing. In restaurants the term is Mis en Place, and it does in fact mean “Everything in its place.” It’s used in restaurants to maximize efficiency; no matter who is in the kitchen, they know where everything is without having to think about it. So as you put your life back together, designate a space for it. Marie Kondo even admits that her house can get messy from time to time. But knowing where things go will help keep staying tidy easily manageable.

Simplify

It’s human nature to accumulate stuff as you wade through the waters of life. Between gift giving holidays, birthdays, and random Target trips there is no end to the amount of things we collect along the march. But sometimes, the best way to stay tidy is to simplify your life. Do this by minimizing the amount of things you have to keep. Truth be told, the best time to reassess all your belongings is as you’re prepping your space for a renovation. You’ll have to move everything out of the room you’re remodeling, so why not take the time to Spark Joy and decide to keep only the things you want moving forward at this moment? It may save you some storage space. Or it may be a project to work on while construction is underway. Regardless, move back into the space with only the things that serve you.

Stay On Top Of It

You’ve done the hard work of weeding out all the things you’re no longer keeping. You’ve thought about it and carefully placed each item in its new home. Now comes the hard part; keeping up with it. There will be days where you’re so busy you don’t even have time to eat, much less clean your house. And no one is going to judge you if you don’t have a pristinely clean home every. single. Day. But the best method for staying tidy is to clean up most messes before you go to bed. Think of it like your new workout or diet plan. You want a “fresh start” and that usually means at the beginning of the week. Starting the day with less mess makes it easier to contain that mess. Establish new rules of clearing plates away from dinner before dispersing for the night. If there’s laundry to be put away, put it away before you go to sleep. Your bed will be there. Take ten more minutes to neutralize the mess and you’ll probably even sleep better.

Overwhelmed?

Don’t be. If you’re in the trenches of being busy and things just accumulate, take whatever day off you have and chip away at the clutter. If you find yourself overwhelmed by the state of your house, use an old war tactic: divide and conquer. Find the smallest, easiest job to tackle first. Then move on to a slightly larger, more complicated job. The feeling of accomplishment you get from finishing those first two tiny tasks will propel you into “cleaning mode” and you’ll have things back to normal in no time. Make it a family project. Blast your favorite tunes, keep the coffee coming, dole out jobs and before you know it, your new room will look like new.

It isn’t easy, given the nature of our lives these days. Staying tidy isn’t impossible, though. Embrace your busy-ness and do what you can when you can to keep your beautiful renovation looking like new.