Re-reading some of my organization books helped me see why we still have some 'hot spots' around the house. Both Peter Walsh and Dawn Noble have said that it should take no longer than five to ten minutes to tidy up a room. That isn't a deep clean, mind you, but rather the time it should take to make it presentable again after use. If it routinely takes longer than that there is likely still too much clutter. Or, it may not be clutter per se but just too much stuff, period.
This seems to be the culprit in our school room/craft room and another purge is in the works. The main rooms have fallen reliably within that 5-10 minute guideline but there are a couple bedrooms and that school room which could use more help. This clean-time goal is a great litmus test to help determine if you have an appropriate amount of 'stuff' for your spaces. We obviously don't. <g>
Some other helpful time estimates from the Noble book:
It takes about this long to clean these areas -
* a closet: 4-8 hrs
* a bedroom: 8-12 hrs
* a kitchen: 10-14 hrs
* a garage: 8-12 hrs
* an office: 16-24hrs (includes file system overhaul)
Having a reasonable time frame in mind when you plan a project goes a long way towards seeing it through. I have grossly underestimated the time it takes to complete a clean sweep in the past. Of course we have to remember these are working hours. They don't include breaks for the myriad crises big and small that tend to crop up in homes like ours such as people needing sippy cup refills, having expected bodily fluid overflows, surprising mom by cutting the dog's hair or finding the Sharpie marker. It is nothing short of astounding how resourceful small children can be when their mother is working…
Figuring in those interruptions could increase one's project time significantly. Unless Dad is home to occupy little people I try to break those big jobs up into sections and just work on one at a time, like one shelf in the pantry or one drawer etc. We recently finished a large binder of our important documents in that way. We gathered all our birth certificates, sacrament documents, insurance paperwork, social security cards, and shot records into page protectors in a three ring binder which is kept in fireproof safe. (Highly advised to make copies of same and store them in a second location like a safety deposit box.) It is handy now in case of emergency. Little by little one goes far….
Starry Sky Journal 
Good advice. As I unpack and set up house from our move I am trying to think really hard about where I put stuff and how it will be maintained, rather than just putting them in the same old places as I have in other houses.
One change I have made is to store art/craft supplies in a separate area from other school supplies. They now have an entire closet to themselves. It has helped clean-up time tremendously because even though we often USE the art supplies in conjunction with other schoolish stuff, it was just too much stuff to have stored in one area and became overwhelming. Now that they are easier to put away, I find I am less reluctant to pull them out and use them in the first place and we are getting much more art done!
This is really a helpful guideline! I’m always sighing that “everything always takes longer than I think it will.” Hmmm –never occurred to me that maybe the problem was in my expectations, rather than in, say, unexpected constraints.
Yes, we definitely have “too much stuff,” and I’ll need to be looking more closely at that over time. Meanwhile, at least some of our difficulty (in the realm of keeping quick straightening down to 5-10 minute mark) is due to the way in which some of our stuff gets used. If I don’t stay right on top of it, things can get “garbage dumped” rather than genuinely played with. My kids (little boys, especially) would benefit from more of a Montessori approach, as I understand it anyway, but that’s not second-nature to me. I love open-ended play and exploration, but this aspect of it shows me it’s not quite working for them right now.
Always more to learn and do! 🙂 Keeps life interesting.