From Cluttered to Clean: A Real-Life Home Tour & Pro Cleaning Tips

Between work, family, and everything else Chicago throws at you, keeping your space clean can feel like a full-time job. Whether you’re settling into a new place or maintaining your current home, we get it—life gets messy, and sometimes you need a little help.

A Fresh Start in a New Chicago Home

Moving into a new space is exciting, but it also comes with its fair share of challenges. From figuring out where everything goes to maintaining that fresh-start feeling, keeping your home tidy requires strategy. As a busy Chicagoan, having systems in place makes all the difference between chaos and calm.

Entryway Efficiency

First impressions matter, and your entryway sets the tone for your entire home. A well-organized entrance with designated spots for coats, shoes, and bags prevents clutter from spreading throughout your space. Using washable rugs and boot trays helps contain dirt and moisture—especially important during those rainy Chicago seasons.

If you’re struggling to maintain your entryway, consider getting professional home cleaning to establish a solid foundation for your cleaning routine.

Home Office Organization

Working from home requires a space that’s both functional and inspiring. Keeping your office organized with designated storage for supplies and paperwork helps maintain focus and productivity. Using containers and labels might seem excessive, but it genuinely makes life easier when you know exactly where everything belongs.

When your workspace feels overwhelming, sometimes you need deep cleaning help to reset and create a more productive environment.

Kitchen & Living Areas: Where Life Happens

These high-traffic areas need special attention to stay functional and welcoming.

Smart Kitchen Habits

Avoid overstuffing cabinets and create systems that work for your cooking style. Designate specific areas for different types of items, and be mindful about what you bring into the space. Fresh flowers and plants can make even the most utilitarian kitchen feel warm and abundant.

For those times when kitchen cleaning feels like too much, cleaning services in Chicago can handle the deep cleaning while you focus on cooking and entertaining.

Living Room Maintenance

Open, well-lit spaces feel more welcoming but also show dust and dirt more easily. Regular surface cleaning and proper storage solutions help maintain that fresh, inviting atmosphere. Using storage boxes for photos and keepsakes keeps sentimental items accessible but organized.

When life gets busy, having someone to clean my apartment ensures your living space stays guest-ready without adding stress to your schedule.

Bedroom & Bathroom Sanctuaries

Your private spaces should feel like retreats from the busy world outside.

Bedroom Calm

Creating a peaceful bedroom environment starts with minimizing clutter and having proper storage solutions. Even if you have “piles” that need homes (we all do!), having systems in place makes tidying up quicker and easier.

If bedroom cleaning keeps falling to the bottom of your list, fast cleaning services can help you maintain that sanctuary feeling without spending your weekend cleaning.

Bathroom Bliss

Preventing mold and mildew starts with proper ventilation—timer fans are game-changers for moisture control. Organized storage with containers and labels transforms chaotic bathrooms into serene spaces. Even small upgrades like soft-close hinges can make your daily routine more pleasant.

For those who dread bathroom cleaning, a reliable home cleaning service can handle the scrubbing while you enjoy the results.

Kids’ Spaces Made Manageable

Children’s rooms and play areas require smart organization that grows with them.

Closet Organization

Using baskets for different categories (leggings, t-shirts, socks) helps kids learn organization skills while keeping their spaces tidy. Regular purging of outgrown items prevents closet overwhelm and makes morning routines smoother.

When keeping up with kids’ messes feels impossible, apartment cleaning services can provide the reset your family needs.

Chicago Living Made Cleaner

Every home has its unique challenges, but the principles of good organization and regular maintenance apply everywhere. Whether you’re in a spacious house or a cozy apartment, having cleaning systems that work for your lifestyle makes all the difference.

When you need help cleaning my place, remember that even the most organized people sometimes need professional support. As a trusted Chicago cleaning company, we understand that life gets messy, and we’re here to help you maintain the clean, comfortable home you deserve.

I’m really excited for this one. I’m going to be giving you a whole home tour of my brand new house. And this is the fifth and final video in the series where I take you on the journey from moving out of my old house and moving into my new house as a divorced woman. So, here I am in my house, and I’m so excited to show you where I live and how I’ve put it all together. And I will just say this right off the top. It is not perfect. It is not nearly as done or tidy or organized as I would like it to be, but we got to start somewhere. And I am happy to show you where I’m at right now. Now, if you’re seeing this video first, I’ve got a link down below for you in the description. You can see all of the other videos in this series leading up to this moment. and you should go back and watch those first. If this is your first time landing on the Clean MySpace channel, welcome. Normally, I put out really fun and funny cleaning, organizing, and decluttering content. And you can subscribe right over here. So, I will situate you. This is a modern town home. It’s an inner unit and it’s on a bit of an angle. This is a pies-shaped lot. So, you’ll notice where I’m standing facing the front door, it’s always going to flare out a little. And that was one of the first things I noticed when I walked into this house. It was a little weird. This is a three-story home. So, my kitchen is actually on the second floor. That is also a little bit of an oddity here. So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to take you floor by floor through the house and show you all the different rooms. Okay. So, in the front entryway, I’d like to point out to you, and I believe I’ve shared this already, that I used to have a staircase right over here. And when you walked into the front entrance, you were always sort of like jammed off to the side. So what needed to happen was they had to remove the staircase. And honestly, when I walk into this house now, it feels so much more efficient in terms of the use of space. One of the things that I love in a front entrance of a hotel is their big circular console table with flowers. Then I also anchored the space with this rug. This is an oriental style rug, but what I really like about it is that it’s big, it’s multicolor, and it’s machine washable. A couple other things that I did here is I put in a coat tree because I didn’t want to have a whole bunch of hooks or I didn’t want people to walk into the front hall and not know where to put their stuff. Now, when I have a lot of people come in, it’s not like people are fighting for somewhere to stand or sit or, you know, get their shoes on or take them off or put up their coat. There’s just a lot of space for them to do whatever they want. All right, let’s see what else is on this floor. All right, so if you go down these three stairs, you will get to the basement, which is unfinished and kind of not fun, so we’re not going to look there. Right over here is the laundry room/g entrance, and I have a link to the video where I go through my laundry room, so you can see all of that. Put that down below. And then this is the second staircase that goes up to the second level of my house. So again, you can see why it was absolutely not necessary to have two. I will also point out that there are a couple things that I picked up from Facebook Marketplace. This side table right here is by a store called LT, and it is a really expensive store, and I picked this table up for $150. I’m sure it costs 10 times that. Now, right over here is a walkin front hall closet. I almost fainted when I saw this. I couldn’t believe that I was moving into a house with a walk-in closet in the front hallway. Like, that feels dreamy. The way that I organize this is I have Riley’s stuff down toward the bottom, easily accessible for her. And then I have boot trays at the bottom so that we don’t have to worry about dirt kind of getting everywhere where all the shoes are going to be. I also have a couple of baskets here. I found my label maker and baskets. As much as I want to say I don’t need that in my life, I actually do. It’s nice to sort of have a place for everything to convene items that would otherwise just be scattered all around the house. And just behind me, and one of the reasons I absolutely fell in love with this house, is my office. This is a beautiful space. It’s ground level. It’s got nice big windows. And I put it together to be my dream working space. Okay, how great is this office? Now, the way that I set my space up is pretty simple. Um, I again consulted this funue expert and she suggested that having a world map behind your desk was like one of the best things you could do. So, I went on Facebook Marketplace and I found this one. It is absolutely huge. I think it measures 4×6. I also have this little setup over here. I was so obsessed with this little side table when I saw it. Kind of looks like toothpaste or shaving cream. I had to have it. I had to. This bookcase I also picked up from Facebook Marketplace. And I’ve used it as sort of like a fun decor shelf, but also as a functional space. I didn’t want to get any drawers or cupboards back here cuz it just forces me to be that much more mindful about what I allow into my office versus what I’m like stuffing away so I don’t have to look at. So, I have like these tiny crates here. Uh, one is for office supplies. That required a lot of trimming down, but what’s in there is really what I need and nothing else. And then right over here is across my desk and this is sort of the meeting or congregation space if you will, which I think is so much fun. Like I have the workspace over there and then I can come over here, lie on the couch, take a call. This is where I do a lot of my, you know, phone editing. So if I’m sitting there editing a little something for Instagram or whatnot, it’ll usually be on this couch. My team also likes to take meetings here. And I just love the way that this space all came together. These shelves did not exist. And I just, you know, I styled these with different things that I had from the house, but then also just wanted to bring in like some elements of fun. And as I’m looking at it, I’m seeing this box shouldn’t even be here. So, you know, things just end up sometimes where they’re not supposed to, and that’s part of life. Um, the way in which I sort of chose the color palette for this space was I wanted it to be like the loudest and most ostentatious space in the house. I have my neon art from my old house as well as this. I guess technically you could call it neon art as well. And then the chairs, the coffee table, and the sofa all came from Facebook Marketplace. And if you watched our carpet cleaning video, you already knew that because I got all of these things professionally steam cleaned. I think this was one of the most fun spaces for me to decorate. I absolutely love it and I made some bold choices. Okay, not everyone is going to go for these choices. I get that. But I will say when I walk in here, it’s definitely a bit of a dopamine hit. So if you’re looking for a bit of dopamine decor, still some ideas. Okay, so this is the second story of the house. Just behind me is the dining room. Here to my right is the powder room. to my left, the stairs going up to the third floor, and in front of me is the kitchen and the family room. So, immediately behind me, there’s this cute little sitting area that I have to show you because when I walked into this house, I noticed how even though this is sort of a narrow space, it feels really open and airy because I’ve got the 10-ft ceilings, but then this sort of overlooks that front entryway and then it has this little banister area. And I was like, I know the exact chairs for my house that I’m going to put in this area. And then I picked up this cute little side table. And I got these really nice pillows that I think just work well in the space. Over this way is the dining room. And I will just say whenever we have big family events, we end up bringing the round kitchen table over here and moving these chairs out. So this becomes the kids area. This is the kids table. This dining room is essentially a direct transplant of all of the items from my old house right here into the new house. A couple of things that I changed out, the light fixture. It was not so great before, and I just found this one. I thought it looked so grand but modern. And yeah, it just it really works in this space. And then I have this art from the old house, which I hung myself. And can’t you tell it’s hung crooked? That’s why some things are just not meant for me to do, and I’m fully okay with admitting that. These mirrors over here, I get so many compliments on, and I just knew I had to have them back in this house as well. Okay, so if I go just through here, this house also comes fully equipped with a butler’s pantry. So, this cute little hallway is the butler’s pantry. And honestly, there’s not much to it. It’s just some additional storage. The other thing that is in here is the reverse osmosis filter. And I also use this to store kind of overflow pantry or food items as well as things like wine glasses. But then that brings me right to the kitchen. When it comes to the decor of the kitchen, I will say that this is how the kitchen came. I didn’t do any changes to it aside from the appliances, which I covered in that last video. Now, you can see the cabinets are super high up. I’m really proud to say that I haven’t over stuffed these top cabinets. I think only a few of them have items in them, but I made a point to not just shove things in there for the sake of shoving things in there. And I’m really proud of myself for that. In terms of the aesthetic choices, really nothing in this kitchen is how I would have chosen it to be, but I’m also fine with it as is. I’m not about to go and spend money to make this kitchen look nicer. It is totally functional. And this is the breakfast area in the kitchen. I love this little cozy space. So you’ll see I have kind of those pink elements as well as a red element. I have that rug on the floor, but then I also looked for different items to bring in that reflected the kitchen. Orange is supposed to be a pretty good color to have in the kitchen as well. So yeah, there were just like some things, fresh flowers, beautiful art, plants just to make it like a really warm and attractive and kind of abundant space. Uh I did get these plants from Costco. There’s a big elephant ear alocacia here and there’s a bird of paradise. These two plants flank the kitchen. They also are drenched in sunlight. So, my expectation is that they will turn into 10-ft tall trees in the next year. Fingers crossed. We’ll see what happens. And this is the beautiful family room that is off the kitchen. And what I love about this space is how well lit and how open it is. It just makes it so unbelievably welcoming. And when I’m hosting people or entertaining, what’s really nice, is that people can gather at the breakfast table, which is right that way, at the bar stool situation, which is right over here. That’s already eight seats. And then you can have a whole bunch more people sitting here. This is a 10×8 sofa. So, it’s just perfect for entertaining like what everyone says in every home show. But yeah, I really did find that. Now, when it comes to how I set this room up, these two areas where there are sort of built-ins were just open niches before. So, we have shelves and then there’s just a little cupboard door. And I got those knobs on Etsy. They were very inexpensive, but they just look pretty, you know, just a little added pop. And then, of course, I’ve just accessorized with plants. I also have these little books over here. Those are actually little storage boxes and I plan on using those to put photos that I will be printing out instead of just storing on my phone cuz it is nice every now and then to flip through family photos and Riley really loves it. Also, there’s this little electric fireplace. Does it emit any heat? No. Does my daughter like to play with it? Absolutely. Now, in here, the color theme, if you will, is really green and gold. That’s also fune. This is sort of the wealth corner of a house. So, green and gold and purple, all great colors that you can bring in. This table is super duper cool and it came from Facebook Marketplace. It was a couple hundred bucks. And what I like about it is that it’s not too precious. Things are always happening on this table and I don’t have to sweat it too much. And this rug was from a West Elm warehouse sale. I paid $500 for it. It’s a 9×12 and on the website it’s over 21,00 bucks. So, make sure that if you are eyeing something and stores that you like have warehouse sales that you tune into those warehouse sales because wow did I do well on that one. When I walked into this house, what I wanted was a flood of light because that’s what I had in my old house. I had a beautiful view and tons of light. And if you look out this back window, all you see is a gorgeous ravine and tons and tons of light coming through these super tall windows. These must be six ft high. Like they’re really big and they just flood the space with light. So that really excited me because I knew for filming and just for like living in general, having light in my house was going to make a huge difference for me and my happiness. That completes the loop of the second floor. Now we’re going to go upstairs and I’ll show you where the bedrooms are. Okay, we’re up to the third floor. There are 42 steps in this house. It’s a lot of work to get up here, but once you’re up here, it’s a peaceful, quaint place with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. This light fixture over here, this is actually from IKEA, and I love it. Again, I thought the chandelier was really ugly that was here, so I replaced it with this. Now, I know some people are going to think this is really ugly, and it’s my house, so that’s okay. I like it, and that’s all that matters. So, where should we go first? We’re going to go to my bedroom. Okay, so I just I just love this room. It is such a beautiful retreat and calm space for me. You probably noticed that there’s not a lot going on on the walls, and that’s because I haven’t quite figured out how I want to finish off this room. There’s definitely some walls that need art. I might also get some sort of a wall unit or a dresser TBD on that. But for now, this is what I’ve got. And I’m really happy with the way it looks so far. Over to my left, I have this pair of chairs. And what I love about these is that they almost look like they were bought specifically for everything else in this room, but I got them on Facebook Marketplace. Of course, I had them professionally cleaned. And uh sometimes they house my clothing. Most of the time they house all the extra pillows. And some of the time they also do house a bum or two when we get to sitting there. The night tables are from the old house. These lamps again, I get it. They are really contentious. Some people love them. Some people think they’re hideous. That’s okay. It’s my house. I think they’re cool. All right. So, just before I move on to the bed, I will point out that I found these cute pink trays at Target, and I just thought they looked really nice on either side of the nightstand. All right, so we’ll start with the headboard, which is pretty grand and something I wanted to be comfortable and cozy and beautiful and definitely make a statement. Um, this is that this is by article, but by way of Facebook Marketplace. I got it for about $200. And it is so big that on the day of moving into this house, I actually had the movers start at the pickup point for this headboard. They picked it up and then they came to my old house, loaded everything into the truck, and then came here and unloaded everything. They also told me that this is not coming out of my house because I took out that staircase. So, whomever buys this house from me will also be getting a free headboard. And then the way that I kind of put the bed together, I wanted to bring in some elements of pink, but I didn’t want it to be like Pepto-Bismol. So, I’ve got sort of this like muted pink. Uh, and then I brought in some of these other kind of cozier textures. This uh was also from that West Elm sale. So, even though it looks expensive, and it would be if I paid retail price for it, I got it on a really good sale, and that felt good. Now, in this corner over here, we have a pile. And I talk about these piles often. It’s just stuff that still needs a home. Don’t judge. I left the pile there today instead of cleaning it up for you cuz like this is real life. You probably have a pile at home, too. It’s fine. And then over here on my right, there’s like a little Juliet balcony, a small balcony off the door. I don’t honestly know what one might do on this balcony besides wave to the animals in the ravine. I have spy on the neighbors. I don’t know. But anyway, it is nice to have just a little something. And depending on the weather, I’ll open the door and just let the fresh air breeze through. I have not spent any money on window treatments anywhere in this house aside from Riley’s room, which I will show you in a quick moment. Now, directly in front of me, just behind the camera, is the bathroom. And just to my left is the closet. So, I will show you both of those as well. This bathroom really impressed me. For a townhouse, this is a huge bathroom. Now, one of the first changes I made is I put in a timer fan instead of just having a manual onoff fan, which is important cuz it helps to keep mold and mildew out of the bathroom. So, I will just set it usually on a 2-hour timer and let it run while I’m showering through to when I’m done my shower. Over my head is this divisive light fixture that I found on Facebook Marketplace, but speaks to the palm tree queen inside of me. And I don’t know, it just makes me very happy. I the person who installed it was just found it absolutely atrocious and made sure that I knew that and I was totally fine with that. I also got this little stool from Facebook Marketplace. It’s a little rusted on top and I’m fine with that cuz I plan on getting it wet often anyway. And I love that it just sits beside my shower. And then speaking of the shower, it’s a really nicesized, generous shower. A couple things I don’t love about it, but again, this is what I would refer to as a champagne problem, is that I don’t have a hand shower. So, at some point, I’m going to upgrade that. And then it didn’t have anywhere to store any items. So, I put these four shelves in. Uh, and when I say me, I mean I hired someone to do that. And I don’t think they did the loveliest job putting the cocking in. Um, so it kind of looks like someone sneezed all over it, which is fine. I mean, honestly, like it’s not like this is going in a magazine or anything, but it’s just it’s a slight eyesore, but I’m living with it. Not a big deal. This tub has been a complete joy. I love using it. I take baths often, as does Riley. So, this tub we are just obsessed with. Just a couple other things that I did in here. I put soft close hinges on the cupboard doors cuz they slammed. And when I say I, I mean my friend helped me do that. Uh, and then over here, this was just open storage. So, I had the cabinet guy that helped me with some of the stuff on the lower levels. Put in these kind of built-in sliders up here. Uh, and then I really leaned into this lifestyle, containering and labeling. These boxes are from IKEA. They are unbelievable. Look what I did on the other side here. Look how great this is. Okay, I now understand why people feel happier when their space is organized by little containers. This just does make life so much easier. Just over here is the walk-in closet. And you see that I have no dressers or drawers or anything like that in the bedroom itself. So, all of my clothing ended up in the closet. And when I first saw it, it felt so huge. And then, shockingly, I filled it up really quickly. But what I love about it is when I moved in, the people who I bought this house from had beautiful built-ins put in already. So, despite the fact that I don’t have any drawers, I was able to pick up some baskets and just figure out how to make it work. What I had to do was buy a lot of hangers, but the majority of my stuff now hangs. And I have the necessities in here, like my tricerord, which I would honestly not go anywhere without. And I also have some open space in there just in case. All right, moving down the hallway. On the left here is Riley’s bathroom. I did not do a lot in here. It was not a priority space. Now, anyone who’s a parent knows that your kid barely spends time in their own bathroom. They will always come into yours. So, I will say this bathroom is one of the least used places in the house. So, seeing that this is a three-bedroom home, it has this very large second bedroom. But rather than making this the room that Riley sleeps in, I thought this would be kind of a fun place to make into a playroom slash an office slash a change room slash anything she wants it to be. You know, this is another one of those rooms where I didn’t spend too much money or put too much thought or effort into because I know that once we settle into the house, its use will make a lot more sense and then I can sort of intentionally plan for it and spend instead of doing that right at the beginning when I wasn’t quite sure how this space would be used. So, it doesn’t look like much now. And I’m totally fine with that. And so is she. Let’s go see your bedroom. This is Riley’s little bedroom. And when I say little, I mean it. I think this room is 10 by8 and it’s got like that odd shape to it as well. The thing I’m most proud about in this room is her closet and how I’ve managed to organize that. The thing I’m least proud about is the window coverings. I managed to find these cute ruffled ones and I only ever changed one over, not the other. So, I still have to do that. That is an ongoing project. Uh, in terms of what I brought into this space, I decided, you know, less sort of drawers in here were better. This room really can’t hold much aside from a bed and a side table or two. In the closet, you’ll see I have baskets to organize small things like leggings and t-shirts and socks and bathing suits, etc. So, she knows where things have to go. We spend a lot of time discussing that and working on trying to keep our closet organized. I think it’s a really great space and it’s going to teach her how to be mindful about what she has in her closet. Okay, I’m glad that I have been able to finally give you the top tobottom tour of this house. I love this house and I would love to know in the comments what you think about this house. If there was anything that really stood out to you one way or the other that you really liked or you really hated, like the guy that installed that light fixture in my bathroom. Oh my god, that was actually a pretty funny story. But yeah, let me know. um what you think about it. If you haven’t done so already, make sure that you check out our newsletter. It’s called the Dirty Dish. It’s full of tips and tricks and ideas. I’ve got a link to subscribe to that newsletter down below. And if you want to see the rest of the videos in this new home/moving series, you can click this button right over here. It’ll take you right over to a playlist where you can check that all out. Thanks so much for watching and thanks for being on this crazy journey with me. And I’ll see you next time.