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If you're like most single guys, you have a hard time keeping your place neat and clean. You want to be able to have your lady friends over to see where you live, make them dinner, rub their shoulders, and show them how great When Harry Met Sally looks on your giant HDTV. But you're afraid that Billy Crystal's charms won't be enough to keep their eyes averted from the giant stampede of roaches that swarms from your kitchen to the bathroom every night. How can you quickly master enough cleaning skills that women won't run away in horror from the sight of your disgusting hovel?
LIVING ROOM
This is likely the first room your date will see as she comes into the house, so make it easy to keep clean. Put hooks or a coatrack somewhere near the door, so your coats and jackets end up there rather than on the furniture. Putting a small cabinet or table with a drawer in it near the door is a good idea too - most people read the mail as they enter their homes every night, so give yourself a drawer to tuck it away in, instead of spreading it across the couch or coffee table.
As for the coffee table itself, make it a habit not to leave cups, newspapers, or beer bottles on it. Bring them to the kitchen or throw them away after each use and you'll never have to go around with a sack to collect all the junk later. If like most guys you have a television in your living room, try to keep all cords, DVDs, and game controllers tucked away, either on a shelf or in a drawer. It's simple: after you watch a DVD, put it back, and after you play a video game, put the game and the controllers away. Having cords, games controllers, and movies scattered around the room looks tacky and is easy to avoid - and really, do you want to spend the whole date explaining why you watch so much Sailor Moon?
Despite your best intentions, your living room might tend to get a little messy and threadbare if you're a guy. So don't forget the most important accessory -floor lamps! Cheap, functional floor lamps (the kind you can get for about $20 at IKEA or Target) give a golden hue to a room, casting romantic shadows across your entertainment center. On the other hand, bright overhead lights make your living room look like an operating table, where every stray jacket is a severed kidney drooping across your lumpy couch cushions. You need to control what you bring to your date's attention about your place, so make sure to highlight its strengths and not its stains, cracks, and clutter.
KITCHEN
For the low-maintenance man, the homey or "rustic" kitchen is your best bet. Hang hooks on the kitchen wall so you can store your pots and pans right there, even if they're still drying a bit (this goes only for your cast-iron or newest-looking non-stick and aluminum skillets - tuck the broken popcorn pan with the bent handle into a cabinet somewhere). Have a big, nice-looking spice rack right next to the stove, so you can cook and have your ingredients out in the open, without having to put your olive oil and pepper away later. To save needless counter cleaning, use spoon ladles! These can look funny and funky, or minimalist and functional, but whatever the look, they can be left in the pot (and later dropped right in the wash), saving you from having to wipe the counter after every stir. Regarding your sink, there's no magic trick that will get your dishes to wash themselves. But at least make it easy on yourself.
If you have a dishwasher, put things in the washer as soon as you finish your cup of coffee or the last spoonful of yogurt. If you wash dishes by hand, try to at least rinse off dishes when you're done. Broad surfaces, such as cutting boards or plates, are super simple to wash, especially if the last few gunky bits of oatmeal haven't hardened into cement yet, so get those out of the way. And if you use a long scrubbing brush with a handle, you don't even have to get your hands messy.
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