10. Leave Your Shoes at the Front Door

Get in the habit of removing your shoes before you enter your house. This simple practice has some incredible benefits. By reducing the amount of outdoors that is brought indoors, you reduce the amount of dust and other unwelcome particles on the carpet and the floors. Your house will be visibly cleaner: dirt stains on the carpets and rugs are kept to a minimum, carpets are much easier to keep clean, and the overall dust quotient throughout the house is greatly reduced.

But perhaps the greatest benefit for the simplicity-oriented is that taking off your street shoes at the front door helps to create the sense of your home as a sanctuary. It’s almost magical: when you leave your shoes at the door, you start to feel you can leave your troubles there, too.

A variation on this idea comes from an acquaintance who owns a computer software firm. Because of the importance of creating a dust-free environment in his workplace, he started many years ago requiring his employees to leave their shoes outside. He even went so far as to buy each employee shoes or slippers to be worn indoors and maintains a shoe budget for his staff. His employees and visitors are trained from day one to check their shoes at the door.

Hint: Build or create (or, as a last resort, purchase) a small box or rack where you can leave your shoes when you come into your home. Keep a supply of socks or your slippers there if you’re the type who has to have something on your feet. Also, keep some extra socks or a supply of airline slipper-socks for guests, and encourage them to leave their shoes at the door, too.