Dictionary

put one's house in order en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (qualifier:literal) To clean and arrange in an orderly manner the furnishings and other contents of one's house.
   • It took Harriet a full month or more each spring to put her house in order. Washing windows, arranging drawers, sweeping, and dusting were relatively simple tasks, amounting to two or three days' work in each room. It was the carpets that constituted the major chore. 1998, Claudia L. Bushman, A Good Poor Man's Wife, →ISBN, page 112:
   • First she had put her house in order, working deftly, her pretty hair pinned up in a towel—all in order but Peter's room. That was to have a special cleaning later. 1914, Mary Roberts Rinehart, chapter 13, in The Street of Seven Stars:
2. (idiomatic) To organize one's financial and other affairs, especially in preparation for a life-changing event.
   • The message from the euro zone should be loud and clear: if lawmakers don't put their house in order, markets eventually will do it for them. 2010 May 20, Agnes T. Crane, Christopher Swann, “U.S. Dollar a Haven, but for How Long?”, in New York Times, retrieved 03 Nov 2013:
   • But before doing so he thought it to be expedient to put his house in order, so that he might be able to make a statement of his affairs if asked to do so. 1876, Anthony Trollope, chapter 14, in The Prime Minister:
   • "I must put my house in order—in order. Draw up a will and bring it to me before five o'clock." 1907, David Graham Phillips, chapter 5, in The Second Generation:
   • And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.

Forms

Synonyms

get one's house in order · put one's affairs in order · clean house · set one's house in order · put one's household in order

Translations (9)

fi siivota (to clean and arrange in an orderly manner the furnishings and other contents of one's house) · pl zrobić porządki (to clean and arrange in an orderly manner the furnishings and other contents of one's house) · pl robić porządki (to clean and arrange in an orderly manner the furnishings and other contents of one's house) · fr mettre de l'ordre (to clean and arrange in an orderly manner the furnishings and other contents of one's house) · fr faire le ménage (to clean and arrange in an orderly manner the furnishings and other contents of one's house) · fi saada asiansa järjestykseen (to organize one's financial and other affairs, especially in preparation for a life-changing event) · pl doprowadzać sprawy do ładu (to organize one's financial and other affairs, especially in preparation for a life-changing event) · fr ranger (to clean and arrange in an orderly manner the furnishings and other contents of one's house) · pl doprowadzić sprawy do ładu (to organize one's financial and other affairs, especially in preparation for a life-changing event)