put one's house in order

English

Alternative forms

• get one's house in order
• put one's household in order
• set one's house in order

Pronunciation

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Verb

put one's house in order (third-person singular simple present puts one's house in order, present participle putting one's house in order, simple past and past participle put one's house in order)

1. (literal) To clean and arrange in an orderly manner the furnishings and other contents of one's house.

   Synonym: clean house

   • 1914, Mary Roberts Rinehart, chapter 13, in The Street of Seven Stars:

     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.

   • 1998, Claudia L. Bushman, A Good Poor Man's Wife, →ISBN, page 112:

     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.

2. (idiomatic) To organize one's financial and other affairs, especially in preparation for a life-changing event.

   Synonyms: put one's affairs in order, settle one's affairs

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, 2 Samuel 17:23:
     :

     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.

   • 1876, Anthony Trollope, chapter 14, in The Prime Minister:

     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.

   • 1907, David Graham Phillips, chapter 5, in The Second Generation:

     "I must put my house in order—in order. Draw up a will and bring it to me before five o'clock."

   • 2010 May 20, Agnes T. Crane, Christopher Swann, “U.S. Dollar a Haven, but for How Long?”, in New York Times, retrieved 3 November 2013:

     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.

Translations

References

• “put one's house in order”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.