How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House? Let’s look at a few checklists and cleaning ideas today. Or, Maybe You are wondering… How Do You Clean and Declutter a Room Step By Step: Are you stuck in the decluttering process? Welcome to the Year Long Thorough Declutter Series! Find organizing ideas, deep cleaning checklists, and How to Deep Clean and Declutter Your Entire Home.
You can get your printable Daily Housekeeping Routine and Deep Cleaning Your House Schedule here. This 15 page printable kit is delivered digitally to your email for you to print and personalize. What Does a Deep Clean Include? It includes a daily schedule, calendar pages, and deep cleaning checklists for every room and area of your home. Below is a sample page of what you’ll get in my printable set designed to help you create your personal Printable House Cleaning Checklist.
Maybe you are asking… How Do You Declutter Without Being Overwhelmed? Why is Decluttering So Hard? And…How about some Cluttered Home help : You can get the complete digital printable copy of the Year Long Thorough Declutter Series Calendar and Checklists here. The printable digital download is delivered to your email. It includes 25 pages of printable calendar pages and checklists to help you declutter every room in your home. You can grab that here.
Struggling with the daily housekeeping chores and wondering: What Housework Should Be Done Daily? Grab my free ebook to walk you through the process. What Does a Deep Clean Include? One of my best Deep Cleaning Home Tips is to use a Deep Cleaning Your House Schedule. Check out my ebook on this topic, entitled Make Over Your Homemaking. Use this link to get it at a discounted price. Better yet… get it FREE when you subscribe to my site.
Maybe your house is clean but cluttered. How Does Clutter Affect Your Life? I have often thought about that. Does a Cluttered House Cause Stress? Let’s look at a reputable, mental health site to answer that They have given us 8 ways mess leads to stress. According to Psychology Today:
Clutter can play a significant role in how we feel about our homes, our workplaces, and ourselves. Can a Messy House Affect Your Mood? How Does Clutter Affect Your Life? Messy homes and work spaces leave us feeling anxious, helpless, and overwhelmed. Yet, rarely is clutter recognized as a significant source of stress in our lives. (source)
Why does mess lead to so much stress? (source)
- Clutter bombards our minds with excessive stimuli (visual, olfactory, tactile), causing our senses to work overtime on stimuli that aren’t necessary or important. (source)
- Clutter distracts us by drawing our attention away from what our focus should be on. (source)
- Clutter makes it more difficult to relax, both physically and mentally.(source)
- Clutter constantly signals to our brains that our work is never done.(source)
- Clutter makes us anxious because we’re never sure what it’s going to take to get through to the bottom of the pile. (source)
- Clutter creates feelings of guilt (“I should be more organized”) and embarrassment, especially when others unexpectedly drop by our homes or work spaces. (source)
- Clutter inhibits creativity and productivity by invading the open spaces that allow most people to think, brainstorm, and problem solve.(source)
- Clutter frustrates us by preventing us from locating what we need quickly (e.g. files and paperwork lost in the “pile” or keys swallowed up by the clutter). (source)
Overwhelmed by a Messy House? It can really affect you negatively. How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House? One way is to have a plan. I have a room by room specific Printable House Cleaning Checklist linked above. For a clean, simplistic look, one of the best Deep Cleaning Home Tips is to declutter a room before cleaning and then use a Housekeeping Schedule Printable to maintain it. How Does Clutter Affect Your Life? As you can already see, there are at least 8 ways we become negatively affected by clutter. Also, I though it might be thought provoking to look at some statistics on clutter.
- US consumers buy 40% of the world’s toys, but bear only 3% of the world’s children.
- Most people wear 20% of their clothing 80% of the time. (source )
- 9.4% of U.S. households rent a storage unit. (source)
- People do not look at 80% of the papers and information they keep.(source)
- The average American house is double the size it was in the 1950s–and getting bigger. (source.)
- The U.S. Department of Energy reports that one-quarter of people with two-car garages have so much stuff in there that they can’t park a car. (https://www.becomingminimalist.com/the-statistics-of-clutter/)
- According to the National Soap and Detergent Association, getting rid of clutter would eliminate 40 percent of housework in the average home.(https://www.becomingminimalist.com/the-statistics-of-clutter/)
Today, we’ll lay out the solutions to clutter and a messy home. Plus, we’ll look at a few ways to answer the question:How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House? A Printable House Cleaning Checklist will help you keep your home clean and maintained. I’ll even give you my Deep Clean Checklist and House Cleaning Tips to help you get started. Maybe you are thinking: My House Is So Cluttered, I Don’t Know Where to Start. How can I recognize clutter? Let’s address those questions. I have a visual below to help. Also, check out these 5 Important Guidelines to keep you focused as you declutter:
1.Only spend time on your specific daily task.
2.Do not get side-tracked or distracted.
3.Work within a time of day that you have the most energy and stamina.
4.Avoid thinking too long about whether to keep or discard an item. This is one specific way for How to Be Ruthless When Decluttering.
5.Avoid cleaning during your declutter. Getting rid of the clutter is your priority. Cleaning can be accomplished later. Read on for house cleaning tips and my room specific deep clean checklist, though, as you will begin cleaning after your declutter.
More Deep Cleaning Home Tips can be found below. Knowing How to Be Ruthless When Decluttering can certainly speed the process. Maybe you are wondering: Should I Clean or Declutter First? My opinion is to declutter, first. What is the Proper Way to Clean Your House? I always declutter a room first. Why? Often, a clean room doesn’t look clean if it’s filled with clutter. Let’s look at a few questions, below, to help you along.
When overwhelmed by a Messy House, you need to know how How To Clean a Dirty House in the easiest way possible. How Do you Make a Homemaking Checklist? What Housework Should Be Done Daily? My recommendation is once weekly on the areas I’ll outline in my Deep Cleaning Your House Schedule. Can a Messy House Affect Your Mood and Cause Stress? It certainly does when you can’t find anything. What is a Good House Cleaning Routine? We’re going to work on creating a schedule and a “home” for everything, so you always know where to find your things.
What Should I Declutter First? Knowing this will show you How to Be Ruthless When Decluttering. I recommend you start with one small area, such as a shelf or drawer. Use these questions below to help you determine whether to keep or toss any item. This is a helpful tip for how to declutter and organize your bathroom.
Deep Cleaning Home Tips: What is the Proper Way to Clean Your House? I suggest decluttering before cleaning. What Should I Declutter First? We want to start small, such as one shelf or one drawer. Start with these tasks below.
HOW TO DECLUTTER:
Supplies Needed:
1. boxes -preferably ones you can donate (Avoid plastic storage bins because you may be tempted to just store the items and not part with them.
2. sturdy trash bags
3. marker/pen to label boxes
House Cleaning Tips: How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House? I like to put on some upbeat music. You’ll also want to dress for cleaning. Don’t wear your nice clothes and shoes. Instead, grab some clothes you can bend and move in and wear comfortable tennis shoes. How To Clean a Dirty House using a Homemaking Checklist can be done in simple weekly steps I’ll outline below. How Does Clutter Affect Your Life? A Messy House Affect Your Mood and Cause Stress. One way it causes stress is that it creates the feeling that your work is never done. To fix that, let’s start with a small project. Again, start with an easy project, so you can see instant progress. One shelf or one drawer is a good place to start.
Avoid using storage bins to declutter. Storage bins tend to tell your brain to “store” the items for later. That is just delaying decisions. If you aren’t getting rid of items when you declutter, you are not truly decluttering. This is why I recommend a trash bag, also. A trash bag tells your brain to “trash” the item.
What Do You Throw Away When Decluttering? How Do You Know If Your House Is Cluttered? An honest outsider can help you see what you have become accustomed to. How Does Clutter Affect Your Life? Invite an honest friend or family member to help you answer that question. Perhaps you are dealing with years of accumulated clutter. You may even be a hoarder.
Can a Messy House Affect Your Mood and Cause Stress? It certainly does cause undue stress when the mess is a large one. It can be very overwhelming. Often, we get stuck because we don’t know where to start. What Should I Declutter First? I want to show you how to take a baby step approach to decluttering. I want to help you make it easier. If you lack time, I have a blog post on the One Day Declutter process I use. You’ll find the link to that post at the end of this article.
If You feel Overwhelmed by a Messy House, I want to help try to ease the overwhelm. How Do You Declutter Without Being Overwhelmed? We’re going to do it slowly and thoroughly in just 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. How Do You Get Rid of Clutter In Your Home? Obviously, recycle if you have that option. The boxes you use should be ones you are willing to part with, so I recommend sturdy cardboard boxes. As to donations, there are many charities that will come pick up your items for you at your home.
I use one in particular where you can book an appointment for pick-up online. This is so convenient, as it saves you the hassle of hauling stuff away yourself. Scheduling that pick-up also motivates you to declutter by a certain date.
Bonus: Here is a video with some ideas for answering: How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House? For me, I can’t think clearly when surrounded by clutter and messes. Maybe this describes you, too. Check out this great video I found that will show you how to clean your home using simple steps.
If You’re Looking for some Decluttering Made Easy Tips… – Maybe you just need a simple, step- by- step process like this and my declutter checklists for each room.
How to Declutter:
What Should I Declutter First? How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House? We’ve already stated that a small area is a good place to start. It can be done quickly and gives you instant gratification. Think of one small area in your home that you use daily that could use a makeover.
Instantly, I think of my top bathroom drawer and my kitchen silverware drawer. Another idea would be to declutter one shelf. In my own kitchen, the shelf that needs the most attention right now is one of my pantry shelves.Overwhelmed by a Messy House?A Cluttered House Can Cause Stress. It is stressful for me to lose time searching for things because I don’t have a clear idea of where these items belong. Bonus tip: It helps to remove everything from that shelf or drawer as you get started. Then, you can see what is actually in there and only put back the items you use.
1. Start by eliminating trash first- use a sturdy trash bag
2. Sort items by category if needed so you can see what you have
3.Get rid of duplicate items, broken items, outgrown clothes and shoes, anything you’ll never use again.
4. Box up the donations and trash/recycle the rest
5.Select a charity to donate your items and schedule the pick-up if that is an option
Year Long Through Daily Declutter Series Task:
We are working in the Attic this week. Your daily declutter series task for today, April 1st, is to declutter duplicates of anything.
How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House? One of my favorite Deep Cleaning Home Tips is to establish a cleaning schedule to maintain your home once it’s clean using a Printable House Cleaning Checklist. What Housework Should Be Done Daily? Get my free ebook to show you how to set up your own housekeeping schedule. Keep reading and I’ll show you How Do You Declutter a Room Step By Step: Let’s aim for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week -Complete Room by Room Deep Clean and Declutter Checklists below
Bonus Tip: What is the fastest way for How To Clean a Dirty House? Another favorite of my Deep Cleaning Home Tips is to use a cleaning checklist. A Printable House Cleaning Checklist helps you move faster. How Do You Declutter Without Being Overwhelmed? If you have a big task, such as how to help a hoarder get rid of clutter, try this House Cleaning Tips strategy. Use a timer like the Fly lady recommends. You can check her out in the link at the bottom of this post. She suggests using a kitchen timer to speed you along as you clean and declutter.
How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House? You can use a kitchen timer or even your smart phone. This tip really does motivate you to move faster. It’s amazing how much you can do in just 10 minutes. Use my cleaning checklists as you clean, so you are sure to not waste time thinking about what to clean next.
Honestly, if you’re like me, you hold onto boxes of some of your more expensive purchases, such as a TV or computer, just in case you need to return them within the store’s return policy time. If so, make a note to discard or recycle these boxes routinely(once a month is fine), so they don’t pile up.
If you are asking: How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House? Set a specific date and time. It can cause great stress and a feeling of overwhelm when you overestimate the time it will take to address the clutter. Let’s start small. Small successes are very motivating. What Should I Declutter First? Let’s look at a few easy tasks (tasks you can do in 30 minutes) I have some checklists below.
Tip: When dealing with sentimental items such as trophies and photos, consider how you might display them in your home if you plan to keep them. For photos, consider storing them in a box or an album in your home. If they are damaged beyond repair, take a photo of the item and keep the photo as your keepsake to preserve the memory. Browse Pinterest for some great ideas.
What Should I Declutter First? For Hoarders, I wouldn’t even touch anything sentimental when decluttering, as this is a very sensitive and difficult place to start decluttering. Instead, try utilizing the timer approach mentioned above and tackle those “easy to part with” items first. Choose a small place that you can declutter in 5-10 minutes for an easy win. A bathroom is a good room to start in.
Does a Cluttered House Cause Stress? You may be stressed because you lack a clear strategy to address the mess. When you’re thinking: My House Is So Cluttered, I Don’t Know Where to Start. I have already mentioned asking a trusted friend for support. Also, I provided you a visual of questions to ask yourself to decide for yourself if an item is clutter. You can also rely on some checklists. Use the declutter checklists below to determine where to start.
How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House? You can even use a camera to stay motivated. To do this, take a “before” photo each day before you start cleaning and decluttering. Then, take an “after”photo when you finish that space. Even if it’s just a small dent in the huge project, it can still be very motivating and encouraging.
How Do I Get Rid of All the Junk in my House? My House Is So Cluttered, I Don’t Know Where to Start. So far, we’ve looked at a few areas of concern such as hoarding, years of accumulated stuff, and sentimental items. We have also looked at some solutions to make decluttering easier. How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House? You can use before and after photos as motivation.
What are some good Deep Cleaning Home Tips? What Does a Deep Clean Include? You can use a timer, and you can use my checklists and work at only 1 category a day for thirty minutes a day. Another option is to invite a trusted friend or family member to help. Seeing items through someone else’s eyes can help if you are struggling with whether to keep or toss something. Other people have no sentimental attachment to your stuff. This can make the task seem much more manageable.
What is the First Step to Decluttering? Try using my Homemaking Checklist below : How Do You Declutter Your Entire House (and get it deep clean?) I have checklists for cleaning, as well.
How Do you Make a Printable House Cleaning Checklist? My free homemaking ebook will help you establish one for yourself. What Does a Deep Clean Include? I do many areas once a week. Use my Deep Cleaning Your House Schedule below for each room.
Emergency Clean Deep Cleaning Home Tips: Overwhelmed by a Messy House? Need to work fast? If you have company coming over and you have been given little notice, you are going to want to just do an emergency sweep of your home. This is just a surface clean, and it will make your home “guest ready” in a short time.
To do that quick sweep, grab an empty laundry basket or a large box and go throughout the living area grabbing anything that is out of place and tossing that into you basket. This is just a temporary fix, but it is intended to give you some immediate satisfaction just by clearing the room of clutter. When you have time to deep clean, I have a Homemaking Checklist for each room below.
Next, grab some multi-surface spray and wipe every counter top and toilet seat from the kitchen to the bathrooms. Then, make each bed. Don’t have time to make beds? Just close the bedroom doors. If you have time, focus on the floors. If you have guests coming over for a visit, just focus on the main living area floors. Don’t do a “full sweep, vacuum, and mop job” if you are in a time crunch. Instead, just sweep and spot clean. Again, this is just a quick fix. When you have the time, I have my Deep Clean Checklist below.
Deep Cleaning Your House Checklists:
First, My How to Deep Clean Your Kitchen list can be found here.
Second, My How to Deep Clean Your Bathroom list can be found here.
Third, My How to Deep Clean Your Kids’ Rooms list can be found here.
Fourth, My How to Deep Clean Your Living Room list can be found here.
Fifth, My How to Deep Clean Your Bedroom list can be found here.
How Does Clutter Affect Your Life? If you work from home, like me, clutter can be robbing your creativity. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away. Let’s tackle the clutter head on. Maybe you need a Clean House Checklist. Looking for a Decluttering Made Easy room by room checklist? Read more below. Checking things off a list can be very satisfying and motivating.
Some of you are thinking: My House Is So Cluttered, I Don’t Know Where to Start. How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House? I recommend starting small, such as one shelf or one drawer. It can even be a shower shelf. I can think of a few shampoo bottles or broken bits of soap I could get rid of quickly. Also, start in an area that has been causing you the most stress.
What is the Proper Way to Clean Your House? Sometimes, you need to just stop reading about it, and take action. Don’t let perfectionism and worry stop you from taking action. Perfectionism may have you stuck thinking about the “proper” way to clean. Done is better than perfect. After all, we’re talking about cleaning your home, not a major project you’re worried you may mess up.
We’ve already outlined How To Clean a Messy Room using the room by room checklists above. What Housework Should Be Done Daily? A Housekeeping Schedule Printable will help you maintain your home and keep it clean. I immediately think of dishes and laundry. You need a basic routine to maintain it once it’s deep cleaned. Specifically, to keep up the general housework, you need to create a daily housekeeping schedule that suits your specific needs. To do so, I have created a helpful series you can read here. Get the free ebook when you subscribe that will walk you through the steps to create your personal house cleaning routine.
How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House? We have already addressed dressing yourself to clean, using music, and using a Printable House Cleaning Checklist for Your Home. Another cleaning tip is to start high and work down. Also, start from your left and work your way to the right around the room. If your messy home has you feeling stressed, start with my cleaning and decluttering checklists. I also recommend starting with an area that is causing you the most stress.
What Housework Should Be Done Daily? Try using a Housekeeping Schedule Printable. How Do I Let Go of my Belongings? Use my Decluttering Tips for Home – Complete Home Declutter (tasks you can do in 30 minutes):
Follow each room-by-room “declutter your home” checklist below
I have declutter checklists for every room and every space in your home to guide you along below. What is the best way to declutter? Follow my “Declutter Your Home” checklists to get you started.
How Do You Know If Your House Is Cluttered? What is Considered Clutter? Anything you don’t love or use can be cluttering up your home. Read more below. I have a specific checklist you can use for the entire home, room by room.
Also, you can get the complete digital printable copy of the Year Long Thorough Declutter Series Calendar and Checklists here. The printable digital download is delivered to your email. It includes 25 pages of printable calendar pages and checklists to help you declutter every room in your home. You can sign up here.
How to Declutter the Guest Room or Your Kid’s Room checklist can be found here.
Also, my How to Declutter Your Laundry Room and Patio checklist is found here.
My How to Declutter Your Coat Closet/Hall Closet/Linen Closet checklist can be found here.
Next, you can find my How to Declutter Your Home Office checklist here.
Find my How to Declutter Your Attic checklist by clicking here.
The How to Declutter Your Garage checklist can be found here.
My How to Declutter Your Living Room checklist can be found here.
How to Declutter Your Kitchen Checklist can be found here.
The How to Declutter Your Entry/Foyer/Mudroom checklist can be found here.
My How to Declutter Your Clothing checklist can be found here.
Also, a How to Declutter Your Bedroom checklist can be found here.
How to Declutter Your Bathroom checklist can be found here.
Happy Decluttering!
To Subscribe to this Daily Declutter Series, drop me a comment below. Your email will be sent to me but will not be posted publicly. You’ll receive a daily declutter task via email for the daily task we are working on. You can unsubscribe at any time.
New to deemiddleton.com and don’t know where to start? I recommend going in this order:
Step 1: Check out this post on the 1st step you should take to get organized. If you don’t have a calendar, you can grab my free weekly printable calendar page here. It is in my shopify store, but it is totally free, so you won’t be prompted to put in any payment information. It is a free download and will be delivered straight to your email.
Also, you can get the complete digital printable copy of the Year Long Thorough Declutter Series Calendar and Checklists here. The printable digital download is delivered to your email. It includes 25 pages of printable calendar pages and checklists to help you declutter every room in your home. You can sign up here.
Step 2: Create a Housekeeping Daily Assignment Sheet. What Housework Should Be Done Daily?You can use this series to start to set up your own schedule. You can also use this simplified weekly schedule.If you often ask: What is the fastest way to clean a dirty house? Why Can’t I Throw Anything Away? If you struggle to get organized and have tried and failed time and again, you can likely find out which of these 11 reasons cause you to fail to get organized.
Step 3: How do you remove clutter? How Long Does It Take To Declutter a House?.…Sign up for the Declutter Series and get your entire home decluttered in just 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.”Declutter Your Home” checklists are provided in each email.
Step 4: What is the fastest way to clean a dirty house? Use a timer and use each Deep Cleaning Your House Checklist above. They will help you get your home sparkling after you’ve decluttered.
Interested in becoming a full-time blogger like me? Check out my blogging series. At the top of every page on my blog, you’ll find a drop down menu. Just select the BLOGGING category.
Check out the most popular posts on deemiddleton.com:
14 Things That Make Your Home Look Cluttered
How to Create a Daily Housekeeping Schedule
How to Clean House When You Are Completely Overwhelmed By Clutter
What is Preventing You From Getting Organized?
Also, check out a great post on decluttering over here from becomingminimalist.com. Joshua Becker has some great tips on decluttering and minimalism.
For further reading, check out the fly lady here. She has some great cleaning and kitchen decluttering ideas plus excellent organization tips to get you started.
I hope you have benefitted from my tips to help you answer ” How Do I Motivate Myself to Clean my House?”, and I hope you found the answers to all your cleaning and decluttering concerns. Leave a comment below to subscribe to my daily declutter task email series.
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