Looking around a messy home can leave you feeling helpless. In fact, a messy home can impact many areas of your life. Not only are you unorganized, but the feeling of helplessness can extend to relationships, work, and more.
Don’t give up. Check out these tricks to get started when you’re overwhelmed by your messy home.
Start Small
Rome wasn’t built in a day and messy homes aren’t cleaned in hours. It takes time. The trick is to start in one small area and clean that before moving to the next small area. When you’re focused on one area, it’s easier to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
If you focus on your entire home, you’ll feel as though the task is impossible. Start with your coffee table and then move to your side tables. It doesn’t matter where you start as long as you start small.
Set a Timer
You don’t have to spend hours at a time on this project. Set a timer and clean for 15 minutes. That’s all you have to do each day. Chances are that once you get started, you’ll go past that 15-minute mark. If you have a day where 15 minutes is all you can do, that’s fine. You’ll be amazed at what can happen in just 15 minutes.
Stay Focused
Don’t let anything distract you from your current project. For example, if you’re working on cleaning the dining room, don’t stop to take a puzzle to your daughter’s room. Place all items that don’t belong in the dining room into a basket and put them away later. If you let yourself get distracted, you’ll never finish the task you’re working on.
Stick with One Room at a Time
Don’t organize a drawer in one room and then end up in another. Stick with one room at a time. Think about craft projects you’ve worked on. If you were working on several at a time, how many did you actually finish? The same goes for cleaning your home. You need to finish one room before moving to the next.
Purge, Purge, Purge
Last, but not least, one of the biggest reasons homes become messy is because the owners have too much stuff. As you clean your home, purge anything you don’t use, need, or is broken.
When your home has less stuff, it’s easier to find a place to put your belongings. When your belongings have a place, you have no excuse not to put them away when you’re done with them. Thus, your home will stay clean and organized.
My Experience
Although my main living areas (living room, kitchen, dining room) felt like they were under control, I was overwhelmed by all the stuff that lurked in my bedroom, closets, and upstairs. My poor boys (who are 14 and 11) still had some of their preschool toys in their bedrooms!
So, I started room by room with just 30 to 45 minutes touching everything in each room (drawers, counters, cabinets, etc) and just methodically moving through the house room by room. After 4-5 months, I feel much better about my house! We even had a garage sale last weekend to finally get rid of the last of my boys' toys that they don't play with.
Getting rid of the clutter makes it so much easier to clean, since I don't have to do a huge organization project and tidying before I clean. I can just start cleaning now.
It can be overwhelming to think about tackling a messy home. The trick is to simply focus on small areas and give yourself time to work on it each day. If you focus on one room at a time, the progress you make will motivate you to clean the next room and then the next until your entire home is clean and organized.
Leave a Reply