Keeping the house clean was something I didn’t understand how to do.
Sure, I knew how to deep clean. And now and then, I would…
I would scrub the tub and the toilet, clean out the fridge and vacuum the living room floor. But the house was never kept clean.
Honestly, it’s not something I really felt compelled to change either.
The idea of having a clean house seemed like I would spend all my days running after my kids to pick up behind them. I imagined myself folding clothes and constantly putting them away. I was sure if I did the dishes regularly, it would take me 2 hours a day.
There were so many more fun things to do–I loved sewing quilts, I was an avid scrapbooker, I loved reading, and well, Oprah was on every afternoon.
For me, the journey to finding joy in cleaning my home was a long, drawn-out process. But it doesn’t have to be for you! That’s why I’ve broken down the whole process for you here.
Please keep in mind though, even though you can learn to enjoy cleaning much faster than I did, (it took me a good 10 years!!) changing your thoughts and actions is not something you can have immediate, over-night success with. But keep working at it, and I’m positive you can get there must faster than I did!
Why am I lazy?
Laziness is a lot like procrastination–people look at that umbrella word and say, “That is my problem.” But with procrastination, there’s always an underlying issue–fatigue, fear, avoidance, confusion.
Often, “laziness” isn’t the actual problem. Here are some actual culprits that are keeping you from keeping a clean house.
1. Overwhelm
When we feel overwhelmed, it doesn’t really matter how motivated or determined we are to tackle our chores. We just can’t.
Being overwhelmed will sink your energy levels, kill your motivation, and put you in a freeze response where you don’t even take a tiny step toward cleaning your house.
2. Clutter
Part of that overwhelm–or all of it, honestly–is likely that you just have too much stuff! A declutter will enable you to keep a manageable to do list and avoid overwhelm.
If you need some guidance or have no idea where to start with decluttering, try joining the Ten Minutes to Minimalism newsletter for a simple, straightforward weekly assignment that you can finish in 10 minutes. Anyone can do anything for 10 minutes. You’ve got this!
3. Mental health
Many mental health struggles like depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, and other things that might damage our motivation or energy prevent us from completing simple daily tasks–much less decluttering and cleaning an ENTIRE house.
When you add home overwhelm to an existing mental illness, it will get worse and worse without attending it. We can’t clean the house because we’re exhausted–emotionally, mentally, or physically–so we feel guilty, but that’s not enough to motivate ourselves to do it!
Read up on the clutter-depression-anxiety cycle to learn how you can shake yourself free from it.
4. Lack of motivation
It’s hard to do any task regularly if we lack motivation. What would motivate you to do chores?
Motivation ideas
- figure out just what you want your house to look like
- invite friends over regularly, if you’re someone who needs the house shiny top to bottom for company
- work to make your home more environmentally friendly
- enjoy a certain piece of media only when doing chores (audiobooks and podcasts are great for this)
- look at clean and organized homes on Pinterest or Instagram for inspiration
- maybe even start your own account to track your decluttering, cleaning, and home styling journey. oftentimes, having someone else see and acknowledge your hard work can be motivation in itself
5. No clear goals
It can be confusing to keep ourselves accountable with regular household chores–or with anything–when we don’t really know what we’re aiming for.
Make a list of the benefits you might receive from a cleaner, lovelier home. You could finish projects more efficiently when your tools and materials are organized. You could invite people over more often. You could feel a sense of pride in where you live. You could lessen your stress with a peaceful surrounding.
Break down how to get there. Now get specific with exactly what needs to be done, how often, and when the most convenient times for you to do them are.
Can you go further and set yourself up for success by streamlining the process? Maybe buying new supplies, or reorganizing them to be more accessible?
6. Poor habits
Poor cleaning habits can stem from a lack of organization, mental health problems, or simply never having been taught how to clean.
If this sounds like you, learn about HOW to clean before you try to make yourself do it.
7. No systems
Lastly, but probably most importantly, a lack of systems will make us appear slack in our housekeeping.
Without systems in place, you’re reinventing the wheel every day. You might intend to clean, then kind of wander around the house trying to figure out what to do first. Or you might lose track of time entirely, then before you know it, it’s been three months since you’ve cleaned the tub.
No matter your issue, we can make adjustments to improve it!
Start with routines
Start with a simple morning and evening routine.
- Do the dishes
- Throw away any trash
- Wipe the kitchen counters
- Doing the dishes twice a day takes very little time
I do my typical routine in about 10 minutes. That means I spend a whopping 20 minutes a day cleaning the house. So much for the hours long cleaning routines, right?
My routine even includes doing a load of laundry and getting it put away.
The important thing to know is:
If you do little things each day, it is never allowed to become an overwhelming heap.
When you are planning out your morning and evening routine, keep it manageable: keep it to only a couple things.
You can add more in later if you wish, but for the first month, keep it very minimal. This way it sets you up for success. If you plan out too much, that in itself can be overwhelming and you can burn out.
Get rid of a bunch.
It’s not fun to clean the kitchen counters when you actually have to move a rice cooker, coffee pot, kitchen aid mixer, water filter, piles of paper, boxes of cereal and baskets of fruit.
To move all that and wipe off the counters? Then move it all back? Yeah, I’ll find something else to do… thank-you-very-much.
Work a little each day to get rid of that excess.
How often do you use the appliances sitting on the counter? Does it actually justify the space it takes? If you need to keep it, are there things inside the cabinets that you don’t use that you can get rid of to make cupboard space for these things?
Most often things are on the counters because there isn’t room in the cupboards for them. So sort through those cupboards, get rid of things you don’t use, and make space for the things you do need there.
After the counters are done, work your way around the room (stay in the kitchen till it’s done) one category at a time. It’s easier to focus, if you are only going to work for 15-30 minutes. Only sort one space or category at time and put things away in that area before moving to another space.
Set a weekly cleaning time for household tasks.
This is not something I figured out until just a few years ago. I had the daily cleaning down, but I still was embarrassed that the floors were sticky and the bathtub always needed hefty cleaners to remove the soap scum.
I had always felt like the weekends should be enjoyed and I felt bad asking my husband to clean the house after he worked all week. (More on this thought in a minute!)
But when I finally determined to have a ” weekly reset” of the house, it made such a HUGE difference!
The weekly reset
We have a bigger family, so now, every Saturday around 10 AM, all 7 of us get to work. One person takes the kitchen, one person the bathroom, one the living/dining room and the little kids work on their room. Brian and I normally work on the same room together along with giving direction to the littles on what steps they need to take.
All the surfaces get cleaned- even on top of the fridge (say what?! That used to be a yearly chore!). The tub is scrubbed, the floors are all swept/mopped/vacuumed, everything is dusted (I always wondered when people found the time to dust the picture frames!).
Because everyone is working at once, often with load upbeat music, it takes us 60-90 minutes and the house is beautiful. Like the-cleaning-lady-just-left beautiful.
Then we are free to do whatever we want for the weekend.
Want to see my weekly cleaning list? Sign up below and get it as a free printable:
Change your thought process.
But that added to my issues. The more I thought “I hate cleaning, I’m not even good at it.” Well, the more I did hate it.
As I learned to enforce the weekly cleaning (with myself as well as the kids), I noticed, I enjoyed the outcome. I learned to ask my husband to take charge of certain areas or rooms and he happily obliged.
I began to look forward to Saturdays because I knew the house would be pretty. I learned to say to myself “I enjoy cleaning on Saturdays!”
I often invited people over for Saturday afternoon or evening get-togethers, because I knew the house would be something I was proud of.
And my thoughts changed from “I hate cleaning” to “I love having a clean house.”
And now, after a few years of having that weekly cleaning time in place, I’m excited to say that I wake up on Saturdays eager to clean. I find fun music, the kids and I race to get things done. And often times, the teens will end up talking to me while we work together.
And as an added benefit: The kids are learning that we clean on Saturdays.
Does it have to be the weekend?
No. It doesn’t. But for most people, the best time to do this weekly cleaning is at the beginning of your “weekend,” regardless of what day it is.
1. You have more time and energy
Because you wake up fresh and have more energy on the weekend–more so than on a typical work day–even if you are a stay-at-home mom. When you have no school requirements and your spouse is home, it’s easier to get the house cleaning done.
2. You can enjoy the rest of it
Getting the house to a clean state means you can enjoy the rest of the time off without thinking of things that “should” be done. When everything is caught up and nothing in the house is pressing, your mind can relax and enjoy some much needed R & R.
Reasons to keep up with your household tasks
There are so many benefits to staying on top of your cleaning schedule and taking the time to mindfully declutter your home.
1. Company can come over whenever
A functionally clean home means you don’t have to stress about people coming visit. Your house is either already clean or just a few inches away from it and easily manageable.
2. Less stress
Staying on top of chores means you don’t have to worry about them, feel guilty about not doing them, or just be surrounded by clutter and filth.
Our environment greatly affects our stress and comfort levels, so keeping a clean and tidy home will improve your mental health.
3. Teach your kids good habits
If you have kiddos, or particularly hopeless roommates, setting a good example can also improve their lives.
4. Routines leak
Creating a healthy habit in one part of your life will leak into the rest of your life. Just having a healthy morning routinewill make the rest of the day much easier, more productive, and probably happier than if you didn’t put in that simple routine.
The Ultimate Cleaning Hack: Minimalism
In the end, the ease with which we clean our homes really comes down to how much clutter we keep. For a leg up on your decluttering journey, check out our room-by-room guide.
This actually may help me! My house is passable but it spirals out of control weekly. I can’t stand the mess. It takes so much time to clean and it’s never clean enough. I’m going to follow your advice!
Hi Rachel, thanks for the great list, I LOVE lists especiallly ones that feel do-able. Have a lovely day.
Fi
Thanks Fiona!
Thank you! I look forward to implementing some of these! For years I have thought that something is “wrong” with me because I hated cleaning so much and only did it when it got to the point of bothering me! I do not have children yet, and it is only my husband and I, but with two full time jobs and starting our own side business and 8 brothers and sisters with families and parties, it gets chaotic and drop ins and babysitting is frequent!! I look forward to talking to my husband tonight and starting to do the 10 minute clean up every morning and night!
You nailed it! I’ve told myself numerous times how much I hate to clean the house. The problem is, I am embarrassed by how dirty I know the house is. I’m good at keeping it passable, but it’s rarely truly clean. Thanks for encouraging us all to get the right mindset and tackle our homes with gusto.
I grew up with the same habit in my house, except we all worked together on the same room, except for certain exceptions. As a consequences my sister’s and I learned how to clean and all love a clean house. It is hard for me to dedicate Saturdays for cleaning, since my little ones are small. So I break down my duties daily to the first hour or two of the morning, so I can start the day with my house in order. But I must agree that the seed was planted as a child on Saturday mornings. I would highly recommend the practice for character building.
Thanks I really thank this gave me the mind set I need. I am Soo excited to give it a try.thanks💄💍🛍️👠👛❣️💅👩👧👦👩❤️👩🚣⛹️🏊🏋️🚴🤸🤼🤽🤾🤹👫
The blanket statement “I was lazy” insinuates many negatives that I just don’t agree with. I personally don’t think it’s lazy to play with your toddlers or take time to do personal hobbies. As women we have a tendency to downplay the need for self-care. Things like hobbies, or watching Opra are simple examples of ways we can enrich our personal growth and long term happiness.
I have a saying that I use: “people before things.” I need to care for myself and the people around me FIRST before I take care of the things around me. I have had friends come over to my house and thank me for NOT gathering the clutter and shoving it into a bedroom and they could feel normal or less guilty. Maybe I have no shame. Maybe I have a higher tolerance to “clutter” or seen as an eclectic decorator. I’m ok with that. What I’m not ok with is the insinuation that I’m lazy.
Thanks for your comment Kristin, typically, I agree with you and I don’t want to encourage people to put themselves down and berate themselves. But I do know where I was at that point in my life, and I would love to say that it was self-care… But that would be a lie. I purposely filled my days with everything except taking care of my home. My home was depressing, and true self-care would have been to invest in my home’s atmosphere.
I could not agree more, Rachel. Having a messy, dirty house is so damaging to my mental health, and it frankly IS due to laziness at this point in my life. Self care is having a clean house — more so than scrap booking or some other hobby viewed as self care, at least for me. I started in on my bedroom yesterday. All surfaces dusted and things thrown away, etc… I still have to vacuum and mop, but already, it is so much better. When I actually time the cleaning tasks, they really do not take that long. It is such a shame I will put up with living in a messy, not very clean house b/c I am not willing to push myself, set a timer, and make regular cleaning a habit so it does not become overwhelming.
I’ve never been successful sticking to a cleaning routine. For a while I did have a Saturday morning cleaning session where the kids all had jobs and it worked pretty well. We always have trouble getting back to it after a vacation. I think I’ll make this a goal for the summer.
I’ve come to realize that it’s an act of self love to clean my kitchen before bed. My morning self loves waking up to a clean kitchen, so every night I say, “I love myself and its worth taking 20 min to clean up this mess tonight!” It is truly an act of love because I have four almost five small children and am exhausted after dinner. Thanks for the encouragement!
I feel like you were describing me! Somewhere I read about having a simple morning routine called the three D’s: Dishes, Dinner and Dirty laundry. I started trying this because it was simple and doable and now I love it. It is easy to remember even if I don’t have my list in front of me, It gets my machines working for me right away, and it gets me started early thinking about dinner and not waiting til 4:00 to realize I am missing an ingredient and the meat is frozen! (Oops.)
Also I used to hate doing dishes and then I decided to time myself one day to see how long it took to do the dishes. It only took 5 minutes to unload and load the dishwasher. After I realized it only took me five minutes I stopped putting it off and just got it done.
After I had my third child my husband had a cleaning lady come to our house. She did a great job but she was there for hours! Then we found a cleaning service where they send four people to your house for an hour. They worked quickly and each had their own jobs. It was so nice and it was done quickly and my home looked wonderful when they left (I also worked for an hour before they came but that was cleaning up all the toys and clutter so they COULD clean!) I don’t have the cleaning crew come any more but it did make me realize the power of having help and also how much could get done in an hour.
This is an interesting article. I don’t like to clean (at least I didn’t used to) but I like a clean house, so clean I do because I like the result. I did not learn much about cleaning growing up because by the time I got home from school everything was done. With less clutter is so so much easier for the children to help with the cleaning, hard to dust well when you need to move a bunch of stuff. I had a friend tell me, “Oh, we clean, but there is so much clutter it is hard to tell.” From the other side, having now decluttered my house, no, they probably aren’t cleaning very well, I didn’t either in that situation.
Wow. Everything you’ve said in this article I can completely relate to. I do not enjoy cleaning lol. I hate asking my husband for help after he’s worked all week, but it must be done! This has motivated me to start lol.
Lately I’m so lazy to clean the house and when we have guests coming that’s the time I clean which makes it harder. I like that little by little we start then once we have a routine it will be easy. Thank you for writing this post!
Lately I’m so lazy to clean the house and when we have guests coming that’s the time I clean which makes it harder. I like that little by little we start then once we have a routine it will be easy. Thank you for writing this post!
Thanks for sharing! I love the weekly cleaning time! It really is a reset on the house and motivates you to keep up with things the rest of the week!
My hubby pointed out to me that when we lived in our apartment, our house may usually be tidy, but it was never *clean*. When we moved to our first home earlier this year, I made a point to develop good habits and routines like the one you mentioned, as well as have a decluttered home (best excuse to throw things away is a move!) Now I’m so proud to have an actually clean home that I can’t imagine going back to the way I used to live. It’s nice to see other people doing the same thing I’ve come to embrace! I was starting to be a little tired of the routine- this energized me again! Thank you!
That’s awesome Molly!
I struggle as an empty nester. My husband drives a truck and gone must of the time. Although I am thinning things to bare minimum, I have an old house and dust seems to grow overnight. We have a 3 bedroom 1500 sf home. My problem is that I work outside the home 40-60 hours a week and my health is not great. I struggle to get the shower scrubbed, fridge cleaned out/off, floors scrubbed. It takes me all weekend to do this alone due to my extreme fatigue. I have tried doing a room per day, but after getting home at 6pm, cooking dinner and cleaning up, I am EXHAUSTED. What could I do, besides buying a new house, to help with the weekly scrubbing?
Hi Julia! Thanks for sharing- with working full-time and having health issues, I would definitely hire someone to come in and do it.
Also, try requiring less of yourself. If there is just one person in the house most of the time, maybe the tub only needs to be scrubbed every two weeks. Focus on just keeping the sink, counters, and floors clean each week and save the bigger jobs to do when your husband is home and can help.
I have a good daily routine before work, but have been struggling to develop a weekly routine since my husband died. It seems as though I spend all weekend getting ready for the next week. I usually shut the door on the kids rooms – if they can live with the mess, I can let them. I work full time as a special Ed teacher and so always have school work to complete at the weekend too.
Love this. I struggle with my house and think you’ve done a great job of breaking it down and simplifying the process.
I know I’m super late reading this, but wanted to let you know this really blessed me! I am a stay at home mama but I also work from home anywhere from 15-20 hours a week. I have 3 young kids and I often struggle trying to figure out how to manage it all. Also, my husband is more particular about a clean house than I am. So like you said, (except opposite in my situation!) – he would be bothered by things not getting picked up or cleaned, so he would take it upon himself to do things on his own. Which always made me feel like a failure because I do feel like those are my duties as a wife, especially after he works all week long. But I got to a point where I just realized how silly it was for me to not like the help from him. After all, I also work and I’m taking care of 3 children! And since that clicked for me, it is much less stressful for me! I love the idea of the entire family pitching in on a Saturday. A great example to set for the kiddos. Thank you for this whole thing!
Thank you Ruthie ❤️
great Article!
Great Article! Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
Thank you! This is just what I needed! You are helping me get unstuck! I live your tips. Very inspiring.
Because I practice Judaism and observe Shabbat (to an extent… We’re not orthodox!) Our weekly reset day is Friday afternoon. We also do a basic tidy (simply putting things back where they belong) every night before bed. I will admit though, some chores like cleaning toilets probably happen only half as often as they’re supposed to. And there are days when we don’t tidy before bed because everyone is simply too exhausted! My daughter is still too little to actually help with the chores properly, she’s nearly but not quite 2, but I still have her at least pretend to be helping! I would love for our Fridays to look like your Saturdays, with every member of the household working towards the same goal at the same time… It really does go so much faster when everyone chips in!