My house is a mess where do I start?
Do you want to learn how to start cleaning when overwhelmed as a working mom?
Seriously, how are you expected to be an outstanding employee, mom of the year, the wife every man wants, and a great homemaker without feeling exhausted and stressed to the max?
It’s not easy balancing it all as a working mom and sometimes you just have no motivation to clean.
Even when you do, It feels like you’re in a never-ending battle because your clean house only lasts for 5 seconds flat!
What’s the point?
The point is it doesn’t have to be this way.
Imagine what it would feel like to live in a home that was clean and clutter-free on a daily basis!
Amazing, right?
So today I’m going to share my best tips on how to get motivated to clean when overwhelmed by mess.
You May Also Like:
Must Have Kitchen Tools for Busy Moms
How to Organize When You Don’t Know Where to Start
This post contains affiliate links, please read our disclosure for more information.
How to get motivated to clean your house
Whenever you’re starting something new one of the best things you can do for yourself is identify in advance what could stop you from being successful.
Trying to get motivated to clean is no different.
Identify the barriers to success
1. Not having the right cleaning tools
Who likes to clean? Cleaning isn’t generally something anybody enjoys doing but you’re more likely to do it if it’s easy. That’s why having the right cleaning tools is so important.
Here are the top 5 must-have time-saving cleaning tools for busy moms:
- Dry and Wet Mop
Mopping is one of my least favorite things to do and I bet it is high on your list as well. Who wants to have to put their hands in dirty water to ring out a mop?
Don’t do that to yourself!
With a dry and wet mop, you can both sweep and mop your floors in no time.
This is the only thing I use on my hardwood floors and I love how much dust it collects. It’s so easy to use I even let my 2-year-old help out.
Don’t be turned off by the cost of the refills. Instead, you can use this to get the job done cheaper!
- Robot Vacuum
I was pretty skeptical about using this thing but I got it for a great price during Amazon Prime Day.
Not only does it keep my floors clean even when I’m not home, but it also has the power to make my toddler behave!
- Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Bathrooms are one of the most used rooms in a house so they can get messy pretty quickly. Especially when you have little ones.
We all know your time is limited and the last thing you want to do is scrub toilets all night. That’s what makes this bathroom tool so helpful! You do the work once, and it keeps your toilet clean for 2 months.
- Magic Eraser
Have you ever used one of these things? It’s like having your own magic wand that erases all of the dirt away.
You can use it on just about anything! Think walls, tubs, shower doors, ovens, and baseboards. Believe it or not, it even removes permanent marker and crayon stains.
All you have to do is add a little water and the magic will begin.
- Granite Gold
It can be a real challenge to keep your natural stone countertops sparkling when you have a husband and kids. At this point, you may even have stopped trying.
But guess what? You don’t have to!
This stuff will make it look as if you have your own personal housekeeper. Simply spray it on your counters at night and wipe it off. Viola, you’ll have your beautiful countertops back.
2. Lack of time
Have you heard of the Pomodora Technique? We can make it work for cleaning too.
Basically you just set a timer for a specific amount of time, pick an area of the house, and see how much you can get done before time runs out.
You’d be surprised what you can get done in 15 minutes even if it normally takes you a lot longer.
Something happens in your brain when you know you only have a certain amount of time to get something done. Somehow you become extremely productive.
So even if your time is limited, set your timer for the amount of time you do have (even if it’s only 5 minutes) and see what you are able to get accomplished.
I guarantee it will be more than you would have gotten done if you just assumed you didn’t have time to do anything.
3. Getting your family on board
Sometimes it feels like you’re cleaning in vain because no one in the house is helping to keep things clean but you.
It’s frustrating, to say the least.
But things change when you get the whole family involved (even the toddler) and make them feel important and responsible too.
The best way to go about this is to use a home management system. This way everyone in the house knows what’s going on and what’s expected of them.
The kid chore charts were a real game changer!
If you have a toddler or a preschooler who can’t read, use stickers or magnets to represent the chores they are responsible for. At that age, they love to help and are excited to receive your praises. You’ll have to find something else creative to bribe your teenagers!
Just remember rewards and praise can go a long way in getting you what you want, a clean house! This can even work on your hubby!
4. You just don’t feel like doing it
Let’s face it, no matter how much you know your messy house needs cleaning you still dread doing it. What happens with things that you dread? They don’t get done!
But, we are all suckers to peer pressure at some point in time. For many, the source of peer pressure is good ole HGTV. There’s nothing like watching an episode of Fixer Upper or a rerun of HGTV’s Design on a Dime to motivate you to clean up your messy house.
When that doesn’t work, try visiting model homes. It helps to see other clean spaces and how much more function you can have without the mess.
Have the family join you too so you can all be motivated to clean and get rid of the mess and overwhelm.
How to get motivated to clean when overwhelmed by mess
You now have great solutions to keep you motivated to clean no matter what life throws at you. Now it’s time to address what to do when you’re just overwhelmed by the mess. Trust me, these are tips you can use to regularly motivate yourself to clean.
1. Break it down
One thing to do is not look at the mess as a whole. That’s just super overwhelming and will have you feeling like you can never conquer it all. Instead, you need to break it down.
Go through each area of your home and take note of what it would take for that space to be clean. You can do this by creating a room by room checklist.
Now instead of feeling overwhelmed, you can feel more in control because you know exactly what you need to do to make your messy house a clean house.
2. Use the snowball method
People use the snowball method all the time to pay off their debts. I think you can use some of the same principles to help you clean house.
With the snowball method, you take the smallest amount of debt and pay it off first. Then you take that same money and apply it to the next smallest debt until you’ve eventually tackled it all. This gives a person a sense of accomplishment and helps keep them motivated to continue the journey.
How do you make this work with cleaning?
Cleaning snowball method:
- Grab a notebook and something to write with
- Write down each area of your house
- Walk through the house again
- Decide which room would be the hardest (take the longest) to clean and which space would be the easiest (take the least amount of time) to clean
- Write a number 1 on your list next to the easiest room
- Write a number 2 to the next easiest room and keep going to you’ve finally arrived at the most difficult room to clean
Now what?
When you start cleaning, you’re going to start small. The first space to get cleaned will be the one you assigned as number one. Once you’ve completed this, you’re going to check it off of your list and give yourself a reward!
Go ahead and decide now, how you will reward yourself for reaching each cleaning milestone. Scratching something off of your cleaning to-do list and getting a small reward is just what you need for getting motivated to clean the next room.
Now it’s time to clean number 2 on your list.
As you snowball your way through removing the clutter and mess from your home, remember it doesn’t all have to be done at one time. Give yourself grace and time to accomplish this huge task. Remember this mess wasn’t created in one day so it won’t be cleaned in one day either.
3. Create a routine
So far it seems we’ve only tackled how to initially clean your house but how do you maintain a clean home after the initial cleaning overhaul?
Don’t worry I’m not going to leave you hanging!
It’s time to create a cleaning routine.
I hope you’re a big fan of list-making, because it’s time to make another one!
For this, we need to audit your time and decide what cleaning tasks need to be addressed daily, weekly, and monthly. I just used the lists included in my home management bundle so I didn’t have to waste time recreating the wheel.
Once you’ve come up with your tasks, you need to assign a time value to each one. How long will it realistically take to complete the cleaning tasks you have created?
Now, assign cleaning tasks to your family on your family chore chart. Remember, you don’t have to be a superwoman. Every task doesn’t have to be done by you. If relinquishing control is a big thing for you, just verify that the task has been completed to your liking!
If you stick to the task list you’ve created, you won’t have any problem keeping your house from getting messy and removing the overwhelm. When I struggled to stay on track, this was a game-changer for me.
How to clean a messy house fast
You’ve received some of the best tips on how to clean a trashed a house and what to do when your house is a mess and you’re overwhelmed.
But, it’s still easy to fall off the bandwagon and go back down the rabbit hole of being stressed and overwhelmed.
I know the feeling and I want to share what helps me during that time.
With the use of these products, you’ll be able to clean your mess house fast!
1. The Organized Home Course
This course taught me everything I needed to know to set up systems to keep my home both organized and clean even as a working mom to a toddler! Her process allowed cleaning to be easy to do and my household easy to manage.
I know you’re busy and probably thinking I don’t have time to take a course. But I promise you it’s not time-consuming or complicated to go through. In fact everything you learn will be easily implemented and make a big difference in your day to day from the start.
2. Family Routines
As you know, it’s difficult to balance work life and home life without the use of routines. This course teaches you not only how to create routines, but also how to get your family on board and active in the process.
It’s easy to underestimate the abilities of everyone in our house, especially the little ones. But this course exposes what we’ve been blind to the entire time. Everyone in the house can contribute to helping the home run like a smoothly oiled machine. You just have to teach them and give them the opportunity to learn how to do it.
3. Family Command Center Home Management System
These printables are a must-have if you’re looking for a way to visualize your routines, keep track of your tasks, and allow your family to be able to do their part even if you’re not home. I just love them!!!
How do you keep your home clean without getting overwhelmed
- Identify the barriers to your success
- Create an alternate plan for when the barriers pop up
- Break everything down
- Start small
- Reward yourself along the way
- Get the whole family involved
- Utilize lists
- Don’t try to do it all in one day
- Never give up
Now it’s time to start cleaning!!!!
Don’t forget to grab your FREE Cleaning Planner
Like this? Pin it!
