What do you do when you’ve lost your will to clean? You see the dust bunnies in the corners and toothpaste splatters on the mirrors but you just can’t work up the enthusiasm to get going. With each passing day, the job becomes bigger and in time you truly dread the thought of cleaning your house.
How do you get moving? Assuming you’re not suffering from anything more serious than a motivational issue, here are some suggestions for getting motivated to clean your home.
Visualization
Imagine your home looking clean and beautiful. Think about how nice it would be to get ready for work tomorrow in a squeaky clean bathroom and come home to clean floors and prepare dinner in a spotless kitchen. These images might just light the spark you need to get your fire going.
Spur yourself to action by picturing your awesomely clean home and keep thinking about it as you power through the job.
Reward Yourself
If that’s not the right approach to spur you into action, try a reward system. Set some cleaning goals for yourself and promise yourself a treat when they are achieved.
For example, if you are trying to lose weight, dangle a chocolate ice cream cone out on the horizon. You can have it after you clean your house. The calories burned cleaning will equal out with the ice cream. It’s a good trade-off.
Or, if you think a hair treatment you’ve been considering is too extravagant for your budget, calculate how much it would cost to pay someone to clean your home (the going rate is probably somewhere between $25 and $45 per hour) and then reward yourself with a trip to the hairdresser after you do the job yourself.
Take Baby Steps
If that’s not doing it for you, try taking baby steps. Instead of looking at house cleaning as a great big job, think of it as a whole bunch of little jobs. Then tackle one little job, and then, later on, tackle another. Work at whatever pace you want.
Doing one little job, no matter how small, is better than doing nothing at all. So today you might clean the inside of the microwave and tomorrow you might clean the stove and the next day the kitchen countertops and so on. Eventually you might even begin to get motivated by all you’ve accomplished, get some momentum going, and tackle a whole room in one fell swoop.
Since house cleaning is a job that can build on itself, this is a great approach to take to kick your cleaning groove into action. It’s never essential to clean your whole house at once. Cleaning it in smaller increments works just as well. At some point, you’ll get into a routine. Then, spending fifteen minutes a day will become half an hour and before you know it your whole house will be in tip-top shape. Take some baby steps and you’ll be running in no time.
Make Cleaning a Habit
Cleaning isn’t supposed to be fun. Getting motivated can be tough. Housekeeping is a difficult job. Another suggestion I have for you with regard to getting motivated is to make house cleaning a habit. Working out a regular routine and then integrating it into your life is the best way to keep your home in shape.
Ideally, break down the large job of keeping an orderly home into many small tasks and take it in stages throughout your week. You’ll have to concentrate at first, but after a little while it’ll be part of your routine and you won’t mind doing it because you won’t give it a second thought.
If you haven’t got the time to break it down, a once weekly or every other week full house run-through will net you the same results. The same approach will work as well. Make it a priority to devote a block of time to cleaning your whole house periodically. Each time you complete the routine, it will get easier. In time, your routine will be so routine you won’t even think about it.
Whatever approach you take, it’s essential to get back into your cleaning groove ASAP. Continuing to let things slide makes the job loom larger and larger. It’s often the case that once you get started, you’ll find your enthusiasm pick up.
Just Do it
So, as a last-ditch option, just do it. Get up right now and start cleaning your kitchen. Don’t think about it, just do it. Once you get going, you might just find that your will to clean comes back with a vengeance. Ten hours later, your windows will sparkle, your garage will be immaculate, and even your sidewalks will glisten. Hey, you never know.
Want more organizing and house cleaning tips and ideas? Check out my author page. My books include De-Clutter and Organize Your Home in 7 Simple Steps, Clean Like A Pro: Tips and Techniques for Cleaning Your Home Like a Seasoned Professional, and How to Become a Cleaning Pro: the Ultimate Guide to Starting and Operating Your Own House Cleaning Service.
