Eliminate Cleaning Overwhelm

There are people whose homes are immaculate, who could host a magazine photo shoot with no warning. There are people who require two weeks notice to make their homes presentable before allowing anyone to see it. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle, with homes that look “lived in”. We can do a whirlwind clean and tidy and have the place ready for guests in no more than an hour. However, the awareness of clutter, mess, and things in need of cleaning acts as a constant, low-level stress. There are ways to eliminate cleaning overwhelm that do not require you to become a neatnik, obsessed with every speck of dirt.

The most common reason for cleaning overwhelm is that it’s not high on your priority list. You put off little cleaning tasks until the amount needing to be cleaned is truly scary. You may do house cleaning on an irregular basis, whenever you notice something looks dirty. Or you may have public rooms you keep neat and tidy, and private rooms that you let go. Or you may clean up after yourself but not want to clean up after a spouse or pet. However your messiness manifests, you can restore cleanliness and order and eliminate your overwhelm!

Delegate to family members

The first and most obvious thing to consider is delegation is to family members. It’s probably at least partially their mess, anyway. People can be assigned specific rooms that are their responsibility, such as a teenager keeping their own room clean. Or chores can be shared among people according to who likes doing them. For example, I hate doing laundry, and my husband hates folding laundry. So he washes the clothes, and I fold them. We each take personal satisfaction from our particular portion of the cleaning task. There are many homes where one person cooks the dinner, and someone else washes the dishes. It can be the same person each time, or the tasks can rotate. Even little children can have a weekly chore chart with gold stars to track how well they contribute.

Trade with friends

You may be able to organize a cleaning swap with friends. For example, you may love scrubbing sinks but hate vacuuming, and your friend loves to vacuum but hates scrubbing. Your friend can do your vacuuming, and in return you do their scrubbing. You can organize a rotating dinner at the homes of single friends, where one person cooks and the others clean. Or, you may have some skill or good you can barter with. I am incredibly lucky. I have a good friend who loves to clean and organize. It makes her happy to put things right. She comes over every few weeks and cleans. I get to spend time with her, and she gets some of my husband’s special massage oil. I have another friend that trades baked goods for cleaning — especially bulk baked goods for school bake sales.

Hire Help

There are two ways that hiring professional cleaning services or maid services can help eliminate cleaning overwhelm. First, they are actually cleaning for you. Second, and perhaps more importantly, they force you to pre-clean according to priority. Is your main priority a clean kitchen? Then you’ll wash the dishes before they come so they have access to your sink. Is having a welcoming and enticing living room your priority? Then you’ll pick up the clutter and put away toys before they arrive. Because there is a deadline of needing to pre-clean before the help comes, it is more likely to happen than when you are fitting your cleaning in when you have spare time.

Organization to Eliminate Cleaning Overwhelm

Finally, it may be that you are fully capable of doing all the cleaning yourself. You just don’t know what to do, when to do it, or where to begin. That uncertainty and confusion causes your overwhelm. In that case, having a cleaning system is essential to understand what to do when. Just like eliminating any other kind of overwhelm, you’ll eliminate cleaning overwhelm when you reduce the number of decisions required, and break larger tasks into smaller, more easily accomplished items.

I highly recommend Fly Lady. (The “Fly” comes from her hobby of fly fishing, not the insect.) She has a complete system to divide your home into zones. Each week, you focus on a specific zone for deep cleaning, and do daily maintenance in the other zones. There are checklists for morning — things like unload dishwasher and empty litter box. There are checklists for before bed — things like start the dishwasher and pick up the places where clutter accumulates. You’ll have no question about what needs to be done, and every task is short, simple, and easy to complete.