For some people — the Monica Gellars of the world, if you will — there’s nothing better than scrubbing away at a sink, running a feather duster across every knickknack and going to bed in a glistening home that always vaguely smells of bleach. Then there are the rest of us, who consider cleaning a chore rather than a pleasure. Swiftering the kitchen floor, folding laundry or — gag — cleaning the toilet? Thanks, but we’d rather not.
There are many reasons why cleaning may not be one’s favorite chore, but some people have trouble with it more than others. People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) typically struggle with the focus and organization required of tidying up. Those suffering from depression may lack the motivation and energy required to keep their space clean, while someone with anxiety may find the task overwhelming.
If you value a clean space, however — and can’t afford to have someone come to your home and keep it that way — you’ll need to find ways to do it yourself, even if that means tweaking your routine to make cleaning more manageable.
“Cleaning is a lot like exercise when finding motivation, taking action and building a sustainable habit,” psychologist, author and productivity coach Jeannine Jannot tells Yahoo Life. “In my work with clients, I always start with their mindset around cleaning. For some, they don’t mind the act of cleaning, but they forget to get around to actually doing it. Others find it boring, disgusting or unnecessary. When people understand what’s getting in their way, they can begin to break down what they need to do to be more consistent in achieving their cleaning goals.”
If you struggle with any of the above, you may wonder how to create better cleaning habits. Here’s what experts say about getting over procrastination, staying motivated and keeping up with cleaning — even if you’ll never fall in love with polishing that porcelain throne.
Start small and short
Carol Di Popolo, a professional organizer at Bringing Tidy Home, tells Yahoo Life that one hack she has is setting aside a short, specific time period in order to clean up.
“Set a timer for just five to 10 minutes each day to tackle an area or task,” she explains. “I find the best time to do this is in the evening after dinner as you’re preparing for the next day. Over time, these small efforts will make a big impact without feeling overwhelming.”
In practice, this could look like making sure your kitchen is clean in the 10 minutes after you put away dinner or doing a quick spray-down of your bathroom before you take a shower and head off to bed. If mornings are more your thing, you could vacuum for a few minutes before you get ready for the day.
Keeping the amount of time short allows you to move through the task quickly so you don’t get overwhelmed by a daunting task. Since just five or 10 minutes a day is unlikely to get derailed by a busy schedule (the way, say, an all-day Sunday cleanup could), it also allows you to remain consistent.
‘Triage’ your home
Sometimes cleaning is overwhelming because all of your surfaces are covered in stuff. That’s why therapist Audrey Schoen recommends a “triage” method.
“Each day, I walk through the house with a plastic bin, and everything that’s out of place goes in the bin,” she tells Yahoo Life. “I then walk from room to room and put everything away.”
Schoen says this strategy prevents distractions that may happen if you walk back and forth from one area to another as you put things away, cutting the time you spend organizing “way down.”
Since this task is simple, it’s also easy to recruit others. You can have young children participate in picking up cluttered items, even if you’re the one to ultimately find their proper home.
Stop ‘suffering’
While it’s not easy to do, shifting your mindset around cleaning can make the task a little less daunting, says Schoen. “There is a difference between pain and suffering. Cleaning a toilet isn’t fun. It is inherently painful, so to speak,” she says. “But thinking about how much you hate doing it and how gross it is and how you wish you weren’t doing it is just adding more suffering. So you can either suffer, or you can just clean the toilet and move on.”
Never expect the desire to clean your toilet to come to you — it likely never will. Doing it anyway for just a few minutes, despite its unpleasantness, can help instill new habits into your life.
Gamify cleaning
Therapist Fatemeh Farahan tells Yahoo Life that people with ADHD crave stimulation and reward. Whether or not you have ADHD, however, you may benefit from making your cleaning ritual a little more exciting.
“Set a timer for 15 minutes — or even just 10 — and clean as much as you can during that window,” Farahan says. “When the timer goes off, reward yourself with something that excites you — whether it’s a favorite snack or a quick scroll through social media.”
Why does it work? “The short bursts of focus, combined with dopamine-boosting rewards, make this method incredibly effective for maintaining motivation,” says Farahan.
Stack your habits
Angelia Kerling, a Maryland-based therapist, tells Yahoo Life that habit stacking means “pairing a behavior you want to start doing with a habit you already do.” It can be helpful for people who otherwise have no motivation or interest in cleaning by making the process more habitual.
Maybe you regularly set aside time to listen to your favorite weekly podcast while cooking or driving to work. Using the habit-stacking principle, you could instead make it a practice to clean while you tune in; you might even find yourself getting more housework done because you’re caught up in the episode and have found a cleaning groove.
Have less to clean
Mary Cornetta, a professional organizer who was diagnosed with ADHD, says she herself struggles with the motivation to clean. Her solution is to be “as minimalistic as possible,” she tells Yahoo Life.
“The less stuff I have, the less I need to let go of or clean up after,” she says. “It also creates less visual clutter, which calms my brain and reduces decision fatigue.”
Not sure where to start? You might want to try the “poop rule,” which recently went viral as a way to get people with ADHD to clear clutter. Essentially, it’s answering the question: “If this object had poop on it, would I wash it or throw it away?” If it’s the latter … say bye!
Poop rule too extreme? Di Popolo recommends the “one in, one out” method every time you bring something new into your home. If you treated yourself to a new pair of running shoes, for example, donate or toss the old pair. “This helps prevent clutter from piling up and keeps things manageable,” she says.
