How to Get Motivated to Clean Your Home

Inside: Unsure how to get motivated to clean your house? The tips in this post will help you get motivated to clean.

Do you need to clean your house – but can’t find the motivation to make it happen?

You’re not alone.

Many of us struggle to figure out how to get motivated to clean. Generally speaking, cleaning up isn’t really something many people list as a hobby or something they truly enjoy. Instead, it’s a chore – something we have to do. 

If you’re…

• Struggling to understand why it’s so hard to find the motivation to clean…
• Looking for ways to motivate yourself to clean and organize your space…
• Ready to take actionable steps toward tackling your mess and transforming your home…

… this article is for you. Keep reading to understand why it’s so hard to get motivated to clean – and how you can make it happen!

Why Is Finding Motivation to Clean So Hard?

Everyone who’s stared at a mess and struggled to muster up the willpower to clean it has asked the same question – 

Why is cleaning so HARD?

But most of the time, the act of cleaning isn’t actually that difficult. Instead, finding cleaning and decluttering motivation is truly the hard part. 

Why?

A few reasons, actually…

Clutter and Mess Can Be Overwhelming

One of the most common reasons people share when struggling to find the motivation to clean? 

They’re overwhelmed by the mess in their home.

While none of us want to let things get to that point, the situation can easily get out of hand, and you can find yourself surrounded by so much mess and clutter that you’re too overwhelmed. Instead of finding the motivation to clean, you just shut down and disengage.

While it might be an effective coping mechanism in the short term, it’s important to fight through those feelings of overwhelm and find the motivation you need to clean your home – even if it means asking for help. 

Keep in mind cleaning isn’t a complex process. It can be super simple. Often the most challenging part is starting.

Other Priorities Might Have Your Focus

Sometimes, cleaning your house just isn’t your top priority.

Maybe you’ve just landed a new job and are trying to figure out how to make everything work  with your new schedule. Or you’ve just had a baby or adopted a child. Maybe you’ve just lost a loved one unexpectedly. Or you’re recovering from an illness or injury.

Whatever your situation, it’s totally fair to acknowledge the fact that sometimes, you can’t find the motivation to clean simply because cleaning isn’t too high on your list of priorities. And that’s perfectly OK. 

You Might Not Know Where to Start

Cleaning your house can be a pretty big undertaking. 

For some, there’s so much work that needs to be done that it can be impossible to figure out where to start.

Do you start with the kitchen? The garage? The bedroom? Maybe the living room, since it’s the most visible place in your home? 

It’s easy to get into a spiral of indecision and find yourself exactly where you started – with a messy house and no progress made toward tidying it up.

Five Steps to Get Motivated to Clean

Do you need to figure out how to get motivated to clean your house? I’ve got you covered. There are a few easy steps you can take to find your motivation and make the idea of cleaning up seem a little less painful. 

1. Make Cleaning Fun!

Let’s be honest. Most people don’t really consider cleaning and organizing on their list of fun activities. In fact, for most of us, these types of things fall pretty low on our list of how we want to spend our spare time.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to make cleaning and organizing your home a little more fun. Finding ways to make cleaning fun can give you the motivation you need to actually make it happen! 

As for how to make cleaning a good time? Here are a few ways you can do it:

Put on the perfect playlist.

The right tunes can turn a cleaning session into a dance party! Platforms like Spotify have loads of playlists ready to go – including fun, upbeat ones perfect for cleaning your house.

Pick one to play, turn up your speakers, and move to the beat as you declutter your space. 

Get some help from a friend.

Don’t want to work alone? See if you can get a friend to help you clean and declutter your space.

You can have a ton of fun with a little company – and you’ll be surprised to see just how much more progress you can make when you have some extra helping hands!

Tune into a new podcast.

From mystery podcasts to ones filled with life coaching advice, there’s a podcast out there for pretty much everyone. Find something engaging, captivating, informative, or helpful to listen to as you tackle your mess.

Check out this list of podcasts on decluttering and simplifying for some added inspiration. It’s amazing how quickly time flies when you’re focused on something fun!

2. Look Online for Cleaning Inspiration

If your house is a mess, it might feel like finding the motivation to clean can be totally out of reach. When you can’t even visualize what your space will look like once it’s totally tidy and decluttered, it can be hard to muster up the energy to make it happen.

For inspiration, look online for some before-and-after photos of people who have found the motivation to clean their messy homes. There are some truly stunning transformations out there! Even the messiest spaces can be totally overhauled and organized.

Read a few posts (or watch a couple of YouTube videos) from people who have rolled up their sleeves and made it happen – and see how you can learn from their experience! 

Just make sure you don’t get sucked into binge watching them. You need to put that motivation into action in your own home.

It won’t take long for you to see that you, too, can clean your house – and you might find the much-needed motivation it takes to make it happen!

3. Start In a Single Spot

One easy way to get motivated to clean your space? Start small. While the idea of everything you need to clean can feel really overwhelming, you can make it much more manageable for yourself by taking a more narrow, focused approach.

Pick a single spot in your home to tackle first. It could be a closet, or a shelf, or a cabinet.

Or maybe the space beneath your bed, or a particular corner of a room. It doesn’t matter what you pick or where it’s at – as long as it’s pretty small.

By focusing on this spot first, you’ll be able to see firsthand just how much of an impact your actions can make. Seeing your space transform from messy and cluttered to clean and organized will give you the motivation you need to keep going!

Unsure of what needs cleaning? Check out this post on common places people forget to clean in their home.

4. Motivate Yourself With a Reward

Sometimes, all it takes is the right reward to help you find your motivation. 

Is there something you’ve wanted for a while but haven’t let yourself indulge in? It might be a scoop of ice cream from your favorite local shop, a new book from a well-loved author, or a pair of boots you’ve had your eye on for weeks.

Or maybe it’s something related to the task at hand – some kind of organizer, new bins for the bathroom cabinet or a brand new bookshelf. 

Some people like to plan to host a get together as both a reward as well as a deadline for cleaning and decluttering their home.

Whatever it is, make it something enticing – and give yourself something to work toward. By setting a goal for yourself to clean your space and rewarding that behavior, you’ll start to associate cleaning your house with positive experiences, making it easier and easier to get motivated to clean. 

5. Make it a Habit

You’ll struggle less to find the motivation to clean once it becomes a habit in your routine. Once you form a habit, you don’t even have to think about the task as much. It becomes second nature.

Finding ways to stack cleaning tasks with existing habits you already have will make it easier to add to your schedule.

Cleaning and decluttering need to be done on an ongoing basis to keep your home clutter-free and clean. Consider what tasks need to be done daily, weekly, monthly and seasonally.

After you’ve decided on all of the things that need to be done, you can create routines that work for your home to keep things running smoothly and efficiently.

How do YOU get motivated to clean? Leave a comment and share your favorite tips and tricks below!

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