I need to clean house and feel overwhelmed, I keep saying I will in a little while. Help?

Question

I need to clean house and feel overwhelmed, I keep saying I will in a little while. Help?

Answer 1

Start in one room at a time. Begin with something small then work your way up.

Answer 2

If Your house is real dirty it can be overwhelming, but You need to do it.

Procrastination is a horrible habit, You can't keep telling Yourself that, You'll get nowhere with "I'll do it later"

Call a relative and invite them to stay with You for a week or so, and tell them to come in about 2 weeks, that way, You HAVE to clean.

Or listen to music real loud while You clean.

Or have a son or daughter help You, a husband, friend, anyone! Or if You feel a little embarrassed, then I would Just suggest the other options.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Having faced this problem while renovating, I can relate to the task becoming overwhelming.  I went online and checked into a few home organization and cleaning sites.  Basically, the things I gleaned from these sites, that was helpful is as follows:

A.  Start with a timer and a cardboard box.  Set the timer for 10 minutes, and take the cardboard box and walk through the house, anything you see that you DO NOT LOVE LOVE LOVE or NEED NEED NEED goes into the box.  When the timer goes off, or the box is full, your to tape the box shut and either take it to the trash or to the Salvation Army or some other charity.  I sold some of my stuff on Ebay and the mailman took it away!

B.  After doing this for a few days or weeks, you will start to notice there is less stuff in your way and now you should be down to stuff you absolutely NEED or LOVE or both.  Now you can set the timer for 15 minutes and pick a corner of a room, go through EVERYTHING in that corner or as much as you can in that 15 minutes.  You should have a little cleaning kit WITH you when you start and some boxes marked KEEP, GIVE AWAY, SELL, DONATE, TOSS.  Or if you have someone SPECIFIC to give it to, put their name on it and they must come and get the box within 48 hours or some time you designate (make it short, cause if they don't want it, out it goes somehow).  Now each day, you keep setting the timer for 15 minutes, making your way through THAT room, until its complete, make your way through the house in 15 minute increments.  No answering the phone, texts, or door.  When the timer goes off, the boxes go out the door and the cleaning kit get put away till the next day.  In the meantime, if you can keep up on the basics, the dishes, the floor and the laundry, within a short time, you should be pretty cleaned and organized.  The hard part, is letting go of things you think you must KEEP or have, when in fact, its some sentimental thing that just requires dusting, washing or walking around, when in fact, you really don't want the thing to begin with, find another home with someone else who will like it or toss it!  Make a rule, nothing comes in, unless something goes out in its place.  I went through my kitchen utensils and was stunned to find I had a ton of ice cream scoops, I picked my 3 favorites (for those ice cream and birthday parties) and put the rest up as a group on Ebay.  Someone else COLLECTED them and was happy to have my bunch of interesting scoops that I did not want or need, paid me for the privilege, and the mail man came and picked them up from my porch and delivered them, all I had to do was print a label and leave an email for them to come and get them!  PERFECT!  Now even the mail man is helping me!  Also, with mail, I bring it in and stand over a little trash can right by the front door, I toss ads I am not interested in and junk mail, right in the can.  The rest, bills that have to be paid, something to deal with is taken with me to the kitchen table, where I promptly write the check and send it back out the door, or make the call to deal with it.  If still undone, I use a magnetized pin and put it up on the calendar to be dealt with when a return phone call is made, I know where its at!  Same with papers needed for appointments, are slipped into a little frame with ribbon criss crossed under the magnetized calendar.  So all that is ready for when I have to go to the Doctor, or meeting or whatever!  It has cut down on this paper clutter that was taking over my desk, and making me be late with bills, trying to find where I put it, and so on.  Every once in a while, I get an EARLY BILL, one not due for a month or more, I will make out the check ANYWAYS, and put it in its envelope and write where the stamp would go, the date I want to mail it, at least a week before its due and put it on the calendar as a MAIL BY date like TAX BILL MAIL BY 4/7 as well as writing it on the envelope.  I have organized the basement into zones.  I have the holidays set up, such as Fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas sort of together, in their own boxes, but in the same area, followed by New Years/Valentines/Easter and then the Flag days stuff.  I have a section devoted to spring and summer stuff, like chairs and pool stuff and bikes, fans and so on. And then an area for seasonal clothing in bins on shelves, and furniture I don't know whether to keep or waiting to be sold or disposed of.  My tools and garden stuff are located near the walk out portion of the basement, so they can easily be used when needed and stored out of the weather and secured in what used to be the old coal bin area.  Starting this was totally overwhelming, but I had to start somewhere, because I was losing things I had bought for the renovations in the mess I had, and could not locate tools I knew I had, and  needed, and there was no room to move things out of the way to do the next room.  It was chaos and mess everywhere.  I had to do something!  So just do something, do the basics, the bathrooms, the bedrooms, and kitchen and living room.  Certain things should be done daily, but adding that 10-15 minutes and going by a corner at a time was a big help to me, I knew my "dreaded time" was short and I could do 15 minutes easy enough.  The thing got more fun, as I would see just HOW MUCH I could get done in 15 minutes.  A little prep before hand made it easier, like having a little cleaning kit in a bucket or carrier, with microfiber cloths, some surface cleaner, a good duster and a dust buster, broom, and Swiffer were my friends during this.  I would grab them and set them in the room, set the timer and get to it, when it went off, the stuff went back to the laundry room to wait for the next day.  EASY PEASEY!  If I can do it, you can too!  Just take baby steps till you are organized.  Now that I have done this, my time cleaning is MUCH LESS, as I have less to dust, can see things I TRULY love and need and want, and am not overwhelmed with "ALL THIS c**p" syndrome!  I do not feel like putting it off so much, as its not that big of a chore, since I can now clean a room in a few minutes.  We made a little schedule to coordinate with other things, like trash day.  Wednesday afternoon, I empty the fridge of all left over food that is turning into compost and out it goes, and the trashmen come on Thursday.  All trash cans are emptied on Wednesday in the the bin outside.  All empty boxes (unless assigned other tasks, go out too).  We re-cycle and those go to the re-cycling center on errands or when dropping off the kids to school or on the way to Dr appointments-can be anytime we are headed that way, we grab the full ones and put them in the van with us.  On Saturday, the beds are stripped and towels are bought downstairs to the laundry room.  Laundry is done anytime there is a full load of something, but on Saturday, thats the linen and towels and throw rug day, it GETS WASHED if it wasn't done that week yet!  If we have something planned over the weekend, I encourage the kids to bring them down early, otherwise, no one goes ANYWHERE on Saturday until chores are complete.  We usually spend 2 hours, cleaning bathrooms, hallways, laundry and floors getting swept, washed and vacuumed.  The rest of the week is simple maintaining of the clean.  Believe it or not, its not that hard, most of the time, it doesn't even take that long, as we help one another, if I did my stuff a little early, I might help one of the kids with towels, or hanging up laundry on the line (I like the clothesline for linens and whites).  I think getting it to this state was once such an over whelming task I could not START because there was SO MUCH to do and no way to get it organized, that I could not focus.  I had to make a plan and start SOMEWHERE.  Once one room was done, I felt encouraged and then it actually, was kinda fun.  But a few days were ust plain a grind.  Do it anyways!  Slowly but surely, it took me about 6 months (I was BURIED I TELL YOU!) to get it all sorted and organized.  But by focusing on the most visible and most sore spots first, I was able to have some instant gratification and feel better about it to keep going at it.  Some took longer, as I had to arrange storage and realized, I had tons of stuff to organize, but the stuff didn't hop in there by itself.  Getting and assembling shelves a couple at a time and on sale, and get the right bin for the right items and a label maker were my Godsends!  I hope this helps you.  Good luck!

Answer 4

listen to music...once you start..you wont stop until its done and you'll feel acomplished after

Answer 5

Don't procrastinate, just do it!

Answer 6

i usually just do a bit at a time, whenever i can when that happens. that was you feel like you are getting something accomplished but its not too much at once :)

Answer 7

Set a goal of doing just one room.  You can decide on doing one room a day.  Also, put music on when you clean.

Answer 8

Just start to. It's not hard. Talk on the phone while you do it, that helps you become occupied.

Answer 9

Turn on some music that you like and---JUST DO IT!!!!

Answer 10

talk to someone while you do it.

Answer 11

Sometimes when I get like this I will set the stove timer for ten minutes or whatever and just tackle something until it goes off... do something else for a bit and then repeat. Makes it a little less overwhelming if you break it up.

Answer 12

Become a flylady.  The emails will help keep you on top of things.  Her ideology of the kitchen sink being the center of the home is so true.  When it is clean, I am more encouraged to clean other things....

http://www.flylady.com/