We Can All Use Some Cleaning Motivation Tips When The Mess In Our Home Is Overwhelming
If you have days where you survey the house and feel less like cleaning it, and more like digging a hole underneath it and burying yourself there for a few days, I feel you. I am you. Lets brew a coffee and FaceTime together from beneath our little burrows.
Sometimes I try my best, but the chaos in my home is always five paces ahead. Sometimes I dont even have the capacity to try my best, and my home basically swallows me. And I can read every how-to guide teaching me to Keep your whole house clean in just twenty minutes per day! But thats not the kind of cleaning motivation that will help me claw my way out of the current situation.
Binkley Knows What It’s Like: She Developed Depression After Experiencing Birth Control Side Effects
Six years ago, Binkley got a Depo-Provera birth control shot and the side effects took a toll: she lost her hair, gained 52 pounds, and, as a result, became depressed.
“And from there, it was the downward spiral,” Binkley told Insider.
Binkley avoided friends, stayed in bed for days at a time, and stopped cleaning her room. This dark period lasted two years.
After a depressive episode, Binkley said she would find herself in a messy room and say to herself: “‘Why did I let it get this bad? I’m disgusting and nasty.’ And then, of course, the negative self-talk literally can trigger another episode.”
Binkley’s idea came from a video she saw on TikTok in late March of a little boy cooking. In the comments, people were critiquing his dirty stove.
It stung Binkley, who thought of all those low moments, before she recovered from depression with psychotherapy, when cleaning the stove feels like an insurmountable task. She thought of the boy and his family, and the strong chance, given the rising rates of mental illness across the US, that his parents may also be stuck in that vicious cycle. So she decided to offer help.
When Binkley wrote the tweet, she thought it would circulate in Memphis, but it went viral in an hour.
The majority of cleaning requests have come from college students, and some Twitter users asked for help in a reply.
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Overall, she wants people going through depression to know: “You’re loved, we need you here, and just hang tight.”
Turn On Some Distractions
Yes, I know this conflicts with what I just said, but hear me out.
Just like during a workout, its hard to get pumped up without music!
Something about loud music always makes me clean faster, and allows me to forget that Im even cleaning.
If you prefer, turn on an audiobook, podcast, or YouTube video that doesnt need to be watched .
Pandora has some stand-up comedy stations that are a fun way to pass the time, too. I like to use a small portable speaker, so I dont have to carry my phone around with me.
The idea is to just to be distracted enough to forget youre cleaning, but not so much that you forget to clean at all.
If you have an hands-free earpiece, talk on the phone to a friend or your mom while youre tidying. Youll get caught up with each other, and be productive!
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Are You Experiencing Too Much Stress
Take this short assessment to see if you are experiencing excessive amounts of stress and may benefit from treatment.
Research conducted by Darbe Saxbe, PhD, showed that clutter has a profound effect on mood and self-esteem.2
In a study of 60 families, investigators found that women who viewed their homes as disorganized and messy had increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Those women also felt more depressed throughout the day and more tired at night, compared with women in the experiment who described their home environment as restful.
Research also suggests that clutter can wreck your concentration.
A 2011 study from the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute compared the impact of living in cluttered vs organized spaces and found that too many visual stimuli makes it hard for the brain to focus and process information. That overload can be stressful for some people.
In their report, researchers put it this way, Multiple stimuli present in the visual field at the same time compete for neural representation by mutually suppressing their evoked activity throughout visual cortex, providing a neural correlate for the limited processing capacity of the visual system.
Translation: To be less on edge and more productive you may need to clear the clutter at home and at work.
Give Yourself A Decluttering Win
If youre struggling to find the motivation to declutter, its probably not the best time to tackle your biggest, most difficult decluttering project.
Instead, . Not only will you be able to see the results of your work right away. But giving yourself a decluttering win will help bolster your motivation to continue decluttering.
For example, instead of tackling your sentimental items, your packed-to-the-rafters storage room, or your bursting at the seams closet, pick somewhere smaller and easier to start. Maybe declutter a couple of kitchen cabinets, your entryway closet, the pantry or a bathroom.
The idea is to pick somewhere you can declutter quicklyand easily to immediately see the results of your efforts and keep you motivatedto continue.
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Emerging Trends In Substance Misuse:
- MethamphetamineIn 2019, NSDUH data show that approximately 2 million people used methamphetamine in the past year. Approximately 1 million people had a methamphetamine use disorder, which was higher than the percentage in 2016, but similar to the percentages in 2015 and 2018. The National Institute on Drug Abuse Data shows that overdose death rates involving methamphetamine have quadrupled from 2011 to 2017. Frequent meth use is associated with mood disturbances, hallucinations, and paranoia.
- CocaineIn 2019, NSDUH data show an estimated 5.5 million people aged 12 or older were past users of cocaine, including about 778,000 users of crack. The CDC reports that overdose deaths involving have increased by one-third from 2016 to 2017. In the short term, cocaine use can result in increased blood pressure, restlessness, and irritability. In the long term, severe medical complications of cocaine use include heart attacks, seizures, and abdominal pain.
- KratomIn 2019, NSDUH data show that about 825,000 people had used Kratom in the past month. Kratom is a tropical plant that grows naturally in Southeast Asia with leaves that can have psychotropic effects by affecting opioid brain receptors. It is currently unregulated and has risk of abuse and dependence. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that health effects of Kratom can include nausea, itching, seizures, and hallucinations.
Resources:
Ways To Get Motivated To Clean When Depressed & Overwhelmed
Cleaning Motivation How To Get Motivated To Clean When Depressed.
Feeling depressed with NO motivation to clean? Been there, done that! Here are 14 ways to get motivated to clean when depressed, overwhelmed and totally UNmotivated to do anything at all.
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How To Keep Up With Housework While Working Full Time
If youre a working mum overwhelmed by housework, it can be a struggle to keep on top of things. Getting help from your spouse and children, no matter how young they are, can make all the difference. If your kids can work an iPad, they can help take the trash outside if they can use a games console, they can use a washing machine!
- Delegate jobs with other members of the house.
- Create chore charts for small children to help them take responsibility for their belongings and jobs. from toddlers to teenagers, and Ive created one for you!
- Establish a good routine to keep on top of the housework, so you dont spend all weekend catching up and feel like youre drowning in housework!
- Do your grocery shop online to save a few hours in the supermarket.
Frequently asked Q& A
Im so overwhelmed and have a new baby what can I do?
Having a baby can be the most magical time in your life but also one of significant changes. The amount of work a new baby, comes with can take some adjusting too. Take it easy on yourself, and remember you dont have the same amount of hours you had before the baby came along to spend cleaning your home. Your home doesnt need to be pristine your babys needs come first, do what you can when you can, and enlist help where you can. Anxiety over housework is the last thing you and your baby need at this particular time.
Im overwhelmed by clutter and get overwhelmed with housework easily. Where do I start?
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Use A Timer To Get You Motivated
If you are easily distracted by tasks that bore or overwhelm you set a timer for 20 minutes and tackle a cleaning task. Load your dishwasher and scrub your sink. Clean two toilets or vacuum and dust your living room. Vow to work on a different task for the same amount of time the next day. This approach will slowly build a sense of accomplishment and pretty soon youll be making dinner in a clean kitchen.
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How To Clean When You Are Depressed
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Depression drains your energy, wears you down, and leaves you exhausted. When getting out of bed each day is a battle, how can you maintain a clean living space? Here are tips for keeping excess clutter at bay so your home is sanitary and safe.
How To Get Motivated To Clean
Sometimes just starting will help your motivation to clean. However, if you dont know where to start and then you might run into another problem. Thats why Im sharing 10 tips that have helped me get motivated to clean. Sometimes just starting to clean isnt the answer sometimes you dont have a routine in place or you dont have any energy and thats why Im going to be covering all of those areas.
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Cleaning Motivation Tip: Remove Distraction
This sometimes can be easier said than done. However, there are a few things you can do right now to limit the distractions that you may face. Having your phone going off with the newest Facebook reply or Instagram comment can be really distracting.
I like to have my phone on do not disturb while Im cleaning. There are a few other things that you can do that are quite simple. I created an in-depth blog post on this very topic that you can read here.
How To Get Motivated To Clean: 10 Simple Tips
Cleaning motivation isnt something that some have and others dont. Finding a way on how to get motivated to clean can be simple! There are things that people do to help them to get motivated to clean. Sometimes they dont know where to start cleaning other times theyre completely overwhelmed by the mess.
In this post, Im going to share how to get motivated to clean by sharing 10 simple steps. These tips you can take to become motivated to clean. It doesnt matter if youre looking to clean an entire home or just one room. All of these tips do apply when it comes to getting motivated to clean.
Its hard to create a cleaning schedule that you can follow and thats why I created a cleaning house checklist to help you with your cleaning motivation.
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How To Get The Energy To Clean House
If your house is completely out of control or even downright disgusting, trust me when I tell you that you arent alone.
I get emails from readers all the time asking why cant I just keep my house clean?
The truth is, the messier your house gets, the more overwhelmed you feel, and the less likely you are to take action on the mess.
It literally gets harder to get up and clean your house the more bothered you are by it.
Let me say that another waythe more the state of your house bothers you, the less likely you are to clean it.
Why?
Because you have no motivation, it feels completely impossible to make any headway, and you feel like youll just waste your time spinning your wheels.
If this sounds like you, youre in the right place.
Use The One In Two Out Rule
Promise yourself that for every ONE purchase you make, youll donate TWO things from your home to someone who needs it more than you do.
Do NOT declutter sentimental things while youre depressed
I cant stress this one enough.
Dont make any decisions about getting rid of kids artwork, family heirlooms, etc. while youre going through a bout of depression or anxiety.
Youre sure to make a decision that emotionally-healthy-you will be heartbroken about.
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Remember Why You Want It
One of my favorite decluttering quotes is by Joshua Becker:
The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you dont.
What do you want your life and home to look like?
Get a clear mental picture of the differences that having less clutter will make.
Remember that having clutter isnt a personal failure. Dont lay blame, or make any excuses.
It is a situation that can be fixed, and you are capable of fixing it. Believing that is always the first step.
Ask yourself why now is the time to declutter, and exactly what the benefits are of making it happen.
Some benefits of decluttering that Ive found are:
- You wont have to search for 10 minutes every time you want to find something, because youll know where it is. Everything will have a home where it belongs.
- The laziness factor. With a clutter-free home, youre only ever about 30 minutes away from the house looking clean and tidy.
- Youll enjoy being at home more. Clean, clear spaces are enjoyable to spend time in.
- Itll help your mental health. Clutter is basically a bunch of unmade decisions. And its been proven to cause anxiety. Looking around at it all the time kinda makes you feel like youre failing at life.
- It might even help your finances. Once everything is clean and organized, youre not going to want to buy a bunch of new crap, and go through this all over again. Plus, since youll like being home, youll spend less money going out.
What reason resonates with you the most?
Finding Calm Through Cleaning
Clutter can make it difficult to relax and may lead to feelings of guilt and embarrassment for some. Plus, if you cant find your phone or keys when you need them, clutter can be a major time-waster, too. If you are working from home these days like so many people in the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdown, you may be feeling the effects of your cluttered surroundings even more. It might help to consider some of the other benefits of cleaningapart from ridding your house of the dust bunnies under your bed.
Move a muscle, change a thought, says Lauren, a mom who struggles with anxiety and depression. When Lauren feels overwhelmed she relies on movement to recharge her energy and reset her thinking. Her go-tos are handwashing pots, pans, and dishes, taking the dog for a long walk, and working outside in the garden. Gregory Scott Brown, MD, a psychiatrist, and wellness advocate based in Austin, Texas explains the physiological connection.
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Overwhelmed By Paper Clutter
If your house is completely overrun by paper clutter, its not your fault!
Paper comes into your house whether you want it to or not, despite your best intentions.
I have a very simple solution that will erase your paper clutter issue in about 5 minutes.
Step 1 Grab a box.
Step 2 Put all of the paper in it.
Thats it!
Why does this work?
Because from now on, youll know exactly where every piece of paper you need is AND youll know exactly where to put any paper that makes its way into your house.
From now on, the paper cycle in your home looks like this:
- Open your mail over the garbage or recycle bin
- Throw away any useless flyers, ads, etc.
- Add a reminder in your phone about upcoming bills, etc. Take a picture of the bill and add it to the reminder. This sounds complicated but takes 7 seconds. I know because Ive timed it.
- If you decide to keep it, drop it into your paper clutter bin.
- Repeat this with each paper you receive and throw papers away ruthlessly.
If Im in a huge hurry, sometimes I skip adding the image to my calendar, but I always take a picture of my bills with my phone.
This way, I have access to whatever phone numbers, account numbers, and payment information I need.
Take Advantage Of Good Mental Health Days
When you have depression/anxiety or any mental or chronic illness there will be days when you have more energy or spoons to get things done.
Instead of trying to force yourself to clean a lot when youre already depleted just to have it lead to frustration and shame focus on more energy-intensive cleaning on your good days when you can accomplish a lot and feel good about yourself.
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