Wondering How to Get Motivation To Clean? 10 Awesome Tricks!
I’ve been a professional cleaning lady for over 17 years and I’ll tell you a secret. Even I sometimes have to dig deep know how to get motivation to clean house, especially if the house I have to clean is my own.
When I clean for work I’m on a schedule and I can’t leave till I’m done. Plus I’m getting paid. But when I’m cleaning at home it is harder. It’s hard to get motivation for cleaning my house because it’s just too easy to get distracted by other chores, phone calls and just being bored.
Have you ever wondered how to get motivation to clean your house? I bet you have! Let me share some of my best tips to help you motivate yourself to clean when you don’t want to. (Which is most of the time if we are being honest.)
Why Should You Motivate Yourself to Clean House?
Before we get started with ideas of how to get motivation to clean maybe we should find our why. When you understand the value of cleaning your house it’s a lot easier to do it.
Cleaning your house can be boring and hard and one of the least interesting things you can think of doing. So why is housekeeping important? Because it is highly beneficial. In fact it’s a form of self care.
A clean house is better for the physical health of your family because it is free of dust, pet hair, food particles, mold, and allergens. Cleaning your house also helps you keep pests like cockroaches and mice away.
Cleaning your house isn’t just good for your physical health though. It is also beneficial for your mental health. Dirtiness and clutter can cause a lot of anxiety, overwhelm and even depression. A clean home, on the other hand, fosters a feeling of peace. Keeping your home clean makes it a place you actually want to spend time in. When your home is clean you are also more likely to invite friends and family for a hygge meal or game night which is also great for your mental health.
Last but not least, another great reason to clean your home is this. If you clean your house regularly it never gets really bad so it actually makes cleaning a lot easier!
1: How to Get Motivation to Clean with Light
Have you ever woken up on a Saturday morning planning to clean your house? Did you actually get it done or did you end up being lazy all morning and then going out to run errands instead?
That is a super easy trap to fall into. What can help you avoid that trap? Are you wondering how to get energy to clean house?
Open your windows! Turn on some lights! Wake up your brain and start moving around. When you do that you not only be able to see the dirt better but you will feel more alert and ready to deal with it.
2: Put Some Clothes On to Motivate Yourself to Clean
Another way that we fall into that Saturday morning lazy trap is that we stay in our pajamas. I know because I LOVE being in my pajamas and I have often wondered why I would change out of my pajamas just to clean house.
That being said, I can honestly speak from experience. When I change out of my pajamas and put something like gym clothes on instead it perks me up and I am much more motivated to clean house.
If you are ever sitting around wondering how to get energy to clean house, put some real clothes on! Your motivation to clean your house is that it’s actually a really great workout!
3: Motivate Yourself to Clean With Music
Okay, now that we are past the basics, let me share with you the best thing you can do to motivate yourself to clean house. Put some music on! Play it loud or on your headphones.
I’ve cleaned houses professionally for over 17 years and most of that time I was listening to music. Sure, my clients might have caught me dancing on a couple of occasions but it’s worth the embarrassment.
Whenever I just can’t want to and need motivation for cleaning my house I put some music on! You should try it! Motivate yourself to clean with some great tunes!
4: How to Get Motivation to Clean with a Book
In recent years I have moved away from listening to music all the time and now I listen to books with the Libby app connected to my library account.
Having an audio book is the perfect way to motivate yourself to clean. Instead of wondering how long it will take to clean you will find time flying by. You will be looking for extra things to clean just so you can finish your book.
For work I clean 12-15 hours a week during which I put on my headphones and getting lost in a book. It’s turned work into “me time” and I finally keep up with all the suggestions my book buddies give me!
If you are a reader your favorite hobby could actually help you motivate yourself to clean.
5: Break It Up
Still, it can be hard to get know how to get motivated to clean when overwhelmed. I mean, sometimes you haven’t cleaned in awhile and it’s going to take a little longer to get things clean. Many of us also don’t have three hours to clean our entire house all at once.
So how can you motivate yourself to clean when your short on time?
Simple. Break it up.
You can use a daily cleaning schedule to make sure you clean your whole house in small amounts of time spread out through the week. For deep cleaning you can stick to a monthly schedule of tasks so you don’t have to do it all at once during a massive spring cleaning project.
If you have a really big mess because an area hasn’t been cleaned in a long time you can break it up even further. For example you could tackle the messy bathroom counter one day and the soap scum and mildew in the shower another day.
6: Set a Timer
There are certain cleaning tasks that we can psych ourselves out over because we think they will take forever, we particularly dislike them or they are excrutiatingly boring. I would put washing dishes, folding clothes and vacuuming in this category.
So what can you to to motivate yourself to clean when you don’t like a certain task?
Set a timer. Set your time for 5 minutes, 15 minutes, or half an hour at most and I guarantee you will be surprised at how much you get done in your chosen time frame. If you aren’t finished before the alarm goes off I guarantee you will be super close to done.
If you are wondering how to get energy to clean house this is the tip for you. Setting a timer has the funny side effect of making a boring task feel like a game so give it a try!
7: Treat it Like a Job
The next way to motivate yourself to clean is to treat it like a job. I’ve noticed that when I clean for other people I am much more motivated than when I clean for myself because when I clean for myself I find myself making excuses. I will do that “later” and this is “good enough”.
To combat that I’ve starting treating my cleaning of my own home like a job. I buckle down and do it till it’s done. I don’t slack off and clean in a substandard way that would get me fired from a cleaning job and I don’t tell myself I’ll do part of it later. I just treat it like a job and get it done.
Whether you are cleaning your whole house or sticking to a daily cleaning schedule treat it like a job and do the tasks at hand well and all the way to completion.
8: Just Clean
One of the biggest problems I’ve found with cleaning my own house is I am prone to distraction. As I’m cleaning I can get distracted with mail, chatting with my family, putting things away and more.
When I’m cleaning for someone else I can’t organize their stuff or make their phone calls for them. I stick to cleaning and just cleaning and that’s what gets the job done.
If you wondering how to get motivated to clean when overwhelmed your problem may be that your including other tasks in your cleaning time. Don’t try to organize and don’t catch up on phone calls or paperwork. Save all of that for later and just clean.
9: Have All the Right Tools
Have you ever found yourself with the motivation to clean your house but none of the right tools? Or are the cleaning supplies you have just not working for you?
Trust me, in all of my years of cleaning I have worked with some really lousy products and nothing can kill your motivation faster than a vacuum that doesn’t suck or a cleaning solution that makes you choke.
Stop making your job harder with the right tools and get the things on my approved cleaning supplies list including a Swiffer duster, a Shark vacuum and easy cleaning sprays that won’t poison you!
10: Ask For Help
Last but not least, when you are trying to motivate yourself to clean remember that you aren’t the only one that can do it. You can ask your family to help you out. Your children can be trained to do some cleaning tasks regularly. Husbands are also capable of doing some of the work.
And if you really hate cleaning, don’t have the time or just don’t want to clean regularly there is nothing wrong with hiring a cleaning lady. I love my job because when I clean for families I know I’m giving them more time to be together. If you hire a cleaning lady you will not only be spending your money on the best “luxury” service out there (in my opinion). You will also be providing a job to someone who wants to work hard for you!
Need To Clean House Faster?
The most important thing you can do to make your home easier to clean is decluttering. If you get rid of all the junk you don’t use or need you will find it takes HALF the time to clean your house! I’m not kidding!
So do you know how to declutter your home? Where do you even start?
Don’t panic! I can help!
Grab the Fearless Decluttering e-book and printable pages. I created this unique decluttering program to help you declutter in 3 steps that don’t turn your house into a disaster zone!
I promise that the Fearless Decluttering program will turn your house from an overwhelming mess to a peaceful retreat you love to enjoy and even show off! Grab it right now and get started today!
