How To Get Motivated To Clean When Overwhelmed By The Mess

Have you ever been so overwhelmed by clutter and mess, that you just didn’t know where to start? Well just following this ONE strategy will help you create a home you love!

Some people enjoy cleaning, but the vast majority of us HATE TO CLEAN! It’s a NEVER-ENDING CHORE! It’s hard to get motivated to clean when you are overwhelmed by the mess.

Many people struggle with keeping their homes tidy. Don’t let the Pinterest perfect homes fool you, EVERYONE’s house gets messy from time to time.

It’s so easy to get overwhelmed when your house is a MESS! I struggled for years to keep my messy house tidy, then finally I realized the solution.

How to Get Motivated to Clean When Overwhelmed By the Mess

We have a large family so laundry and dirty dishes is a constant in my home. The daily chores weren’t really ever the problem. The problem was the mounds of clutter in all the rooms!

Clutter had taken over my home.  I was so overwhelmed by the mess! My home was such a source of stress and I cringed when people stopped by unannounced.

Honestly, I didn’t even know where to begin, but I knew I wasting so much time constantly cleaning my home, for it to never truly look tidy.

Then I realized that what I spent most of my time doing was constantly moving the “clutter” around.

Overwhelmed By Clutter

For years, I cleaned my home daily for it to never look truly tidy. My daily chores went a little like this: I picked up, swept the floors, picked up, did the dishes, picked up, did laundry, picked up, wiped the counters…and no matter what I did my home always looked like a tornado had swept through it.

Then one day it hit me, I wasn’t a home-making failure, we just had way too much clutter. I picked up and moved stuff from room to room daily. Honestly, I spent hours every single day, just moving the clutter around in my home. That wasn’t cleaning it, that was just delaying what needed to be done.

How Do I Start Clearing the Clutter

Realizing that clutter was the main culprit to why my house wasn’t tidy was such a huge turnaround for me. I was overwhelmed with my messy house! I knew that if I wanted a clean home, I had to get rid of all the stuff that was cluttering it up.

Are you guilty of keeping “someday” things? I am! We had a whole room of things that we thought we may need someday: old clothes, way too many blankets, parts to appliances, books, unwanted toys, CD’s and DVD’s (even though we didn’t even own a DVD/CD player anymore). That was just SOME of the “someday” stuff.

Quietly, I walked through my house, looking at every single room. I assessed how much clutter we had accumulated over the years. How did we get so much stuff? I felt ashamed at how much money we had wasted on all of this clutter that brought me nothing but misery.

Motivation to Clear The Clutter

Then I let go of the shame, took a big breath, and decided then and there IT WAS TIME! If I wanted my home to not be a source of stress, then I had to get rid of the clutter! I had to change my Clutter-Keeper Mindset!

That day was a true epiphany for me. We had held on to so many things and it was time to let them go. Yes, they cost us money, but having a tranquil home was worth so much more to me. Having a home to relax in and not feel like I needed to constantly be cleaning was such an inspiration to stay motivated to clear the clutter.

The ONE strategy that made the whole difference for me was changing my mindset. Being able to let things go. I didn’t realize that filling up a trash bag with all that stuff WOULD FEEL SO GOOD!

That was all the motivation I needed, but I understand that sometimes you need a little more guidance. I do know that many people have read Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing and it truly inspired them to declutter their whole house. I didn’t read it before I started my extreme decluttering journey, but I have read it since and I agree that it is one of the top motivational books to get your house in order. Here is what I learned from the KonMari Method.

Extreme Decluttering

My home didn’t become clutter-free overnight, but it did happen very soon. The trick was to include everyone, including my children. They were given a box and a trash bag for their rooms. The box was for stuff that was good enough to donate and they had to fill each up. While they worked on their rooms, I tackled one room at a time. At first, it took some time, but I got good at decluttering fast.

The Fastest Way To Clean Up Clutter

1. Do a house-walk and access the clutter. Visualize a clutter-free home and the tranquility that it will bring you.
2. Get into the DECLUTTERING MINDSET.
3. Put on some good jams!
4. Have EVERYONE in your home pitch in. Give them a box and a trash bag. The box is for things to donate and the trash bag, of course, is for trash.
5. Minimize your belongings. You don’t need 20 plastic lids or 20 old t-shirts.
6. Get RID of it. Whether you are donating or throwing it away. Just get it out of your house. You really won’t need it “someday” trust me!

Check out my post about how I decluttered and cleaned my bedroom (the clutter catch-all room) really fast! It was the worst room in my home and I was able to make it be my favorite room in just one day!

Remember you can make decent money by selling your old books, DVDs, CDs, old phones and anything tech-related to Decluttr! They give instant quotes and let you ship it for free!

Clutter-Free Life Hacks

Basket Organization System. Implement baskets in every room to catch the clutter before it starts. Have a small basket on your kitchen counter and larger baskets in the family and living rooms.

Use Clever Storage Hacks. To keep things tidy, everything needs to have its place. Use clever clutter-free storage ideas to keep everything put away. Utilize those unused storage spaces like behind the doors and under the beds.

Have a Cleaning Routine. Once I got rid of all the clutter in my home, I set up a cleaning schedule. By actually having a schedule to follow, I actually have more time because I’m no longer cleaning my house ALL DAY LONG (and getting nothing done). The biggest bonus is that my home is now ALWAYS GUEST READY! Check out the cleaning schedule that I follow, along with my many cleaning hacks to get the job done fast!

Getting Motivated To Clean When Overwhelmed By The Mess

Remember to not be so hard on yourself, it took years to accumulate all of the stuff. So it can take time to get rid of it. It is especially hard to let go of sentimental items, but sometimes we must realize that the memory is in our heart. We don’t need to keep things to remember a person or moment, that memory will stay with us no matter what.

Don’t do it all on your own. Get your family and maybe even your friends involved. Decluttering your home will lift a huge weight off of your shoulders, I promise!

For more tips to help you focus on being more MINDFUL, grab your FREE 5 Day Guide to a More Intentional Life.

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