I believe that our homes can be a heaven on earth, our peaceful place from the whirlwind of the world around us. But for me, if my home is messy, cluttered, and dirty, I don't feel very much at peace. I can handle a certain level of messy, but after a certain point, I start to feel crabby.
As the wife and mother, I play a major role in setting the mood around my home. If I am crabby, other family members begin to feel crabby too and that doesn't lead to a peaceful home. So I try to keep my home clean to a point. Not a pristine magazine kind of clean, because there are people who actually live here, but clean enough that there is a sense of order.
However, even though I want a clean orderly home, there are days when I am just not in the mood to clean. On some days, chores feel monotonous. Like, hey, didn't I just make that bed, wash those dishes, sweep that floor, clean that mirror, wash those clothes yesterday?! Why, yes, I did.
Do you ever feel that way?
When I'm feeling unmotivated to clean my home, these are some of the things that help inspire me to get to work:
- Play Music: Music makes me happy, it lifts my mood and it increases my energy level so I can get to work. I use Pandora to find the right music to energize my mood. Sometimes the vintage sound of Dean Martin gets me moving and other days the young sound of Taylor Swift does the job.
- Pretty Scents: Sometimes just lighting a pretty smelling candle or cleaning with pretty smelling cleaners, like Mrs. Meyers line of cleaners (the basil scent is my favorite!) makes cleaning more pleasant.
- Before and After Pictures: I'm pretty sure that most of us like before and after pictures. We see them everywhere on blogs and in magazines. A couple of times I've taken a picture of a room I'm cleaning when it's dirty and disorganized and then taken an after picture when the room is all clean. It's fun to see the difference.
- Call and invite a friend over: I don't know about you, but if I know someone is coming over, it totally motivates me to clean. So if I'm not in the mood to clean my home, inviting someone over for a lunch date or a play date, quickly sparks my motivation to get to work.
- Reward yourself with a piece of chocolate: this kind of motivation probably isn't the best kind for me, but when push comes to shove, I bribe myself with chocolate. If I load the dishwasher, I get a small piece of chocolate, if I fold a load of laundry, I get another piece of chocolate, and so on and so forth.
- Make a list and cross things off. This can make cleaning a dirty house seem less overwhelming as you get to visually see all the progress you're making when each individual chore is crossed off.
Do you have any other motivating tips to clean your home? If you do, please share! I'd love to hear them!
8 comments:
I love this list! I do all of these things unintentionally, but as I was reading it I kept thinking, "Oh that totally does help!" The windows open helps me too (although living in MN, mine are still covered in plastic!)
I totally agree about the peaceful home. I feel neurotic, but if my home is messy I juts can't sit down and relax!
BTW I love your blog & have been reading for years! I'm rediscovering all of my favs after I switched to bloglovin & could finally "unfollow" all of the blogs I don't read daily and categorize the rest. Apparently I can't even blog unless it's organized, ha!
These are some good tips. I do some of them. I agree with Suzy too. It would be nice to open those windows. Living on the edge of WI/MN, there's no opening of them here yet either.
amen to the friends one! i saw a pinterest e-card thing that said, "i get more cleaning done in the 10 minutes before people come over than i do all week." LOL nothing like hospitality to get my butt in gear! :)
A house-cleaning trick that works for me is to "sweep" a room like a hand on the clock. I start in one spot and then work my way clockwise until the room is done. If I don't arrange my tasks in this way, I soon start to feel scattered and distracted. On the other hand, when I am able to see where I have cleaned and how wonderful it looks, this motivates me to continue. I love your posts!
Love this list! The idea with the guests, coming over, motivates me best. I think in this case the cleaning is more efficient. Music can put me in a good mood too and that inspire me to clean all the mess.
Nice and Clean
Yes that's true if the mothers' mood is not up to the level, the other people living in the house start to worry what is wrong and they can not smile. When I feel down, I reward myself with a cup of coffee ( I love coffee) and I play my favourite music. That makes the things better and I am ready to do some house cleaning.
Your cleaning tips are so simple and it is an easy way to keep homes clean and beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
End of Lease Cleaning Sydney
I invite my mother for dinner on Sunday.
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