Tips for spring cleaning from someone who hates cleaning

How you can address the elephant-sized mess in your room

SUSANE DANG

Spring is here, and with the season usually comes the pressure to clean, but what happens when you don’t enjoy the activity? What happens when you just can’t focus?

Here are some tips that I use to keep some semblance of order in my living space.

1. Forget about “spring cleaning.”

Does it have to be a specific season to keep your home clean? No. If it’s unrealistic, don’t push yourself to clean everything in the first few days of spring! It might take a little longer and things can start to slide, but that’s fine. Any time is the right time. Just keep working at it and you’ll be good to go.

3. Start small.

Pick one small area to start. For example, you can begin by clearing off your cluttered desk or organizing a messy drawer. Don’t worry about everything else in the meantime. Once that area is done, try your best to keep it clean moving forward.

4. Expand your range. 7. Find an incentive.

After a few days of keeping that one area clean, it’s time to spread out a little bit. If you kept your dirty dishes from piling up, you could progress towards keeping the kitchen counter clean. Or if you cleared the top of your desk, maybe try to organize the inside of it. Slowly work your way up to whole rooms.

5. Use the five-second rule.

Some things take less than five seconds to do. If it takes only a moment to put that paper back in the binder, or the dish in the cupboard, then just do it. It’ll be super quick, mostly painless, and you’ll find you’ve saved yourself some time. What if the task is going to take longer? Break it down. Instead of running to the recycling bin to throw out one piece of paper, make a small stack as you go about your room and then recycle it all later. One longer task is now two short ones.

Maybe a clean room isn’t a good enough reason to stop procrastinating. In that case, reward yourself for your work! Order some food, take a nap, or use some other sort of motivation. Clean up to impress your friends, your family, or your dog. I like to use a focus app. You schedule a time dedicated to being off your phone. The app I use plants a little tree, which dies if you go on your phone before that time is up. I find this very helpful because I can see my little forest and visualize the time I’ve spent being productive.

6. Don’t leave a room empty-handed.

Grabbing a shirt from your closet? Put the jacket you threw on your chair away while you’re at it. Leaving your room to go and get a snack? Bring that dirty plate with you to the kitchen. You’re already going to another part of your home, so might as well bring a friend along for the journey. This way you won’t have to make an extra trip later.

8. Look for inspiration.

Think back to how awesome it’s felt in the past to have a space that is tidy. Or just google before and after pictures of a messy room. That usually gets me out of my chair.

At the end of the day, it’s okay to be a little messy. After all, there is only one Marie Kondo, and I highly doubt she is reading this article. Unless...

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2. Distract yourself.

Some people might feel that it’s important to only focus on the task at hand, without any distraction. A quiet environment may work for some, but others may find they need a little bit of noise. If you are part of the latter, try putting on some music, a podcast, a YouTube vlog, the sound of whales or anything else you like. Anything that’s enjoyable for you to listen to will help make the chore feel less burdensome, and you may find you spend a longer time cleaning just so you can keep listening!

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