Overwhelmed by Your Messy House? 4 Things To Do

overwhelmed by your messy house

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What to do when you’re overwhelmed by your messy house

At this moment, my house is not in tip top shape. In fact it feels quite chaotic to me. In some sense, I’ve come to terms with the state of my home because of the season I’m in with young kids at home. However, there are days when I find my home quite overwhelming and something needs to be done before my sanity is jeopardized. 🙂 A clean and tidy space makes for a happier mom.

So today I give you four QUICK things that you can do when you’re overwhelmed by your messy house:

overwhelmed by your messy house

Make the beds

Fluff the pillows, throw the covers back on. Doesn’t have to be perfect, but having the beds made makes me breathe easier. Even when there are piles of laundry on the floor! The bed is the biggest visual surface in a bedroom, so having the bed made creates calm for your eyes.

Clear off the outside of the fridge

Art work, shopping lists and magnets galore. I love displaying my daughters’ art work from school and the fridge is just so convenient for having my grocery list. But once in a while, a good wipe down is necessary and I don’t bother to put anything back up for a while afterwards.

Sweep the floors

One word. Crumbs. Everywhere! Nothing irritates me quite as much as stepping on some crumbs and having them stick to my bare feet. Ewww! Because of this, I try to sweep the floor every day and vacuum at least once a week. I’m amazed at how much better I feel after the floors have been swept.

Clear the kitchen counters

This is a constant battle of mine. Our kitchen doesn’t have a lot of counter space so anything extra on it makes it more difficult to do every day tasks. Needless to say, our kitchen counters are a drop zone for school papers, mail and dirty dishes. While it’s a never ending battle, I try to clear off as much “extras” as I can on a daily basis. Getting the dishes done (with my favourite dish soap) is also key!

printable cleaning planner

Another thing that really helps me when I’m overwhelmed or paralyzed by my messy house? I create a plan to stay focused! Check out this fun HOME CLEANING PLANNER – with room by room checklists, daily + weekly task lists, and seasonal cleaning checklists to make sure it all gets DONE in a systematic way!

What sort of things do you like to do when you’re overwhelmed by your messy house?

Related Posts:

8 Weeks to a More Organized Christmas: Get Your House Holiday Ready

Learn how to get your house holiday ready in no time flat with this free holiday cleaning checklist!

Can you believe we’re one week away from Christmas day?  Wow!  Time sure flies when you’re having fun! (or being busy?)  Since we’re one week away from Christmas, this also means we’ve reached the last week of the 8 Weeks to a More Organized Christmas series!  I sure hope you enjoyed it.  I also hope it helped you to have a more simple and manageable holiday season!

Christmas usually involves company and no one likes to show their guests a good time in a messy home.  So, today, I’ve got a free printable Get Your House Holiday Ready Checklist!  It includes suggestions of cleaning tasks to do each day leading up to Christmas day.  There’s even plenty of room for you to add your own tasks.  I kept it fairly simple, because really, who has time for crazy cleaning this time of year?

Remember, these are suggestions only!  Click on the image below or here to print your holiday cleaning list.

Holiday Ready Cleaning List

What tasks are on your holiday cleaning list?  Are you ready for Christmas?

Here are the rest of the posts in the 8 Weeks to a More Organized Christmas series:

15 Days to a Spring Clean Home

Spring Cleaning on your mind? Sign up for the 15 Days to a Spring Clean Home Challenge! You'll receive an email once a day for 15 days with tasks included.

Have you got Spring Cleaning on your mind? Sign up for my 15 Days to a Spring Clean Home Challenge!

You’ll receive an email once a day for 15 days with tasks and tips included!  Get your home sparkling clean and smelling fresh in just 15 days!  There’s no sense in stressing out to get everything done in a matter of days when you can complete a simple task each day over a 15 day period.

It starts whenever you are ready to sign up:

(click here if you can’t see the form below)

7 Things People with Clean Houses Do Every Day

people with clean houses

7 Things People with Clean Houses Do Every Day

Do you have friends or family who seem to have neat and tidy houses day in and day out? Perhaps you wonder what their secret is, and wonder how, you too, can enjoy this sort of clean space on a regular basis?

The truth is, there are things that people with clean houses do each and every day in order to keep their spaces looking great.

Take a look below at 7 things people with clean houses do every day. Give these daily tasks a try and see if they help you create the clean space you want!

1. They return items to their proper place when done.

Clutter is a quick way to make a space look messy. Clutter can build up and bring chaos to a space, which is why people with neat and tidy houses take time to return items to their proper home, preventing the build up of clutter to begin with.

2. They take a few minutes to vacuum high traffic areas.

High traffic areas tend to bring a lot of dirt and dust with them. People with clean houses run the vacuum or a broom through high traffic areas each day. This way dust, dirt, and pet hair can get picked up and accumulation is prevented.

3. They wipe down sinks and counter tops.

Grime can quickly build on kitchen and bathroom counters and sinks. By taking a few minutes to spray down and wipe down these areas each day, you prevent build up and create an overall cleaner space.

Keep an all purpose cleaner and a rag below your sinks so you can easily access these must-haves for a quick daily wipe down.

4. They utilize air fresheners, odor eliminators.

People with clean homes know how important it is for their homes to smell clean. They use air fresheners or essential oils so they can leave their spaces smelling fresh. Use essential oil diffusers or odor eliminating sprays to quickly blast freshness into your space daily. I’m intrigued by these charcoal bags that are supposed to naturally eliminate odors. I’ll let you know if I try them out!

5. They don’t leave dishes in the sink.

Have you ever noticed that dishes in the sink can make the whole kitchen feel messy? Take the time each day to wash the dishes or move them to a dishwasher. This way, the sink is clean and clear and it also gives you the chance to wipe it down.

6. They hang towels and other household linens.

Taking the time to fold and hang household linens and clothing can leave your home looking neat and tidy. Be sure to hang bathroom towels, kitchen linens, and other household linens. Not only will it help them dry out quickly, but it looks great. Same goes for keeping clothing off the floor!

7. They make their bed.

Nothing makes a room feel more pulled together than a freshly made bed. Take a few minutes each day to make your bed and see how it encourages you to keep the rest of your room more organized and tidy.

There you have it! Seven simple tasks people with clean houses do every day. Try implementing these simple tasks each day and I can assure you they will help you to create a clean and organized space.

As you can see, they aren’t big time consuming tasks and are easy to fit into your day. Add them to your daily routine and see what results you can achieve!

I’d love to know some of your daily tasks that help you keep a neat and tidy home! Let me know in the comments below!

printable cleaning planner

Looking for an easy way to stay on top of cleaning especially as life gets busy? Check out this gorgeous HOME CLEANING PLANNER – with room by room checklists, daily + weekly task lists, and seasonal cleaning checklists to make sure it all gets DONE!

5 Quick Tricks to a Cleaner Home

5 easy things to clean when you’re overwhelmed by your messy home

So, your house is a bit of a mess. Not only do you not have time to devote to a good cleaning, you may be overwhelmed at the thought of starting! While looking around at all the mess, you may think that nothing will make a difference because the mess is too great.

There are 5 main items that get scattered throughout to create chaos in your home. Learn to tackle these 5 cleaning tasks and you’ll find they can make a huge difference to the cleanliness level of your home!

Do the Dishes

Quick Cleaning trick #1 is to do the dishes! Dirty dishes seem to multiply quickly and can even gather in places they shouldn’t! It’s important to keep up with the dishes so the old food doesn’t attract fruit flies, ants or mold. So get going on those dirty dishes; I’m always amazed at the difference a clean counter can make in my home!

This is my all time favourite dish soap. Makes the chore more bearable. 😉

Dirty laundry and clothes

Quick Cleaning trick #2 is to pick up the dirty laundry and clothes piles. If clothes strewn about have taken over your home, it’s time to take care of this task. Getting all the clothes laundered and back into the closets and dressers will make your house look much cleaner. First of all, go from room to room with a laundry basket or two and gather up all the dirty laundry. Next of course, is to wash and dry all the laundry.  I find that if I don’t fold and put away the clean clothes right away, they’ll sit in the laundry basket, which quickly becomes a mess!

Gather the Garbage and Recycling

Quick Cleaning trick #3 is to gather the garbage and recycling! I think this is the easiest task because all you have to do is wander around your house and put all the garbage and recycling items into  bags and then take them to the trash can or recycling box. I find when I let recycling items pile up, our house can look messy very quickly. So once a week or so, I’ll wander around and pick up old newspapers, junk mail and empty cardboard boxes and put them away in the blue bin.

Toys

Quick Cleaning trick #4 is to pick up the toys.  This is the battle I’m fighting with right now. Toys seem to be all over the place all the time, making the floors seem very messy! If you have older children, make a game out of putting the toys away. Or, if you have the willpower or some time, why not declutter some of the unused toys to create more space?

Paper

Quick Cleaning trick #5 is to take care of the paper.  Between my husband and I, we can create quite the mess with our individual paper piles. Piles of paper drive me bananas, but I can’t seem to stay on top of the piles on a regular basis. Nevertheless, here are a couple of  things that help me stay organized:

  • Stack all the papers together.  While filing papers can take a long time, stacking them all together does not.  It’s better to have one pile over several piles!
  • About once a month or so, I go though the pile I created to file, shred and organize each paper.  Takes a bit of time, but I love the results and knowing I can easily find an important document.

Any of these quick cleaning tricks will give you relief from a messy house and help your house to appear cleaner, but don’t feel you have to do all 5 in the same day! Why not attempt one task a day?

I hope that these quick cleaning tricks will give you a starting point to help you keep things mess-free and organized!

What are your tips to help you achieve a cleaner home? Let us know in the comments below.

printable cleaning planner

Looking for an easy way to stay on top of cleaning especially as life gets busy? Check out this gorgeous HOME CLEANING PLANNER – with room by room checklists, daily + weekly task lists, and seasonal cleaning checklists to make sure it all gets DONE!