Cleaning Habits for Messy People

Last Spring, I wrote a post titled 5 Daily Habits For a Clean and Tidy Home. Recently, I had a conversation with someone who told me those habits won't work for them, because they are a naturally messy person. I think that's just an excuse. If you are a naturally messy or disorganized person, maybe your house will never be ready for a Good Housekeeping photo shoot, but I bet you can learn to adopt these habits and have a cleaner and tidier home. In fact, if you are a naturally messy person or struggle with keeping your home picked up due to something like ADHD, I would suggest the ONLY way you can learn to keep your home tidy is to create new habits and systems to follow.

Naturally messy and disorganized people sometimes think they are unfazed by a cluttered space. Spoiler alert - if you are one of those people who think you aren't affected by a cluttered space, there are study after study that prove you are wrong. You might not realize you're affected, but your brain is picking up on the mess, and it is causing stress and anxiety in your body.

So, how does a naturally messy person learn to decrease their stress levels by keeping their space picked up?

We learn new habits and create new systems, like the habits I mentioned in my previous blog.

Watch Me Talk About It

How to Create New Habits?

• Habit stack - pair the new habit with something you already do.

• Set a timer to remind you.

• Make a couple of non-negotiable house rules and stick to them.

The 5 Basic House Rules I Recommend to Start

1. Make your bed every day. Please don't argue that it's a waste of time because you are going to mess it back up in the evening. Every time you walk into your bedroom and see an unmade bed, you are causing your brain stress. Making your bed is a fast and easy win, first thing in the morning. In about a minute, you reduce the visual clutter, and when you go to bed in the evening, you crawl into a tidy space.

   
   

2. Make dishes and kitchen clean-up part of the meal. This is just a rule you need to incorporate. Make it non-negotiable. Prep your meal, eat your meal, then clean up from the meal. No more going off to do something else first. If you let dishes sit, they get harder to clean. You let a mountain of dishes build up, and it becomes an overwhelming task. Even a big meal can usually be cleaned up in under 15 minutes, especially if you can enlist some help.

   
   

3. Schedule a few resets into your day to stay on top of things. My favorite is a quick pick-up before bed. Simply walk around your main living space and put away things that you left out. This could be the glass you were drinking out of, the book you were reading, the remote, your laptop, or your throw blanket. 5 minutes make a huge difference. Also, think of transition times as an opportunity to reset. For example, when you come home from grocery shopping, reset by putting away the groceries. Dishwasher reset - run the dishwasher at night and do a 5-minute dishwasher reset in the morning (aka put the dishes away so the dishwasher is ready to receive dirty dishes).

   
   

4. Don't just set it down, put it away. We've all heard this one, but that is because it makes a big difference If you walk through your day just setting things down to take care of them later, at some point you end up with an hour of picking up to do. If you do each item at the time, you save yourself from a future headache. You can even batch items, if that helps (ex., put things that need to go upstairs on the stairs and then actually take them up when you go). Most things take 10-20 seconds to put away, so just do it now.

   
   

5. Clean on the fly - you don't have to dedicate a huge chunk of time to actual cleaning. Wipe out the bathroom sink while you brush your teeth or dust off the coffee table when you sit down to watch TV. Clean during wait times (sweep the floor while something is baking). Mop the floor before you leave the house, so you aren't stuck waiting for the floor to dry. Clean the shower while you're IN it (now you don't have to worry about getting a sleeve wet). When you can pair a short cleaning task with something else, it helps you keep the dirt somewhat in check.

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