How to Start Cleaning When You Are Overwhelmed

Cleaning can feel impossible in a house full of clutter and mess. The more clutter and stuff there is, the larger the clean-up will be. Items littering surfaces, shelves, and floors collect dust and dirt and become unhygienic. Once a house is in a state where you feel overwhelmed at the prospect of cleaning it, it can be challenging to tackle. It’s no wonder most people just put it off! There’s always an excuse, work, family, or just that hopeless feeling. The good news is that starting is the hardest part. Once you start decluttering, tidying up, and cleaning, it can become addictive. Here’s how to go from feeling overwhelmed to getting excited about cleaning a cluttered home.  

Where To Begin When You’re Overwhelmed by Clutter and Mess

You may have tried and failed countless times to tackle the mess and clutter in your home—if it were that easy, then you would have done it years ago, right? It’s tough, so let’s start with the old mantra, “a place for everything and everything in its place.” The way to a clean and tidy home is to organize that mess and clutter. Separate items into two piles, put away or throw away. Most people tackle the problem in the wrong way and end up just moving clutter and mess around to try and free up space to clean. It is not the most effective strategy and will just lead to more mess. So, where should your cleaning plans begin in a house full of clutter and mess?

1. Hatch a Plan

Find a space in your home to keep items you want to sell or store in another room. Storage might be the garage or a spare room, and yes, you will make it worse before it gets better.

2. Categorize items

Keep space in your garage for items that will go in the trash if you can’t dispose of them immediately. There are plenty of junk removal companies that will come and take them away.

In the spare room, store items you want to keep pending storage units.

3. Take One Room at a Time

Choose the room which is the least bad or the one you can face and start there, one room at a time.

Let’s use the living room as an example. In reality, you only want the furniture, television, and a coffee table. Everything else needs to go.

Get rid of the junk and store DVDs, old VHS, toys, and books in a spare room while you source the suitable storage units and furniture for storing them out of sight. Even clean spaces can look cluttered with too many objects lying out in the open.

Cleaning up is not about throwing everything out into the trash but making sensible decisions about what you want to keep.

Anything you do keep must have a designated home so that you can put it away when not using it.

4. Deep Clean the Room

Steam clean the curtains, carpets, and furniture. More than likely, you neglected these tasks for a while because of the mess.

Don’t rush to put items back in the room. Get used to it tidy and free of clutter.

The likelihood is that after a few weeks, you won’t want to bring back nearly the same amount of stuff that was in there before. You will get used to the new look and prefer it.

Treat yourself to some retail therapy and buy shelves or cupboards to house what you want to keep. One great way to do this is to purchase storage pieces from a local thrift shop or reuse store. Purchasing second-hand can likely save you money and helps reduce waste from landfills.

Anything you don’t put back in the room, you can rehome, sell, donate, or junk. Then, you’re ready to tackle the next room.

 

What Are the Effects of Living in an Untidy House?

Living in an untidy house isn’t fun for you or your family. Here are some of the practical and psychological effects.

It Takes Longer to Clean an Untidy House

A room free of clutter and mess will be quick and easy to clean. We’re not talking deep cleaning or a spring clean—just a once over with a duster and the vacuum. It takes much longer to clean a messy room because you have to clear up first, by which point you have probably run out of time or lost interest.

Things Get Lost

Remember the mantra, “a place for everything and everything in its place”? Well, in an untidy house, items will just go missing. When there is no proper order and things do not have a designated location, it’s easy to set them down on any available surface. And for most of us, it’s easy to lose track of them, too, and forget where you put it!

Messy Houses Waste Time and Energy

Messy houses waste time because you can’t find things and because they take longer to clean. You just can’t clean the house regularly enough because of the clutter. Messy houses waste your emotional time and energy, too. All that clutter and junk are constant reminders of how much mess you have to clean. If you are preoccupied with work and life, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by how and when you will tackle it.

Untidy Houses Induce Feelings of Negativity and Anxiety

Lots of things in life create negative thoughts and anxious moments, but if you feel out of control of your home—your safe place, your retreat—there is nowhere to go to escape those daily life strains. There is a strong correlation between good mental wellbeing and a clean, ordered environment. Japanese Buddhism takes this a step further, but most people just understand that there is nothing better than coming home to a clean and tidy house.

Conclusion

Decluttering can decrease stress and improve mental health, and a tidy home is so much easier to clean and keep clean. Junk removal companies are an excellent way to kickstart the process and cover ground in a few hours that it might take you weeks or months to achieve. Ready for a clean and ordered house? Call Nixxit Junk Removal today!