I’d honestly rather make goofy faces in the mirror or anything else than clean some days. Lately I have been procrastinating properly cleaning and tidying my room. Actually I have been doing it for months! My dresser has become a dumping ground for unfinished projects, kid stuff, over flowing into the floor with and laundry that never got put away likely mixing with dirty laundry. It’s gotten to the kind of mess I’d never let my mom see. If this kind of mess doesn’t describe you at all, feel free to browse the rest of my blog but this article isn’t for you. There’s no shame to be had here. We’re all trying to do our best.
Okay, I know you’re all busy moms out there, so let’s keep this simple. Tackling a huge mess, especially one you’ve been putting off like me, feels incredibly overwhelming. The key is to break it down into smaller, manageable steps. Some days it might not be possible to muster the motivation to tackle it, but once you’re ready and have had enough of it, I have four easy steps to get you started and better yet, finishing a project like this. Then hopefully, the next one won’t seem as daunting.
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Trash Trash is easy to see and will help your space look and feel better immediately. So before you start putting away anything, grab a trash bag and just start with that. Look for wrappers, old papers, broken items, and anything that is obviously trash. Clearing out the trash first gives an instant sense of progress and makes the next steps easier.
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Easy Stuff Next, pick up and put away things that don’t take much thought. These are items that have an established home somewhere else but, for whatever reason, aren’t there right now. Books, laundry, toys—take them to their respective homes before moving on, just in case you get distracted or something else pulls you away from the project until later. This way, you’re not starting from zero every time you come back to it. You’ll always have made progress with each completed trip.
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Donations Grab an old Amazon box or another bag for this. Chuck anything you never want to see again into your box or bag. This is also a time to be honest with yourself. If you haven’t used it in months or even forgot you had it (*raise hand emoji* SO guilty!), it’s probably time to let it go since it wasn’t blessing your life anyway. Plus, it’ll mean less to clean up in the future.
Sometimes I feel guilty donating unused gifts from people or things I bought with great intentions but never used. I think to myself, “I should sell this,” or “I should gift this to someone.” I set it aside with more great intentions to do just that. Then it sits, and sits, gathering dust. So just donate it. It’s so much faster and more efficient to get it out of your house. Freeing up the square footage in your home will soon show its value, plus you get to help those in need, which is always good.
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What to Do with Items That Don’t Have an Assigned Home If there’s anything left to put away at this point, it’s going to be stuff we need/want to keep but doesn’t really have an assigned spot in our home. For these items, I ask myself, “If I needed this item, where would I look for it?” That is where I take it and make its home. If it doesn’t fit there, I have to make a trade and donate something since every container, whether it be a cupboard or bookshelf, only has so many square inches to use.
If the answer to my question is that I wouldn’t have looked for it because I’d forgotten I had it, I’m safe to donate it. I don’t bother finding a home for these things because I won’t realize it’s there in the future and would have again, gone without or bought myself a new one. So I let other higher-priority things take residence in my space.
There you have it. These are the things I take into consideration when cleaning and organizing my space to help me tackle it despite overwhelming feelings. Breaking down a huge mess into smaller steps and tackling them one by one was game-changing for me, and I hope they help you too.
For more tips and tricks for ADHD moms, feel free to explore my blog. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook where you can find my two part reel of me tidying my room, and join my Facebook group Distractible Moms for further support. Let’s tackle this together and make our lives a little less chaotic!