How do you get the motivation to clean?

Walk outside and then walk back in looking with your friend’s eyes.

Put yourself in their shoes. How would you feel about staying (sleeping/showering) in a dirty place?

For me, I’d be embarrassed if friend’s came to stay and my place wasn’t clean.

I wouldn’t call it dirty. Just messy: clothes that haven’t been put away, dvds laying around the tv, a couple dishes in the sink, etc.

Think of how good it will feel to present your friend with a clean, comfortable, inviting home.

@snowyowl_ecs That won’t take you all that long. Just do it. You’ll feel better about it once it’s done.

I have little kids
they’re my motivation
otherwise, I’d live in garbage and poopie

@snowyowl_ecs: Wash the dishes and clean up the kitchen. Throw clothes under your bed and sweep all DVDs into a shoe box.

The brief period of time you spend cleaning is worth not having to make excuses to your guests as to why you didn’t make time to clean up for them.

In the 28 minutes this question has been up, you could have cleaned, polished, washed and ironed the curtains and reupholstered the sofa..

Cleaning now is much better than doing “the flight of the bumble bee” hours before they arrive, putting dishes in the stove and clutter in the shower. From someone who has shared your pain

Music. Put on your favorite tunes and rock out with your broom out.

I was going to say invite someone over, but it seems that does not work for you.

When I don’t have time to hire a housecleaner to come over, I just through the clutter all into boxes and put them in the corner with a table cloth, then top it with a fake plant or stuffed toy.

Work in categories. Put all the clothes in a laundry basket, and if you have to take it to a laundrymat to do it, put the basket in the trunk of your car. Pick up everything that should go into the trash or recycle box. Clean the kitchen, clean the fridge. Clean the bathroom after you take your shower tomorrow morning. Put away CDs/DVDs while watching TV. it is possible to multitask in front of the tv set Tomorrow night, vacuum and wash the kitchen floor. Get plug in room freshener. Done! When you walk out the door monday morning, take a look at the room, and straighten up cushions, etc.

I have to do cleaning bit by bit. If I have let the kitchen get into a state, and then decide to clean it all at once, I get annoyed at the cleaning I have to do, and I get annoyed at myself for waiting so long, and I look for any excuse to quit.

On the other hand, if I say, “I’m going to empty the dishwasher before I go to work,” it takes all of five minutes. Or if I say “I’m going to fill the dishwasher while I’m waiting for the teakettle to boil,” it doesn’t feel like I’m doing anything. Or I decide to clean off the counter, and that takes 5 minutes, and makes enough of a difference in the kitchen that I’m pleased with it and do something else to clean.

Of course, every Tuesday night is game night here, so people are over, so the public places never get that bad.

Also, I don’t invite people into my home that are so snooty that they wouldn’t forgive clothing laying around

I think of the end result..sitting in a nice clean, organized place, spending the rest of the day relaxing, proud of how clean my house is now. I remind my kids of that good feeling and how I will not be happy if it gets back to the plight it was in..they laugh..but sort of listen, subliminally to my tired comical tirade.

I am really bad about this. I prefer to ‘putter’, doing a little of this, a little of that. Sometimes though, that just isn’t enough. Then it’s time to open every shade, turn on every light, and crank some tunes. That’ll get my energy up enough to clean for a good chunk of time. Good luck!

I hate cleaning, I hate almost all dometic endeavors but cleaning is the worst. Usually I just let it go until I can’t stand it anymore and then have the cleaners come in. But in fact I think I do a better job than they do and believe me, that isn’t saying much.

So whatever it is that motivates, I wish I had some too! I always thought it would be good to have a partner who is a Felix but alas I always end up with an Oscar type!

I invite my friend Debi over. She cleans without noticing she’s doing it. Sometimes she shows up with her power washer. She owns her own power washer. You know? For
reaming the mildew off your deck, and the paint at the same time? She refers to her
enjoyment of cleaning as “sports cleaning”. She loves it. I love her.

My mother used to say, “put it away once, or put it away twice.” The revelation that it took only a little more effort to hang clothes up or put them into the hamper as it did to drop them on the floor was mind-boggling. Think of it—if you put them where they belong right away, you never, ever have to pick them up. It saves so much time.

I put as much laundry as I can right on hangers as it comes out of the dryer. Everything goes right into the closet.

Another trick is to have a regular cleaning person; during the hour before she comes, I go on a rampage and tidy up everything so she can clean. Then when she leaves, I do the bits she missed.

Right now I am cleaning the refrigerator; one shelf per day. That is also the method I use for windows. One window per week is also a workable system.

@susanc, will you rent out your friend Debi? I could use her native brilliance right about now.

Now I am curious as to whether they went ahead and cleaned up or not. :)

@jeruba, I’ve tried pimping for Debi before but she has to feel like it. (She always feels like it over here.)

When my son got his first girlfriend I couldn’t believe my eyes how clean his room suddenly became.