How do I get motivated about housework?

Thank you for asking thus question, as I am also domestically challenged!

“Having a cluttered house stresses me out and makes me feel terrible about myself.”
That sounds like pretty good motivation to me!

Something that I’ve found to work is having guests over often. You have to clean the place up for them, so it’s no longer “cleaning for the sake of cleaning.”

Have you ever tried to add variety to your housework? You know, blast music from the stereos and dance and sing along while folding the clothes and sweeping the floors (even air-guitaring your broom at the occasional guitar riff)? Make housekeeping your chance at really letting yourself loose?

Also, how about giving yourself a prize system? For example, promise yourself that if you manage to clean up the house by, say, 5 pm, you’ll allow yourself the luxury of going out to get an ice cream.

As a variation to the rewards system, maybe you could even get friends suffering from the same problems to motivate you and each other. You guys can make an agreement to clean up the house and if you’ve all done so, you all will go out at the end of the month for an all-girls night out. Every daily failure per person will result in a possible option being struck out from the list (obviously starting with favourites, like that gorgeous restaurant you’ve always wanted to have an excuse to go to, to act as a serious disincentive). This can work with your husband too, if you find that your friends aren’t able to do this.

The key is to make it fun (if not fun, then at least ultimately rewarding) so that you have a nice strong incentive to go and do it. This can apply to any other thing, such as work. I think it’s best to hold yourself accountable to another person too, and only if that other person doesn’t mind checking up on you like a parent (and risk feeling naggy too).

Throw a party. Invite all of fluther!

I HATE cleaning but as I live on my own I am the only one who is going to do it and living with two dogs I need to keep on top of it.

The only way I can get motivated is if I have some uplifting music on. Usually, when I am cleaning, I listen to Anastacia :D

1— break down the chores, prefarably room by room
2— estimate how long each will take – this is key, and will help you see it takes a lot less time to do most chores than all the time we spend procrastinating
3— gather up all the cleaning supplies/tools, and set up at strategic/central locations
4— crank up some tunage
5— make a quick sweep, picking up odds and ends, items on floor
6— tackle 1 room at a time, take breaks as needed
7— stick to the plan, don’t get distracted
8— when you’re done, treat yourself and bask in your organized, clean home

@Supacase Having spent the last five years as a stay-at-home mom, I’ve given this subject a lot of thought. I, too, hate housework. I hate that the laundry is never done, the kitchen needs constant attention to stay clean, and that while I am busy getting one room completely spotless, my kids are busy messing up another room. My solution is very simple—I keep the bathrooms and the kitchen clean, because those rooms have to stay clean for health reasons. We all need clean clothes, so I make sure the clothes make it to the washer and dryer. They may not get folded and put away, but at least everyone always has clean things. My kids do put their own clean laundry away when I do fold it, so that makes things a bit easier.

I swear, the rest of the house only gets a good cleaning when we’re expecting company. Maybe if you invite people over more often, that will motivate you! I have good motivation today, with my husband coming home from a month-long out-of-town job. He won’t be mad if the house is messy, since I’ve been on my own for so long, but I want him to walk into a nice home and relax. So, while my son is at preschool today I’ll be running around dealing with clutter, dusting, doing laundry, and all those other things I hate. I’d get a lot more done if there weren’t so many books to read and places like Fluther to visit!

Coffee. Lots of coffee.

I find my motivation for housework in a different place than most people, I think. I find satisfaction in being organized and in using the best products and techniques.

I use the 80/20 rule. You can make 80% of the progress in 20% of the time (do those things frequently). Then, there are the jobs that make little progress, but take the other 80% of the time (do those infrequently).

I time how long it takes to do things. Empty the diswasher, 4 mins. Vacuum the family room, 8 minutes.

When I find myself lacking motivation, I think, “It’s only 8 minutes. I can do that.”

I am constantly reading articles and web sites on cleaning tricks and tips. I have books on the right solutions to take out stains.

So, for me, the motivation isn’t in doing the repetitious, boring job, or in having a clean kitchen. The motivation and satisfaction come from doing it better and faster.

So how do you wash windows? I have a house that is half glass; every technique I try leaves streaks.

As for the rest, I have an orgy of cleaning and tidying just before my cleaning couple comes. Works for me. And I do enough in the kitchen to keep the ants away.

@gailcalled ~ have you ever tried newspapers to clean your glass windows? Admittedly this method works best on the interior, but it does an amazing job on glass and mirrors. Basically, you equip your hands with some good latex gloves, wet down a sheet of newspaper and wipe down the glass. Then you wad up a dry sheet of newspaper and dry off the water. No streaks, squeaky shiny clean.

What’s the cleaning material? Just water? I use only vinegar and water, not wanting to breath the spray from commercial products.

Not sure, something about the ink I guess. Learned it from my Mom, she’s pretty old-school.

Use the newspapers after the squegie to polish

To answer the question; I was the absolute worst. Finally the guilt of seeing my husband work his ass off all day, then come home and clean house because he couldn’t stand it got to me. Now I make sure that I do a mad dash to pick up the clutter, do the dishes, and clean off the counters every day before he gets home.
My house is not emaculate, and I do pay someone to come in and do the dusting and heavy cleaning, but keeping the house clutter free was a big step for me.
I would suggest you break it down and set some more realistic goals. How about something like, I won’t watch tv or get on the internet until last nights dinner dishes are done.

Go to the BBC channel & watch ‘how clean is your house’. Believe me, THAT’LL make you want to clean!!!

Watch that new show “Hoarders”! Worked for me!

Oh, yeah, that’s a good one, too. It’s fascinating to me how some people live.

@BBSDTfamily OMG, I saw that! My husband came in the room and made me change it because it disgusted him so. I told him it should make him appreciate me more. LOL I’m moderately cluttery, but beyond dust and laundry there is nothing dirty in my house like dirty dishes or trash laying around. Or, for the love of god, dead cats!

Thank you for all of the ideas. @barumonkey the way it makes me feel actually seems to be counterproductive. I get overwhelmed and just walk away.

The reward doesn’t work for me because I will eventually give in and just give myself whatever it was. Maybe if I tell myself I will get a reward TBD after the task has been completed.

Some things are just get off your ass and get it done things and I suppose this is one of them for me. Self-discipline is not one of my strong points.

@Supacase: No dead cats, of course, but what about the dead mice I stumble upon?

@Supacase Start with doing just one room at a time. Don’t try to do too many at once.

Don’t treat housework as a monolithic chore. Commit to spending 15 minutes a day cleaning things. Then get yourself a stopwatch and hold yourself to it. The only rule is, for those 15 minutes a day, you must be doing some productive housework. It doesn’t matter what—you can dust, vacuum, do laundry, empty the dishwasher, sweep the floors, polish the porcelain, whatever, as long as it’s something that legitimately needs to be done. And then, when those 15 minutes are done, you’re done with housework for the day. If you feel like continuing, you can, but once you’ve put in your 15 minutes, you can walk away from housework guilt-free.

If your house is already in a disgraceful state, up it to half an hour until it’s in a less disgraceful state. Or if you have kids, a lot of pets, or other residents of the house who put a lot of effort into making it messy.

THC

Then there’s always the gospel according to Dory: , “Just keep swimming, swimming swimming…...”

1. Own less stuff—get rid of the tchotchkes and the “I might need this one day” things
2. Assign everything a “home” that it goes to at night 15 – 30 minutes at night putting things away
3. Clean the bathroom while you’re in it for other reasons. Clean the sink immediately after brushing your teeth, clean the toilet while waiting for the shower to warm up. clean the shower right after getting out of it.
4. Invite people over on a regular basis.

1 and 2 are really key.

I used to try to clean house on weekends, since I worked Mon.-Fri. That was awful; it made weekends even less fun than weekdays! Now I break it up into a few tasks each week day. For example, I do laundry on Monday, clean the bathroom on Tuesday, etc. This is in addition to the daily cooking and dish washing duties, of course. I no longer have a cushy, predictable Mon.-Fri. schedule, but even when I work on the weekend, I know that I don’t have to do much housework on Saturday and Sunday, which is nice, if only psychologically..

Also, I highly recommend FlyLady: http://www.flylady.net/
It’s free, it’s humane, it’s practical, and it works.

I find that music helps me, something I can dance to, something upbeat. I turn it up loud enough to be heard throughout the house and then I dive into. Trust me, I hate cleaning. I literally pout at the thought of washing clothes, cleaning dishes, etc. I can’t clean without music, somehow it motivates me to just get up and do it already.

Also, it helps to turn the computer OFF. I tend to procrastinate on the computer a lot when I know I should be cleaning.

Define rewards you get when the work is done.