You don’t know what happened but the living room is strewn with toys, the kitchen counter is covered in dirty dishes and you have piles of paper everywhere. You feel totally overwhelmed and don’t even know where to start.
Despite our best efforts, the house often gets out of hand. When that happens there are a few things I like to do to reset and get the house back on track.
Focus on the areas that give you the most bang for your buck. I concentrate my efforts on the kitchen and living room because they’re the areas that we use the most and spend the most time in.
1. Enlist help
I’m gonna bet that you had some help getting the house to this overwhelming state. Get those lovely people in your house who helped make the mess, help clean it up!
2. Music
Let’s be honest, cleaning and tidying isn’t the most fun job in the world. But we can make it a little more enjoyable with some upbeat music. I have a station on Pandora that I’ve deemed “Ultimate Awesomeness” that I’ve carefully curated to play all my favorite artists.
If you’ve enlisted help then blast the music and turn it into a cleaning dance party.
If you’re cleaning solo or while kids are sleeping, then pop in some earbuds and listen to a podcast, audiobook or your favorite pump-up music.
3. The Living Room
Collect and put away everything that doesn’t belong in the living room.
Living rooms seem to collect things from all the other areas of the house. Start making piles by location of where the items should go- a pile for each bedroom, the kitchen, the toy bins, the toolbox, etc.
Then deliver the piles to their respective destinations.
It’s looking better already!
If you have a robot vacuum, start it running so you can have clean floors when you’re all done!
4. The Kitchen
If you have a bunch of dirty dishes with food caked on, fill one side of your sink with hot, soapy water and dump all the dishes in.
While they’re soaking for a few minutes, spray and wipe down all the counters. You can also give your microwave a quick wipe down if you’re feeling inspired.
Okay, now your counters are sparkling and your soaking dishes should be ready to clean.
If your dishwasher is full of clean dishes, unload the washer. If it’s full of dirty dishes then run it!
Wash, dry and put away all the dishes that were soaking, or add them to your dishwasher.
If my dishwasher is running and I have more dirty dishes to add, I’ll rinse them off and stack them nicely by the sink, so they’re ready to be popped into the dishwasher after I unload it.
5. Papers
If you’re anything like me, piles of papers start magically appearing on your counters and tables. Despite my best efforts to create a system, I still seem to have piles of papers everywhere.
Gather all your papers into one area. Sort them into 4 piles: throw away, file, coupons, and action needed.
Throw-away
This pile is pretty self-explanatory and should be easy to determine, any junk mail, expired coupons, old invitations, all that jazz.
File
These are bills, receipts, Doctors’ notes, warranty information, etc. I used to keep all these things filed in a bankers’ box with manila folders, but now I scan them into Google Drive and junk them!
It’s fast, saves space and I can access the papers from anywhere on my phone.
Coupon
Have a designated area where you keep coupons so you don’t forget to use them. Clipped to the fridge or in a designated spot on the kitchen counter are my places of choice.
Action Needed
These are bills that need to be paid, invites you need to RSVP to, warranties you need to submit. Take a few minutes and bust all these out!
Most things can be taken care of online these days, so sit down at the computer and get them done! Then either file, scan or trash the papers.
6. Assess
Okay, how are you feeling now? A little better? Your living room is tidy, the kitchen is sparkling and all your paper piles are gone! And if you have a robot vacuum, your floors are clean too!
Not too shabby for a short whirlwind cleaning session!
Now that you’ve mitigated the situation, think about anything you can do differently to prevent things from getting out of control again.
Maybe you decide you’re going to run the dishwasher every night and unload it every morning so you start the day with an empty dishwasher and don’t get dirty dishes piled in the sink.
Maybe you decide to do a 5 min tidy of the living room every night so you can at least start the day with it tidy.
Maybe you decide to get an inbox next to your computer to gather your paper piles.
Keep making tweaks every time you find yourself having to reset, and pretty soon your resets will get fewer and far between.
There’s something about having a tidy house that’s empowering and stabilizing. You feel calm and collected, better able to handle what life throws at you. I can handle life better when my house feels under control.
Does your house need a reset today? Gather the troops, put on some fun music, divide and conquer! You got this!