Where to Start Cleaning your House – When you’re Overwhelmed with Mess

It’s finally spring, which means Spring Cleaning! 

If I’m being honest, I have a love hate relationship with cleaning.  On one hand I love a clean house (I mean who doesn’t, right?!) but I also find if the house goes a few days off of my “schedule” I feel the overwhelm of “where do I start cleaning” set in.

Anyone else? 

After both of my kids were born, I struggled with keeping a schedule to clean the house.  Which resulted in an overwhelming mess for me many times.  I’m all for leaving the dishes in the sink so you can play with your kids because they are only little once, don’t get me wrong, but eventually those dishes do need to get clean.  

If you sat there and thought to yourself, that’s me! Then this post is for you.  

How to Clean When You Don’t Even Know Where to Start Cleaning

First things first, here are some things to keep in mind when jumping into the overwhelm. 

1.Small Steps in the Right Direction

2. Don’t expect to get everything done in one day, because you won’t.  

That’s why that overwhelming feeling makes it feel like you don’t even know where to start.    Start with small steps towards your goal.  

3. Take it One Day at A Time 

When you decide to start, take those small steps one day at a time.  That goes back to the expectation of not getting everything done in one day.  If you break down tasks each day you will work towards your goal of cleaning the house and clearing out that overwhelming feeling.  

4. Keep it up

Not going to lie, this is truly the hard part in my opinion.  I have two kids at home and I swear things only stay clean for about point two seconds at times, but this really is where the overwhelm starts to disappear.  If you take it in small steps one day at a time it allows you to adjust to keeping up what you did the days prior and get yourself into a habit of not letting it get too far out of hand.  

I’m far from perfect and trust me there are still plenty of times I let my house get out of hand, I just keep reminding myself to continue to take it one day at a time.  

Point being,  I feel you, I’ve been there.  You’re in the middle of the chaos of life, the house has gotten out of hand, and the thought of even starting to clean can seem daunting, let alone figuring out the plan of where to start.  You just want someone to tell you what the plan is! 

Well, Here you go! 

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Step 1: Start with the Kitchen!

When I finally got my butt into gear I started with the kitchen.  The first day I focused on getting the Kitchen tidy.  NOT deep cleaned (that will be a different post!) I focused on just getting it tidy.  Kitchens can really be quite a task when it comes to cleaning and keeping it up, so break it down into smaller tasks and focus on finishing those tasks one at a time.  

More specifically, Start With the Dishes and Sink.  

Start with the dishes, load them into the dishwasher and start it if it’s full.  Now clean out the sink and do a deep clean of the sink and wipe down the faucet.  I have a white sink and my favorite thing to use to get some of those deep-set stains out is this!

Clear off the counters

Next focus on clearing off the clutter from the counters.  I try to keep very little visible on my counter.  Basically if it needs to be there it is, if it doesn’t need to be there, it isn’t.  The only exception I have is a row of jars filled with herbs that I personally grew from my garden.  They don’t necessarily NEED to be on the counter but they do look pretty on it. 

Once the clutter is cleared, wipe off the counters.  My favorite disinfectant is this one! It can be made at home and is safe for little kids and pets.  

If your table is in this room then clear off and wipe down your table.

Step 2: Tidy up Living Room

This can either be a really easy task or a really hard one depending on if you have kids with toys in this room.  I personally have two of this toy cubby with these storage cubes.  That’s because my kids need toys to play with but I don’t need to have them thrown about the room.  

Vacuum.  I typically vacuum the entire floor I’m working on once the vacuum comes out, but you can focus on just this room so that it looks complete.  I don’t like winding up the vacuum cord more than I need too, so I try to just do it all at once.  

Step 3: Mud Room and/or Entry Way

My Mudroom is my catch all.  Coats get thrown down, shoes, backpacks, toys, dog bowls, all end up thrown about it.  Look at your Mudroom, and organize it! Once everything is in its place it can be kept up much easier.  

Hang the coats up, put the shoes away, put the backpacks where they are supposed to go.  If you have a bench wipe it down and sweep the floors. 

Step 4:  Bedrooms

This one can be tricky and totally dependent on how many Bedrooms you have.  I would recomend to take one day per bedroom (epically the kids room, those get so messy so fast).  Otherwise it will be VERY easy to feel the overwhelm set in and that’s exactly what we are trying to avoid.   

So choose one bedroom a day and focus on that.

Start by making your bed.  Then tidy up dressers and wipe them down.  Take your laundry out of the room and get a load of laundry going.  Finally vacuum the room.  

The next day work on the next room until all the bedrooms in your house are tidy.  Remember this is not a DEEP clean of the house, this is just where to start to get the mess tidied up.  

Step 5: Bathrooms

The bathrooms will be a bit more of a “deep” clean, because, well, it’s a bathroom.  

Start by clearing off your counter and putting everything away.  Wipe off your counter and sink and clean the mirrors.  Then obviously you will need to clean the toilet and I would deep clean it! I’m talking scrub the bowl and wash the outside, the whole nine yards.

Get. It. Clean.   

Finally, sweep and mop if needed.  

Step 6: Closets

This is one that again may take a couple days to accomplish.  My daughter has this horrible habit of trying on nearly every article of clothing she owns in a fashion-show-like way and then leaving it all on the ground (something we’re working on correcting with her).  

Start by gathering all the laundry, and get loads of laundry going while you work on the closets, because lets be real – laundry is a never-ending battle.  

More importantly, Laundry takes time to wash and dry so you might as well do this simple multi-task.  Once the load is dry, start a clean pile to move it to while the next load is going.  I wouldn’t start folding right away, because you will want to make sure the closet is under control before you get all the laundry put away.  This will save you from doing it twice.  

While the laundry is going, take any clean clothes that may be on the floor or out of place and put them on your bed.  Fold and then put them back in their spot.  

Straighten up any piles and hangers already in the closet and finally vacuum.

Next get that pile of clean laundry and start folding and putting it away into the newly tidied up closet.  

Step 7: Tidy up the Playroom 

My kids have their own playroom and it can get messy VERY quickly.  Put any out of place toys away.  Wipe down any tables or surfaces (we have a bookcase and these Storage Bins in our playroom).

Finally vacuum. 

Step 8: Tidy up the at-home office 

This one can be made difficult depending on if you let your filing go.  

I would start by filing any papers you have sitting around.  

Then take everything off of the desk and wipe it down.  Only put back things you need on the desk, if there are random little things of clutter put them away or find a space for them if you don’t currently have one.  

Finally Vacuum.

Step 9:  Clean the Laundry Room

I’m a unique situation because my laundry room is actually in my closet.  I planned it that way when we built our house so it would be easier to put clothes away.  However, I do know that many people have separate laundry rooms.  This is the time to clean it.  

Clear off any counters and wipe them down.  

Move laundry around while you’re in the room cleaning.  

If you have a sink wash the sink out.  

Put away any detergent that may be sitting out (this one is my personal favorite because it lasts so long!). Finally, either sweep or vacuum.  

Step 10:  Keep it up!

Now comes the hard part! Keeping it up! 

There are some BIG rooms that I didn’t mention but it totally depends on the layout of your house.  Like a basement, you may have rooms/bathrooms in it or it may be a giant storage space.  Just break it down into smaller tasks and work on completely finishing one task at a time.  

Hopefully that helps you tackle the house when it gets so out of hand you don’t even know where to start cleaning!