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Okay, raise your hand if this is you.
You normally keep a pretty neat and tidy house but the last week has been insane.
Your kids had soccer practice, then there was a dance recital, and then the car needed the oil changed. There were just so many things that you had going on this week and it was just such crazy week.
Sound familiar to anyone else?
Because I have totally had weeks like this. Weeks where I have been gone every single day, and ya’ll, I don’t like to be gone every single day. I like to stay home, in my house.
Or maybe you’re just starting on this whole adventure into organizing and tidying and trying to keep a clean house. You’re trying so hard but you have no idea where to start and you’re just so incredibly overwhelmed.
Whatever the case may be, it seems like life is just trying to kick you in the teeth. Your to do list is longer than the hours in your day and as a result all you really want to do is curl up on the couch with a big blanket, a cup of hot chocolate, and watch some Netflix.
Hey, no judgement here!
I have totally spent plenty of time on my own Netflix binges. Here’s the thing though. What I’ve noticed is that if I don’t do the bare minimum of tidying, even when I don’t want to, I can’t actually relax and enjoy the down time that I so desperately need. But when you’re so overwhelmed and you’re so desperate for a break, how do you manage to grit your teeth and get stuff done?
These are my top five tips for how to get stuff done when you’re overwhelmed, when you’re depressed, or when you’re insanely busy and all you want to do is take a nap or read a book or watch some Netflix.
1. Make a list
The very first thing you should do when you’re feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work that you have to do is to actually sit down and make a list.
Really, this is just a brain dump. You’re going to write down every single thing that you need to do.
All of the thoughts that have been swimming around in your head all day long get written down. Just get it all out on paper.
Honestly, this is not the most fun step of this process because you’re probably going to look at this huge list of things that you need to do and it’s going to feel really overwhelming.
That’s okay!
That means that you did this step right. Now, instead of having all these ideas percolating in your head they’re written down on paper where you can see them and prioritize them.
2. Prioritize
So you made your list, now you’re going to prioritize it.
Pick the top two or three things that matter the very most to you. These aren’t the things that you should do or the things that everyone else thinks are important. These are the things that are actually important to you.
For example, my biggest priority is having a tidy kitchen. If I have a tidy kitchen I can fix dinner easily, I can make a snack, or do some other self-care things. This helps me feel better and get my motivation back quicker.
So, even if I’m not feeling motivated to clean, I will make sure that my kitchen is tidy, the dishes are in the dishwasher and the counters are wiped.
And I do this before I go sit down because it’s one of those things that’s just going to make me feel better. Also, once it’s done it won’t be bugging me.
Maybe your thing isn’t the kitchen, maybe your thing is having your living room picked up or all of the laundry has to be folded. Whatever your thing is, that is the thing that you should be making sure that you get done before you have the rest of your lazy day.
The other important thing to remember when you’re prioritizing your list is that, on those days when you have no motivation, it’s okay to just do the bare minimum of what has to be done.
On that same note, it’s really important is that you do the things that are also going to have the biggest effect on the overall tidiness of your house.
So these are things like picking up the toys in the living room or wiping up the mud in the entryway. They are things when they’re done your house instantly feels a million times better and a million times tidier.
These are not the things like dusting the top of your kitchen cupboards that you can’t see anyways. Do those on a day when you’re not feeling crummy.
3. Work for five minutes
It’s amazing what you can get done in five minutes.
Five minutes is enough time to wipe down all the surfaces in your bathroom. Five minutes is enough time to tidy up the toys on the floor in your living room.
This is my favorite thing to do on days when I am overwhelmed. I pick a task and I literally set a timer on my phone for five minutes. And all I do for that five minutes is that one task.
When that five minutes is up, I’m done.
If you take your top two or three tasks and hit them hard for five minutes, you will be shocked at how much better your home looks with just ten to fifteen minutes of focused work.
4. Progress not perfection
Don’t be a perfectionist.
Sometimes good enough is actually good enough.
I know you can probably hear your mom in your ear telling you not to miss any spots. Don’t listen to her.
There is this really unfortunate idea that being a perfectionist is a good thing. It’s not. Being a perfectionist is crippling, it’s something that will keep you from completing projects or from being willing to put yourself out there and actually try something new. Because you’re so obsessed with making sure that everything is perfect, you can be paralyzed by fear of failure.
I know it’s really hard when you just want your house to be clean and you just want it to be perfect but you have no motivation to do anything. When you’re in those types of moods all you really need is to do the bare minimum.
Yeah, the bathroom needs to be cleaned but when you don’t have the motivation to do a perfect job it’s okay to take a Clorox wipe and wipe down all the surfaces and call it good for the day.
There are times when you’re feeling overwhelmed with cleaning, you are overwhelmed with your house or maybe you’re depressed and you just don’t want to do it or you physically can’t force yourself to do it.
These are not the times to get sucked into the nitty-gritty details of cleaning. This is when you take advantage of every time saving, effort saving hack that you’ve ever learned when it comes to cleaning.
These are the times when you do a five-minute pick up of all the toys in your living room or when you just load the dishes in the dishwasher and wipe down the counters and call the kitchen good. Or maybe you just get the laundry pushed through the washer and dryer and you fold it while you’re watching Netflix, which in my opinion is the only way to fold laundry.
My point is, that when you’re feeling overwhelmed is not the time to get a toothbrush and start cleaning your baseboards. This is the time when you need to just do the things that need to be done to keep your house from becoming a disaster. That’s it, there is no reason to try and get through an incredibly ambitious cleaning schedule on a day that you’re crazy overwhelmed.
5. Give yourself grace
The final tip that I can give you when it comes to keeping a tidy house on days when you’re depressed and you’re really down or when you’re really overwhelmed, is to give yourself grace.
This is something that I think we are often so generous with when it comes to others but not ourselves. It’s so easy for us to hold ourselves to this impossibly high standard. We think, especially as moms, that we have to keep a perfect house and always have a healthy dinner on the table and get our kids in all of the best activities and dressed in cute outfits and that we have to do all the things perfectly.
Well guess what, you’re not super mom and neither am I.
We are going to have days where we just can’t do it all and we’re going to have weeks where we just can’t do it all.
And that’s okay. It’s okay to let some things go.
There’s a sign that I’ve seen that says ‘don’t mind the messy house my kids are making memories’, and there are days and seasons of our lives where that’s true.
I like to keep a clean, tidy, and organized house. I think it helps me function better. It helps me to be able to cook for my family easily and it helps me to be able to relax in my home and be comfortable. But if you think my house is always perfect you are sooo mistaken.
Even the people who seem like they have it all together, or who seem to have it all figured out, have days or weeks where there’s toys in the living room and there’s dust on the shelves and it’s okay. It’s normal to have your house get messy. It’s not going to look like a magazine home all the time, especially with little kids. And it’s also normal to get overwhelmed and frustrated with it. Just give yourself grace and know that this hard season will pass.
By choosing to tidy the most important things, and giving yourself grace on the rest you will be able to keep your house tidy enough, even on the hard days.
What are your favorite tips for cleaning when you’re overwhelmed and don’t want to do it? Comment and share below!
