8 Tips to Take your House from Messy to Manageable

How to Tidy your Messy House

Having a messy house can be extremely overwhelming. It can impact many different areas of your life. It can impact your physical and mental health, and can really make you feel uncomfortable in your own home. But, messes happen, and they happen quick. It doesn’t take long before the mess can feel like you’ve completely lost control and don’t know where to start.

It wasn’t long ago that I felt this way. My house always felt chaotic. I knew the basics of how to clean, but I didn’t know the simple tricks to keeping my home feeling manageable. Things would get out of control, and the next thing I knew I was power cleaning for an entire day just to get things back on track. And then the cycle would start over again.

Now, my home if far from spotless. I have three small kids after all. But, I have found simple things I can do throughout the week that keep things from getting too far out of control. Here are eight simple tips to take your home from messy to manageable.

Set a Timer

Have you ever wondered how long it actually takes to do some of your least favorite tasks? It takes approximately three minutes to unload my dishwasher. I hate unloading the dishwasher, but when I remind myself that it takes three minutes of my time, it feels so much more manageable. When you’re feeling overwhelmed with the amount of cleaning that needs to be done around the house, set a timer. Pick any amount of time. It could be 10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, or more. But set a timer and commit to cleaning for that amount of time. When the timer goes off, you can stop. Or, you can keep going. Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. Either way, setting a timer helps you recognize that you don’t have to do everything, you can do a little bit, and that’s still progress.

One Good Thing

There’s a creator on Tik Tok who has committed to do doing one good thing a day. These “one good things” are things that have been on her to do list and nag at her. They’re things she doesn’t necessarily want to do, but they need to be done. These don’t have to be huge tasks, they just need to be things you typically put off doing because something in your brain really wants to avoid them. These tasks will probably vary from person to person but it might be things like scheduling doctors appointments, dropping donations off at the thrift store, or making returns. If you can pick one good thing to cross off your list each day, your mental load will feel so much lighter, and you’ll start to eliminate some of the messiness from your house and your life.

Make Piles

This messy house tip is for when you really get into the nitty gritty of picking things up. When you’re cleaning a space, start making piles to help you delegate where things should go. I make piles every time I clean or organize. The easiest way of thinking about this is to group like items together. For example, when I’m helping the kids clean their room, I teach them to make groups of items to make the process easier. I have them put all their dirty clothes in a pile, all their books in a pile, all the toys in a pile, and everything that belongs in another room in a pile. Within minutes, they just have a few piles to clean up rather than an entire messy room.

I do this for myself as well. It helps keep me focused on one area rather than get distracted by other tasks. Have you ever been cleaning one room, went to throw something in the laundry room, remembered you need to put clothes in the dryer, emptied the lint trap, went to throw the lint away and noticed you need to take out the garbage… and so on and so on? It can be really easy to get distracted by other things that need to be done and by the end of it all, you haven’t fully completed a single task. Making piles helps you stay in one place and focus on one job.

Pretend you’re Moving

If you’re looking to declutter your messy house, I have a very simple tip for you. Pretend your moving. As you’re decluttering and organizing, ask yourself, “would I pack this and take it with me if I were moving?” We moved six months ago and it was such a huge eye opener for me when it came to the amount of STUFF we had. We had so many things we hadn’t used in years. We had many things that had accumulated over the years and didn’t really serve us anymore. I made sure to go through everything we owned and got rid of a lot. Even after we moved I continued to get rid of items as I was unpacking. My ultimate goal was for everything we owned to have a place where it belonged. I wanted everything to be easy to find and serve a purpose.

Habit Stack

If cleaning truly feels like a chore that you hate doing, try habit stacking. Pair specific tasks around the house with things that you actually do enjoy. I hate mopping the floors, but I love listening to my favorite podcast. So, every Friday, I pop my earbuds in and mop the floors while I listen. I don’t enjoy folding laundry, but I love trashy reality tv. So, I fold laundry and watch reality tv. Habit stacking can even be something as small as eating a piece of chocolate as you start to do the dishes. Essentially, you’re giving your brain a dopamine hit while you’re doing that chore you don’t love so much. Eventually, your brain starts to connect the chore with the dopamine, and before you know it, the chore feels like a whole lot less of a chore.

Assign a Day

Another way to make housekeeping more manageable is to assign a day to specific tasks. Have you ever found yourself wondering when the last time you washed the sheets was? If you take some of the bigger tasks and assign a day to them, it makes keeping the house tidy so much easier. It also helps to lighten your load and reminds you that everything doesn’t have to happen all at once. For example, I mop my floors every Friday. I help the kids clean their room and bathroom every Thursday. I clean the half bath every Wednesday. Realistically, these chores take about thirty minutes or less. Because we do them once a week, they never take too long to clean up.

One Load a Day

One of the most overwhelming tasks in any family is laundry. We have a family of five and for some reason, it seems like the kids are changing clothes three times a day. The piles of laundry are endless. But, I’ve found that if I commit to one load a day, the mountain of laundry never gets too out of control. One load a day includes washing, drying, folding, and putting away. There are plenty of days where a load doesn’t get done, but if I stick to this strategy more often than not, the laundry doesn’t seem to overwhelm me.

Nightly Reset

Have you ever woken up to a sink full of dirty dishes and last night’s dinner still sitting on the stove? It can instantly put you in a bad mood. This used to be my reality more often than not. We would be so exhausted after dinner that we’d leave the mess for the next day. But, ever since we moved, we’ve committed to doing a nightly reset. After dinner, one of us cleans the kitchen while the other bathes the kids. Again, this doesn’t take more than thirty minutes out of our day, but it has such a positive impact on my mornings.

If you’re looking for more tips and tricks to get your home organized and easier to manage, check out the Organized Home course. It teaches you how to implement different systems, provides assignments and challenges, and works through each section of your home. If you’re tired to feeling overwhelmed and disorganized in your own home, this course can really help you take control of your environment.