How to Motivate Yourself to Clean

Sophie Spyrou

Some people love to clean so much that they will devote hours each day to scrubbing the floors, cleaning sinks and taking care of other household chores. But many of us struggle to find the motivation to pull out the feather duster and will only reluctantly start cleaning when dirt and grime is visible or when company is expected. If you find it difficult to motivate yourself to clean, what can you do to get in the mood to take care of household chores?

Don't Try to Get it All Done at Once

Unless you live in a studio apartment, it is unlikely that you will be able to clean your entire home in one day. If you try to tackle your home all at once, you will likely be disappointed as you fail to meet your objectives, which is why it is a good idea to try and break down chores so that they will be more manageable and doable.

Draw up a list of chores that need to be completed each week, and then assign them to different days of the week. If you are feeling particularly motivated on a certain day, do twice as much and then give yourself a day off from your chore list when a job gets done.

Listen to Music While Cleaning

Cleaning is often associated with drudgery and hard work, but listening to music can help to lighten your mood and inject some fun into everyday chores that need to be accomplished as you sing along to your favourite songs. Keep the music upbeat to help keep you motivated while cleaning.

Use an Egg Timer

If you have an egg timer, use it to time yourself in accomplishing different household tasks so that you are not working on any one task for too long. Then move onto the next task on your list that needs to get done. Adding variety and speed to chores can help motivate you to keep going for longer.

Household chores can be very difficult to accomplish when you find motivation an issue. But there are ways to overcome this problem if you change things up a bit and get creative. Don't try to get it all done at once, listen to music to help motivate you to keep going and use an egg timer so that you can move onto different tasks quickly.

Published by Sophie Spyrou

Sophie has been writing for the Yahoo! Contributor Network since 13th May 2007. She used her previous status as a Featured Contributor (Travel, then Pets) to share her personal knowledge about the UK culture...  View profile

2 Comments

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  • Delicia Powers8/25/2011

    Great tips!

  • Michele Starkey8/22/2011

    I need to get motivated to do this today :) cheers!

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