Creating and using a Cleaning Reset

 Sometimes, as moms, as parents, as humans, we get overwhelmed by a messy house. It finds a way to sneak away from us and after a few days, or a few weeks, we can't get motivated to get it under control.

Add in ADHD and someone who creates 'Doom Piles' and I get to a point where I feel like I just can't get a handle on it.

After doing, or starting, an annual cleaning challenge a few years in a row, I became really good at cleaning my ensuite bathroom.  I had gone through a full purge and organize in the ensuite enough times that it became a starting point whenever I felt overwhelmed by cleaning the entire house.  I call this starting point, my 'Cleaning Reset'.  

To do a full purge and organize, I follow the Home Organization Cleaning Challenge by A Bowl Full of Lemons.  They break down your house into different areas and go through each room/area week by week. The tasks include a full empty of the room, cleaning every surface, appliance, windows, walls, baseboards, etc.  Then you sort the items from the room into items to keep, donate, move to another room and trash.  You get a few empty boxes or containers, I like the Costco ones for this.  After each room, you can re-use the boxes for the next one.  

So when the house clutter starts to get to me, I make a point of cleaning my ensuite.  If I only have a few minutes, I feel like I've made a dent on the list.  If I have more time afterwards, since I have a deep bathtub, I have a bath with candles and read a book.  This makes me feel like I've done enough work to make a dent and start on the house.  Since my bathroom is in my bedroom, I might have the motivation to get started on my bedroom.  Sometimes this only includes making the bed and putting away laundry, and sometimes I clear off my dresser and sort through my bedroom doom piles.  

It's never a huge job but it's big enough to get the ball rolling.  Sometimes I end up with the motivation to keep going and clean a big part of the house.  Sometimes it's all I tackle for the week but it's something.  Don't think that you have to do the whole job all at once, and don't have the expectation that your kids need to do big jobs in one go.  Break those jobs into smaller parts, check off the lists to get that dopamine rush, and then keep going if you can.  If not, start over next time.  You can do this.