It’s the start of the new year and let’s get real- my bedroom is a mess. Usually at the beginning of every year I love to start off by having a clean home so that I can have a clean, mess free space that translates into a clean, mess free head. Your mind is a reflection of the space you live in and currently, mine looks like a bomb went off.
Now normally, I don’t like to “air my dirty laundry” on how messy my bedroom can get but this year I wanted to show a real home, that is really lived in, that can get REALLY messy. At the end of 2023 my husband and I had our anniversary, we hosted Christmas, then we had family come in town, I got sick and then it was my husband’s birthday. Not much time was allotted for cleaning our bedroom.
Our common areas were clean and tidy but our bedroom took the brunt of the mess. All Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, misc. items went into our room randomly. But also I stayed in our bedroom for 4 days trying to prevent any illness from spreading to family members. The laundry was over flowing, there was garbage and items from being sick everywhere. Like I said- really messy.
So this year I am sharing with you how I like to clean up to make our house feel like a home again. I wanted people to know that they are not alone in the mess of life, but that it is possible to get out of it. One-step at a time.
Step One:
I cannot stress this enough- make a list!
I have been told in my life that I have an ADHD brain. Now I have never been diagnosed with ADHD and I won’t act like I know anything about it, but I will say that my brain moves at a ridiculous pace. I will start on the dishes, go upstairs and start cleaning the bathroom then take a little detour and start vacuuming the living room- all while never finishing any of it. Who else is like that? Lists help me to organize my cleaning schedule and also helps to keep me on track of what I am doing and when. Will the bouncing around ever change for me? No, probably not. But, a list is a good reminder of where I am at in my cleaning process and what I still need to finish. If it’s not crossed off, then it’s not done.
Step Two:
Make it fun- put on some music!
Everyone has some form of music that helps to get you zoned in and focused. Mine is a different Genre every day. Sometimes it’s Country Music, other days it’s Instrumental and my favorite, Musicals. I love to dance and sing like a crazy person when I am in the midst of cleaning. No matter what it is, blast the music either on a speaker or in your headphones and just start.
Step Three:
Do one thing on your list at a time!
I always start with picking up any garbage in the room first. This helps me to see what I need to put away/clean faster than trying to go around any garbage. I went around our entire bedroom grabbing garbage, but I also hit our bathrooms and kitchen garbage at the same time.
Then I collected all of the laundry and put it into bags. This helped me to see how many loads of laundry I would need to do. For this particular cleaning session I decided to take our laundry to the laundry mat so that I could get it all done as fast as possible. I tend to not do laundry for a few weeks at a time and since we had so much happening in a 4 week time frame it built up quickly. Then once I got sick I wanted to rewash items just to make sure everything was clean, leading to a mountain of laundry. About 14 loads to be exact. Yikes!
Once all of that was packed up and ready to go I had two choices. Either I could finish the room now and then go to the laundry mat or I could go to the laundry mat first and finish the room when I got back. Now here is something that is important in this process. BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF. I know that if I went to the laundry mat first then came back home to finish, I wouldn’t want to finish the cleaning. So I packed up my husbands truck and came back inside to do as much as I could. I got miscellaneous items put away and stacked the Christmas items together.
Once that was taken care of, I grabbed my husband, got in his truck and spent the next 2 hours sitting at the laundry mat waiting for all of our laundry to be finished. This step of course, is not necessary. You do not have to go to the laundry mat, especially if you have a washer and dryer at home. I took this route because it would save me time. And boy did it ever! We got about 14 loads of laundry, including all of my clothes, my husband’s clothes and bedding/sheets done with 5 washers all running at the same time. In total this cost me about $40.00 – which I didn’t mind paying to save the time.
Now that the laundry was clean, it was time to get home and put it all away! Que the music! Once all of the laundry was put away, I finished making the bed, dusting and vacuuming and our room was once again spotless and back in proper order. This whole process took me a total of about 6 hours from start to finish. For me, that is time well spent to make our room feel clean and clutter free.
No one likes to admit/show just how messy a bedroom can get but no matter what, mess happens to everyone. It’s our choice to stay in it or to just get it cleaned up. I hope that this inspires you to either get your home cleaned or to just re-organize a bit so that you can have a clutter free space and mind.
Have fun cleaning!
Cheers!