Motivation for 6 month cleaning of apartment

[ButterflyBreath]

Hello All,

I moved into this little apartment in January and it's getting icky. It's usually at about 6 months living somewhere that I start to realize how disorganized and icky my living space has gotten. So it has now been 6 months in this apartment and I need to do my spring cleaning. I'm being ridiculous because my space is around 500 sq foot. HOW DO I GET MOTIVATED????! Any tips?

[Selah]

Seriously, invite just a few new-to-you people over for a meal or some sort of get-together. Guaranteed, it'll get you movitvated FAST. Good luck!

[treehugger]

I totally agree with Selah. Impending guests is the best motivation to clean that I have every discovered.

Kara

[redfox]

Set aside 15 minutes & choose one corner to work on. Set a timer; at 15 minutes, you can decide if you want to coninue. If you decide not to, do another 15 the next day, etc., till you're happy.

[fidgiegirl]

As far as the "stuff" that makes its way into our lives, start an outbox. You can an ongoing box that slowly fills to go to donation. That way as you are looking around thinking "ack! Where to start? Well, I know I don't want THAT doohicky anymore . . . " you can pick it up and place it in the outbox right then. I find it to be something that is productive for us. We don't generally purge . . .we trickle out the items we don't want.

Another thing that helps us, and is easier said than done, is to keep the area we've cleaned clean. So if I spent 2 hours controlling the dishes one night, not to let the dishes go for 4 days and fill the entire counter again - to wash the 2 pans that have since become dirty the very next day. Like I said - easier said than done! Working on this myself!

[Rosemary]

Planning to have guests is also my biggest motivator.
We just returned from 5 days out of town and the house was messier than usual when we left, just due to being busy. I just rolled up my sleeves yesterday and cleaned from top to bottom. Took less than 3 hours to clean 2 bathrooms, kitchen, mop all hard floors and vacuum all carpets, and it's much more pleasant inside now.

[Miss Cellane]

If you don't clean it now, it will be twice as bad, and take twice as long to clean, in December.

[bunnys]

I would start by putting everything in the apartment away where it belongs in it's place. That may take awhile but once it's done the the cleaning will be a lot easier.

[Mer05]

Nthing guests! If possible, start hosting some kind of regular event - movie night, tv viewing parties, board game night, stitch'n'bitch, whatever. That way you have to clean (or at least pick up) every week or two. I also found that hosting was much less nervewracking after the first couple times.

[nswef]

One thing I learned from the book The Happiness Project was to do anything that takes less than a minute- right then. Such as taking a dish from the living room to the kitchen- do it NOW and put it in the dishwasher or dishpan or even wash it...it takes less than a minute. I've found that so many jobs take less than a minute and it keeps the house tidier. Flat surfaces clear! Cleaning is much easier when flat surfaces are clear and they become or stay clear just one minute at a time. Good luck.

[ButterflyBreath]

Hey guys thank for replying. For some reason I only got a few email notifications that there were responses and not the rest.

These are all great ideas. The ones that make the most sense for motivating me are the ideas about inviting people over. I would love to host something regularly, but they would need to feel comfortable in a 500 sq ft apartment with me and others. I basically have one big bedroom, a micro room they called the "breakfast nook" (even though there's no dining area), a nice small kitchen and bathroom. So people would either need to be in my spacious bedroom (weird) or packed in the breakfast nook/living room. It's a cute place I can have 3 or so and still not be too crowded, so I might try that. In fact, once I had over 5 people and we screen printed, but it was mighty crowded and we were bumping into each other. It was fun though. I just need to invite people I want to get closer to : )

I once lived in a townhome and my roommate and I felt we needed to connect with the people around us so we created a movie night once a month but we couldn't get anyone to come! I was shocked because I would totally go to something like that.

nswef - I think I've done something similar to that before where I tell myself wherever I go in my living space I have to make I cleaner/more organized that when I came. That works if I can keep up that mindset.

[nswef]

Keeping up the mindset is the hard part. I go in spurts- as I look at this computer desk that would take 3 minutes to organize and yet it sits. Not organizing itself, that's for sure. Even having one or two other people to visit is an incentive. Good luck. You will be able to do this and will look back at when you started. Take some pictures just to remind yourself where you were and how nice it looks after doing just 5 days or so. N.

[Tussiemussies]

Having a similar problem too and find it's a matter of creating a new habit, which to get is slightly ingrained it takes a month to do. I am also working on this and you have to really want that clean house or apartment. There is nothing as calming to me than to walk around a clutter-free clean house. Good luck! Keep us posted!

[Amaranth]

Try setting a timer and working in 10 minute increments. See how much of a section you can do in 10 minutes.

1) Get trash bag and pick up trash for 10 minutes. If it takes less than 10, get a second bag and get the recycle.
2) Get a basket/box. Start at front door. Put away anything in entry way that goes there. Put anything that goes in another room in the basket. Go to the next room clockwise and repeat. Get as far as you can in 10 minutes. Next time start up where you left off.
3) Load dishwasher, clean kitchen for rest of 10 minutes
4) Get load of laundry from bedroom, start washer, clean bedroom for rest of 10 minutes
5) Clean breakfast nook
6) Clean living room
7) Clean bathroom
8) Swap laundry into dryer
9) Take out trash and recycle
10) Fold laundry

Repeat daily, starting in each room where you left off the day before. Once everything is mostly caught up, schedule everything in Outlook as noted below.

Other general strategies:

1) For the next month, make meals that use minimal dishes 6 days a week such as soup, stirfry, salad, pasta, or something you previously froze. On the 7th, use as many as you like.
2) Choose meals that freeze well. Eat one serving and freeze the other 3. Each week eat some previously frozen meals and make another one that has multiple servings.
3) Choose foods that can be made to seem different. For instance a jar of pasta sauce can be used for pasta for day one with the remainder making a soup base for day 2- 4. Combine 1 cup pasta sauce, 1 cup mixed frozen vegetables, 1 cup water. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes. Vary the mixed vegetables each night. See also a previous thread where I asked for suggestions on doing lots of things with one chicken and got amazing answers.
4) Plan out meals so all the groceries get used up each week. If something won’t be used up in time, freeze all the extra portions in meal size or recipe size increments the day that you open the item.
5) If you add a bit of water to pasta sauce, you can cook the pasta in the sauce on a low simmer and save a pot.
6) Do one type of laundry each day. Darks, lights, sheets, towels, kitchen linens, workout clothes
7) Try to have fewer, but more versatile items. For example have a paring knife and skip the peeler.
8) Use Outlook to make recurring tasks for daily, weekly, monthly and less frequent tasks. It’s really fun to check them off and watch the todo list steadily vanish each day.
9) Switch to low-clutter activities such as community gardening or attending free band concerts, or taking band lessons with the Salem/Bethabara band. Choose a small instrument such as a trumpet rather than say, a base ;)
10) Have a recycle bin next to your desk. Sort mail into folders and bin. Have a paperwork time once a week.
11) Play a CSI game with yourself. Pretend someone is investigating your apartment for what you did in the last 24 hours. Is any evidence visible?

[Amaranth]

Butterfly, how are things working out?