How do I make cleaning more simple?

[thunderseed]

I am terrible when it comes to cleaning up after myself. It's a huge problem. I've gone and downsized everything, became minimal but yet there is still clutter. I swear that even when I go ultralight camping, I still make messes.

It all piles up after a few days because I take things out and tell myself I'll put it away later but later never comes until it's all a giant mess. When something has to go in the garbage, I think to myself, "the garbage can is so far away, I'll just leave it here on the counter..."

So are there any easier ways to make house cleaning easy and more simple? Is there a way to make it fun or enjoyable?
And how on earth do I motivate myself to actually want to clean up after myself in the moment?

For example, after I cook a meal and eat it, I don't feel like cleaning everything up afterwards, I just feel like relaxing. I know some people get up after a meal and clean everything up right away but I never feel like doing it so it doesn't get done.

[Gardnr]

Make it easy to cleanup.

Our trashcan is below our sink......trash goes straight there.

i have a compost bowl in our sink....while i'm cooking, food scrap goes straight there. When it's full, it goes out to the heap.

i have a clear small can next to my fridge. Recycling goes in there. open the mail-to the can. Open a can or rinse a glass jar, in the bin. When it's full, it goes out to the box or the curbside bin.

Meals? dishes go in the sink if not in the mood. once each day though, they get done. It just doesn't take that long.

When I use something, I put it away when finished.

Before I go to bed at night, everything goes in it's place.

I dust maybe 1x/2-3weeks. Vacuum? about the same-do it when it needs it.

Sounds like a lot of work? No. Likely adds 1minute to my day to put something in it's "right" place instead of laying around.

It's really a choice. I wake up to my comfy home each day and I enjoy it.

Build a routine of behavior. It is really as simple as it sounds.

[bekkilyn]

You could start by choosing one small, positive thing to do each day that will help towards your goal. For example, pick a small surface that can get cluttered and decide that no matter what else you do that day, you will keep that particular surface clear and clean. It could be the kitchen table, or a countertop...some place that no matter what the rest of the house looks like, you see that space and it is clear and uncluttered and soothing.

If you are motivated and end up doing more, then that's great, but if not, then that one place is clear and you have accomplished your daily goal. Once it's established itself into a habit, you can choose a different task, like making sure trash gets taken out, or the bed is made, or a different surface is kept clear.

If you aren't used to having these sorts of routines, it can be very overwhelming to try to do everything at once, so start small and simple, one small step at a time.

And when you're doing these things, know in your mind that you are helping to create a beautiful and sacred environment for yourself.

Often, I'll use these times of doing routine tasks as an opportunity to listen to something uplifting and/or interesting such as a spiritual podcast or a talk on mindfulness that I can't always do when occupied with something more intellectually challenging or when needing to attend to the needs of other people. You can create an environment for yourself where even cleaning up can be a relaxing and pleasant experience.

[creaker]

"because I take things out and tell myself I'll put it away later"

It's not simple, but I try to be more mindful about it. If I visualize all the frustration I've had dealing with the mess "later", it gives me more motivation to deal with it in the moment. But having done it more, I also get to visualize the good feelings I had when I did this and there was no mess to deal with, making it more motivating and overall a much more positive experience.

I'm not perfect at this by any means, but I find I'm more likely to seek out the good feelings and avoid the bad as long as I'm mindful of it.

[Lainey]

I made myself a simple rule: if I look at it 3 times, like "I should really put those towels away" then the 3rd time I have to do it. And it's like everyone says, it's only 1 minute but it's the satisfaction that will last the rest of the day.

[thunderseed]

Thank you everyone, I'll be trying all of this. My first day went well so far, I forced myself to clean up after my meals and it sure is nice to wake up to a clean kitchen. I have a mini compost can on my counter that my mom got me for my birthday and I just love it, it is super handy, I just fill it up and bring it out to my big worm bin outside the door, so I really don't have to go far to empty it.
I've even been mixing in citrus and onion scraps, which when I researched it people say worms don't like those things, but my worms seem to be loving it, they are breaking down all of the compost really fast.
I think I should do the same for garbage and recycling, find some mini cans. There is a big garbage can that has 3 separate cans in it so I could use it for recycling and garbage, but I never use it because it's by the door and while I'm cooking it always seems like so far away to get to. It's so big and bulky that there is no space to move it any closer.

It should be simple but for me it's really not, I've tried to get into the routine of cleaning regularily but it always fades out after a few days especially when I get really busy. I think the longest I've gone is a week or so and then I just ended up losing interest. I know having a clean house emotionally, mentally, spiritually and physically benefits me in many ways yet it still seems difficult to motivate myself to do the chores, and it's not like my parent's never taught me these things, I think maybe my inner child is just rebelling haha.

And logically everyone is right, it's really not that much work to get it clean in the moment compared to putting it off until later. It's like those times where I accientally spill soup on something and it feels like too much work to do in the moment so I put it off, but then of course once it dries it's going to be even worse to clean up. I'll try being more mindful of that, maybe reminding myself how aweful it will be later on will work. Although I'm sure I will still try to procrastinate.

I like the ideas of starting small, that's probably a good approach for me. I might just start with trying to maintain one room at a time. I might try listening to spiritual podcasts too, usually I listen to really upbeat rap music during to give me more energy to get it done, but perhaps relaxing and focusing on spiritual things or even trying to meditate during would be more enjoyable.

I'll try the 3 times rule too, instead of looking at things a bajillion times lol.

[Miss Cellane]

I know the feeling. You come home from a day's work, perhaps having run errands on the way home (more work), then you cook dinner (more work), and then you just want to sit and do nothing for a bit, but instead there's the after-dinner cleanup to do--still *more* work. If you live alone, it seems the work never ends, and if you did all the work there is to do, you would never get any down time at all.

Bluntly, you have to make yourself to do the work.

But there are ways of making the work a bit easier.

1. Use "hidden" minutes. Those minutes while you are waiting for the coffee to be ready, the water to boil, the sauce to simmer--look around the kitchen and do something. Empty the dishwasher. Make tomorrow's lunch (bonus there that you can clean up after dinner and lunch making at the same time--one less cleanup in your day!). Write a shopping list.

2. Batch things together. Sunday night, I wash and peel and cut up enough raw vegetables for lunches for the week. Saves time hauling out and washing the peeler every night, plus I eat healthier every day. One cleanup for the week. My brother hauls out his ironing board on Sunday afternoon and irons 5 work shirts while watching sports. Then he pairs each shirt with a pair of pants and a tie, and he doesn't have to think about clothes for the rest of the week. Bonus that he only has to set up the ironing board once per week, not daily.

3. Make it very, very easy to put the stuff you use the most away. The kitchen utensils I use the most get put away by opening a drawer and dropping them into the right place in the drawer organizer. Boom. Put away done. The pots and pans you use the most, you should be able to put away/retrieve by opening a cabinet door and grabbing them, not by moving 6 things to get to the one you really need. Stuff you use less often can be tucked away, but the things you use the most should be front and center. Maybe get socks that are all one or two colors and instead of sorting and folding them, just throw them into a drawer and pull out two matching socks every morning.


The more you do the cleanup, the easier and faster it will get. At first, your after dinner clean up with be slow, as you have to stop and think, "Okay, dishes are washed. What next? Oh, wipe down counters. Okay, that done. Is there anything else? Oh, yeah, sweep the floor." But if you work at it, in a few weeks, you'll be washing the dishes, wiping the counters, sweeping the floor, cleaning the stove top, prepping coffee for tomorrow morning, feeding the cat and taking out the trash without thinking about it, because you'll know what to do. And it will take less time, because you don't think about what you're doing, you just do it, and because you will probably have worked out the fastest way to get things done.

And if you need to take a break between eating dinner and clearing up afterwards, then do just that. I'd suggest a time limit, like 30 - 60 minutes. But take that time and relax. Then go and do 30-60 minutes of housework. Then clock out of work for the rest of the day and chill.

I would also suggest the website/tumbler UFYH. They also have an app. Lists of things to do, short timed challenges to clean up specific messes. A challenge of the week to help with certain trouble spots. Warning: there are four-letter words on this site, including the title. (And no, the four-letter words are not "neat," or "tidy.")

[thunderseed]

I know the feeling. You come home from a day's work, perhaps having run errands on the way home (more work), then you cook dinner (more work), and then you just want to sit and do nothing for a bit, but instead there's the after-dinner cleanup to do--still *more* work. If you live alone, it seems the work never ends, and if you did all the work there is to do, you would never get any down time at all.

Bluntly, you have to make yourself to do the work.

But there are ways of making the work a bit easier.

1. Use "hidden" minutes. Those minutes while you are waiting for the coffee to be ready, the water to boil, the sauce to simmer--look around the kitchen and do something. Empty the dishwasher. Make tomorrow's lunch (bonus there that you can clean up after dinner and lunch making at the same time--one less cleanup in your day!). Write a shopping list.

2. Batch things together. Sunday night, I wash and peel and cut up enough raw vegetables for lunches for the week. Saves time hauling out and washing the peeler every night, plus I eat healthier every day. One cleanup for the week. My brother hauls out his ironing board on Sunday afternoon and irons 5 work shirts while watching sports. Then he pairs each shirt with a pair of pants and a tie, and he doesn't have to think about clothes for the rest of the week. Bonus that he only has to set up the ironing board once per week, not daily.

3. Make it very, very easy to put the stuff you use the most away. The kitchen utensils I use the most get put away by opening a drawer and dropping them into the right place in the drawer organizer. Boom. Put away done. The pots and pans you use the most, you should be able to put away/retrieve by opening a cabinet door and grabbing them, not by moving 6 things to get to the one you really need. Stuff you use less often can be tucked away, but the things you use the most should be front and center. Maybe get socks that are all one or two colors and instead of sorting and folding them, just throw them into a drawer and pull out two matching socks every morning.


The more you do the cleanup, the easier and faster it will get. At first, your after dinner clean up with be slow, as you have to stop and think, "Okay, dishes are washed. What next? Oh, wipe down counters. Okay, that done. Is there anything else? Oh, yeah, sweep the floor." But if you work at it, in a few weeks, you'll be washing the dishes, wiping the counters, sweeping the floor, cleaning the stove top, prepping coffee for tomorrow morning, feeding the cat and taking out the trash without thinking about it, because you'll know what to do. And it will take less time, because you don't think about what you're doing, you just do it, and because you will probably have worked out the fastest way to get things done.

And if you need to take a break between eating dinner and clearing up afterwards, then do just that. I'd suggest a time limit, like 30 - 60 minutes. But take that time and relax. Then go and do 30-60 minutes of housework. Then clock out of work for the rest of the day and chill.

I would also suggest the website/tumbler UFYH. They also have an app. Lists of things to do, short timed challenges to clean up specific messes. A challenge of the week to help with certain trouble spots. Warning: there are four-letter words on this site, including the title. (And no, the four-letter words are not "neat," or "tidy.")

Haha, that website is funny, it's exactly what I need! Thanks so much for all the advice too, it's all very helpful. I'll try the hidden minutes and batching things together and setting time limits, I'm going to go grocery shopping today so I'll try making a list of meals that I can make for the entire week or maybe I should start small and make meals ahead of time for just 3 days, that would be cool and would definitely save me some time. All of that multitasking sounds amazing, I guess with practice I will get better at it. Time management I guess is what they call it, and being organized and having a good idea of what I need to get done would be helpful. Thanks again!

[ApatheticNoMore]

Cleaning is it's own thing and most of the advice here, but I've come to think there might be something to organizing and not just minimalism. Like if you give up extreme minimalism, having 100 things, maybe there is something to having boxes or other storage in which you keep specific things rather than letting it randomly wander around and pile up in the house, and maybe that's way more realistic than dreaming of the day you only had 10 things so they couldn't possibly wander around the house. Obvious things amaze me, like how much better books look on a shelf (from the goodwill!) than they did piled on the floor. Ohhhh ahhhh ... amazing. But it does surprise me it's so much better (it's not exactly a book shelf, I dislike most bookshelves, it piles books horizontally).

[thunderseed]

Cleaning is it's own thing and most of the advice here, but I've come to think there might be something to organizing and not just minimalism. Like if you give up extreme minimalism, having 100 things, maybe there is something to having boxes or other storage in which you keep specific things rather than letting it randomly wander around and pile up in the house, and maybe that's way more realistic than dreaming of the day you only had 10 things so they couldn't possibly wander around the house. Obvious things amaze me, like how much better books look on a shelf (from the goodwill!) than they did piled on the floor. Ohhhh ahhhh ... amazing. But it does surprise me it's so much better (it's not exactly a book shelf, I dislike most bookshelves, it piles books horizontally).

Oh yeah I'm sure you can definitely make your house look minimal and zen with proper organization even if you own bajillions of objects. You would just have to be really good at being organized and hiding things and keeping them in storage. I don't think I could do that, I can't even do it while owning minimal things.

You should have seen my walk in closet room before I got rid of all my clothes and downsized, it was terrifying. I was the definition of a hoarder, just mountains of clothes. I had clothes from when I was thirteen years old and clothes that still had tags on them that I completely forgot about. Now I can fit all my clothes on one shelf and it has made doing laundry and finding something to wear much easier. But I'm still not good at organizing things. I know some people like to organize things based on colour even, but I'm not that creative I guess.

I could own only 3 objects with some food, but if I'm not organized and still messy it's going to look cluttered and messy regardless of how litte stuff I own. So I think being organized and clean is a huge important part of having a nice minimal looking house.

Honestly I get overwhelmed very easily just by looking at things, even neatly organized books. I got rid of most of my books, and am thinking of getting rid of them all, it's not like I ever read them more than once anyway.

I used to have a room that was painted red in the house, but the colour agitated me because it was too bright and aggressive. I think most people would think my house is boring and too cold since I've literally painted all the walls gray, but it's what soothes me. I don't like a lot of stuff or colours because it gets overwhelming.

Reducing stuff to bare minimum really helped but it didn't solve my clutter problem. I deal with clutter mostly from preparing meals, so all the vegetable scraps, or spilled liquids, and packaging or tins, (although I've tried to limit the amount of packaged foods I buy I can't live on just unpackaged foods) and I really love to buy those coconut waters so then I end up accumulating a bunch of those containers left around my house,
as well as dirty laundry. I don't own many clothes anymore but it doesn't take much to make the floor look cluttered.

Oh and I have/had the worst habit of buying bottled waters, despite having a really expensive and fancy water filter in my house. All I have to do is fill up the filter with tap water and then fill up my reausable water bottles, but nooooo, I got into a lazy habit of buying bottled water at the grocery store instead, and of course since I'm so messy, all of those plastic water bottles would just be laying around all over the place, it was terrible. So now I'm really trying to force myself to keep the water filter filled up regularily. The problem was I drink tons of water, over 4 litres of water a day so I just go so annoyed with having to fill up my reusable water bottles all the time, which is why I started buying those 2 liter jugs of water at the grocery store, and I just carry them around with me all day, then all the empties end up on the floor....

My embarassing messiness must come to an end once and for all.