Don’t Let New Year’s Cleaning Resolutions Stress You Out
Though we are just a few days into the new year, it is not uncommon to find the new goals we made and hope to accomplish in the new year a little overwhelming. Especially if we got really ambitious and set the bar pretty high. Housework such as chores and keeping things tidy can feel repetitive and relentless. Those feelings can turn into feelings of the work becoming mundane and boring or even a hopeless waste of time in achieving your desired results.
Maybe looking at the tasks with a different perspective and changing our mindsets can help us to be more successful in our home cleaning aspirations. Here are some light hearted strategies to help you look at cleaning with a different mindset and help relieve some of that stress around accomplishing new cleaning goals for your home.
Determine What is Untidy and What is Dirty
There is a significant difference between a space being untidy and full of things that are not put away and a space actually being unclean and full of germs. It is very helpful to mentally divide the two into separate categories. Putting the two into the same category instantly makes a job of cleaning a room feel overwhelming. For example: a living room full of toys just after play time does not need a full on disinfection wipe down, it just needs the toys quickly picked up.
Let Go of Perfection and Fear of Judgement
When making goals many of us get lofty dreams about having an always spotless home. Not one of us is perfect, and unless all we do all day is scrub and clean, our home is never going to be perfect. A good portion of cleaning related stress is related to setting the bar too high or worrying too much about other people’s opinions. There have been many changes to our daily routines in the past year, many more hours at home for various different reasons. No one is going to judge you if one area looks like you actually use and live in it. So stop judging yourself, the goal should be to have the home functioning well for your lifestyle and healthy, not perfectly spotless.
Pick Your Battles
Choose what spaces in your home are non-negotiable for being cleaned first and most often. For some this could be the bathroom as germs can quickly accumulate in there and it is a space that is used daily. The guest room can wait for a bit until the more important parts of the home get the attention you feel they deserve. Sometimes just cleaning one room or making a plan to stay on top of one area can bring a big sense of accomplishment. You will find it’s much easier to take on cleaning goals one step at a time instead of all at once. It is good to form new smaller habits than try to do major lifestyle overhauls.
Don’t Overclean
In an effort to have a perfectly clean house, and fulfill those dreams of a heavenly clean space, many of us actually over clean our homes. Did you know that many immunology experts say it is not healthy to use sanitizers and anti-bacterial cleaners all the time? It is actually good for humans to come in contact with germs within reason to help keep the immune system functioning the way it was intended. So don’t buy into that hype that you need to deep clean every room from top to bottom. Really you only need to be sanitizing a surface if someone living in your home is currently ill, has special medical needs, or say the kitchen counter had raw chicken on it. Many people actually make the mistake of over mopping hardwood floors, they really only need dust mopping or vacuuming on a regular basis and wet mopping every few weeks to once a month depending on the foot traffic.
Create Fast and Effective Routines
There are many great speed cleaning plans and organization plans that can get you set up to take just a few minutes at a time for routine cleaning. With the proper (and not over-planned) game plan you could have a much cleaner home with just a few minutes of attention on a more regular basis.
For more cleaning tips and tricks please browse our website. For help launching your home with a clean start in 2021, make an appointment online or over the phone with All Kleen. We provide tile, upholstery, hard surface floor, natural stone, and carpet cleaning in Mountlake Terrace and surrounding areas.
All Kleen provides professional cleaning services to areas like Lynwood and the surrounding towns within Snohomish and North King Counties. For more information on our professional carpet cleaning in Lynnwood and more please contact us any time. Making an appointment for carpet cleaning in Lynnwood or a surrounding area is easy through our contact page or by giving us a call.
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