Cleaning Up Messy Spaces In Your Home
Messy areas in our homes happen all the time. Here’s what to do to get those messy spots in our homes organized and cleaned up and looking wonderful!
Messes and clutter happen in our homes. They are just a part of life! But they can be a stress on our life too! Today let’s chat about how to get motivated and quickly and efficiently clean up that clutter that inevitably will accumulate. Here are 10 tips for cleaning up messy spaces in your home.
We all want an organized house! We all want a clean house too! But when you add people to a home clutter happens! Our goal should be to calmly and efficiently tame those areas that get out of control in our living spaces!
Here’s what today’s post is all about…
- cleaning up pesky clutter that accumulates in areas like counters, floors and other spaces that are in your living areas
- throwing away any trash
- gathering up and putting away
- giving that area a quick cleaning
Here’s what today’s post is not…
- organizing your whole house
- cleaning your whole house
- doing a deep cleaning of any area
If you are looking for ideas and tips for more organizing or a very efficient way to clean a messy house see the bottom of this post for more posts.
I want to make sure we are on the same page and you know what to expect. Spaces that collect clutter drive me crazy!!!!! How about you?
WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON AREAS THAT COLLECT CLUTTER?
Today’s post is all about those areas that collect clutter like a moth to a flame! Here are the most common areas messes are born…
- on the top of flat surfaces, this is the biggest offender!
- in small closets
- on the floor near chairs
- if you have kids or grandkids, everywhere! They are, by nature, a mess!
So today I have 10 great tips for cleaning up those messy spaces!
DON’T PANIC
Do you ever get that prickly feeling starting inside of you and creeping up the back of your neck that it feels like your head is going to blow off? When clutter gets the better of me, which isn’t often thankfully, I feel so out of control!
I really need to remind myself to keep calm! Remembering to keep calm is so important! Don’t waste your energy on non-productive emotions. Now is the time to have a can-do attitude!
I always say to myself something like, “Yvonne, a bomb did not go off in your house. Everyone is fine. It’s just clutter”!!!!! If you are like me clutter can affect how I feel and I don’t want to give it that power!
You can handle clutter and so can I!
DON’T GET DISCOURAGED
Messiness is just the natural way things are.
Things don’t get neater if left to their own devices, they get worse!
Don’t make molehills into mountains and don’t make mountains into bigger ones!
Acknowledge the messy and cluttered fact and get over it. Give yourself a little pep talk!
Like I said above, you and I can handle clutter!
Our goal is not perfection. That is a goal that will always make you feel like a failure. Our goal is comfort and peace! Cleaning messy spaces up in your home should make you feel so good. Just remember it doesn’t have to be perfect.
MAKE A PLAN
I’m throwing out cliches but… if you fail to plan, you plan to fail!
So true.
The best thing you can do when you face a mess in your home is to make a plan to tackle it.
You may think you don’t have to, but a plan is the most successful way to finish any task! And it will feel so great to check things off your cleanup list!
YOU ARE UP TO THE TASK.
SECTION OFF THE CLUTTER AND MESS
Don’t tackle the whole mess or a cluttered room all at once.
Break it up into little sections. Get control of one small area and then move to the next. There is a whole lot of motivation that comes with victory in a little area!
If my kitchen gets out of control I choose to conquer it one counter at a time. And for each counter that gets cleaned up, I feel a little more confident that I can do the next!
OH, I love that feeling!
YOU CAN HANDLE THIS!
NOW DIG IN
Don’t put off getting something back in order.
The longer a mess sits the more it grows. And multiplies! And the harder and longer it is to whip it back into shape.
Tackle a messy area when the mess is small!
Messes zap energy… clutter robs us of ease. And those are valuable commodities. Too valuable to waste!
GET ON WITH IT!
GET RID OF THE TRASH FIRST
Grab a trash bag and get busy!
Do first things first. And throwing trash away is always first.
Get a bit garbage bag and throw away anything that is not useful!
Be ruthless! Get rid of trash or anything that is not useful!
My mantra for cleaning messy spaces is…
THROW AWAY. PUT AWAY. GIVE AWAY!
PUT AWAY AND THROW AWAY
Have a designated “put away” basket.
And put anything that is displaced into that basket.
This makes cleaning up so much faster. If you don’t have a put away basket, wait till you get one you will love it!
But here’s the thing with a put away basket. It must be emptied daily or you will end up with another cluttered messy area!
CLEANING MESSY SPACES
When you have a small area under control, NOW is the time to dust, sweep, wipe down vacuum, polish, and clean all surfaces!
Just do it quickly and don’t get stuck in a deep dive cleaning!
We all want a clean house, not just one that is free of clutter. Clean those little sections you have conquered! It will give you momentum, not to mention a clean and tidy home.
If your mess has been there for a while, you might have to do a little deeper cleaning like shampooing a carpet or scrubbing a surface.
But now is not the time to do a deep dive into cleaning. Instead, schedule an appointment with yourself on your calendar to take care of those bigger cleaning problems.
We only want to get control over a wayward area. Deep cleaning is a whole different thing!
PUT AWAY YOUR PUT AWAY BASKET
We are not done yet! We need to put away the displaced clutter in the “put away” basket.
If we don’t we’ve just moved the mess! And remember messes will grow!
BE A WATCHDOG!
Cleaning up messes and clutter is like recreating the wheel.
It gets so old to clean up the same messy spaces over and over… not to mention time-consuming!
When you have your home in order keep it that way! At the first sign of the smallest mess, get on it and handle it! This is a personal commitment to living a more peaceful, freeing life! YOU ARE WORTH IT!
Now, a message about messes others make. Some messes you can control and some not so much!
Teach by example and work to get everyone in your home on the same cleanup page.
A home is to live in so there is always going to be some element of clutter unless you live in a museum. But we also don’t live in a garbage dump!
There is a balance! Loving your home and caring for it gives your family a safe and comfortable sanctuary to live in.
Everyone should be involved in the care of their homes!
This post is more of a pep-talk and a little motivational push in the right direction. You probably knew every single one of these tips for cleaning messy spaces. Didn’t you, my friend?
But sometimes it is nice to be reminded, right?
Start not to find one little area to organize and clean and see how wonderful your home will look and you will feel!
YOU MIGHT LIKE TO READ THESE OTHER CLEANING AND ORGANIZING POSTS…
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO CLEANING AND ORGANIZING YOUR HOME
CLEAN YOUR HOME IN 30 MINUTES A DAY
DECLUTTER AND DECORATE YOUR KITCHEN COUNTERS
I sure needed this blog this morning, I have read them before but I needed a friendly reminder I can do it!!
Thanks!
Yvonne I need help. I have a ton of craft supply’s. No extra room to put it. I have bags and boxes ans storage containers all over my bedroom and living room. Even a 3 drawer cabinet. In my livingroom. No place to put an extra piece of furniture to store things . Help. Any suggestions.?
Yes, get rid of some of the craft supplies! I’m so sorry to say this. But only keep the best and what you use often. Or turn a room into a craft room.
I just love your style Yvonne! It is so charming and warm and elegant. Thank you for all that you do! I love following your blog!
So sweet, Kelly! Thank you.
I love the canisters you have next to your coffee maker. Can you tell me where you purchased them? Thanks!
Hi Michelle, aren’t they so cute? Here you go:https://rstyle.me/+OIj2A0La_1TaDoUuhpnzYw
About 9 months I joined a group on FB about decluttering. I’ve always had a large enough home to organize & kept things tidy, but I’d been thinking about relocating to another state to be near family. So, the decluttering group on FB.
Here’s what I’ve learned. I have a lot of stuff, can part with things easily & do my best to stay organized. I’ve been overwhelmed seeing ladies in that group that literally have barely a pathway to walk & flat surfaces loaded high. I don’t understand how it can get that out of control. It truly makes me sad that people value things above family, above friendships, above themselves actually.
So while I can easily point a finger at another person, I pray that my health & physical ability to get around remains in tact & that I can manage to do a small decluttered when needed & not ever get to the overwhelming stage.
I love your taste & style. Good post for starting of 2023.