Cleaning up

Divide each room into four. An Imaginary vertical line and then horizontal line. Like a cross. Focus on only one corner at a time. Make it fun and cut a piece of paper into 4 squares. Write #1 on one of the squares, #2 on another, 3 then 4. Fold each one and put in a bowl. When you don’t know which part of the room to start in, draw from the bowl and start there. When you finish that corner draw again to see which one you focus on next. The whole room looks overwhelming but a corner of it feels more manageable. Just focus on one corner at a time. Another strategy is to take inventory so to speak. Take one room at a time and write down each thing that needs to be done. Work backwards. Imagine what the clean space will look like then make a list of what needs to happen for it to be like what you imagined. You can use both strategies at the same time. Instead of the whole room, break it down into the 4 sections. Write down what has to happen for space #1 to be clean, then space two etc. as you begin to complete the tasks on the list, check them off. Set a timer and see how long it takes to complete section one. Then try to beat that time with section two etc. make a master list of where things live when they are home. Like the closet might be where shoes hang out when you aren’t wearing them. The closet becomes their home. Let’s say mail ends up all over the house and then you need to find something specific and have no idea where it is. Designate a home for mail. Maybe it’s a specific drawer or box that lives on top of the refrigerator. Wherever it is, as you come across mail, put it there. If it’s a container of sorts, have a scavenger hunt. Take the container and go to each room and as you find mail, capture it in the container. When you finish with that task, take the container and put it in its home. Where it lives when you are not using it. If there’s something you always misplace and need on occasion, but can then never find it, create a crazy place for it to live like in the back of the sock drawer. The weirdness will help you remember. Maybe even keep a master list of where things live in case you can’t remember. Like shoes-closet Mail-box on top of fridge Socks-3rd drawer And so on.