How do you keep your home clean?

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I love the feeling of being in a clean room but it feels impossible to keep my home clean. There's so many different things to keep track of. Sometimes it gets really bad

How do you keep your whole home clean? Do you have a system to help stay on top of it?

I don't.

usually I just get really restless until I organize my room to a satisfactory degree (not perfection. satisfactory.)

one day a week is devoted to cleaning. Everything can be done in about 1 to 3 hours (keeping the laundry running the whole time, it would take longer if your place to do laundry is not at home) when both my husband and I worked, we saved our dishes all week rinsed and stacked, did them all Saturday morning. then each of us did cleaning, and we were done in about an hour, when all the laundry was clean, we sorted it and put it away. this would take more like 2 hours for one bedroom home or one room plus kitchen and bathroom, might take longer if it was just one person. Start by picking up everything that does not belong in one room and putting it in the place it belongs, trash in the trash cans. Empty the cans and take to the garbage can.

Start at the top and dust downward from the ceiling to the floor, then clean the floor, sweep , vacuum, or mop. keep working on the laundry in between, Set a timer and work against the timer if you have to for each chore. Play music if it helps keep you on track. Have all your cleaning supplies together before you start, keep them all together in one place. It might seem awkward at first but after a while you get set in a pattern and routine . If you can't do cleaning on the scheduled day, try to catch up the next day or if you know you can't do it that day, try to get it done the day before.

You can use a check off list to make sure you cover all the basics. Once our house was clean, we would go out and do grocery shopping, put that all away, and we were done for the week and the rest of the weekend was free to spend as we pleased. almost 45 years later and we still do this routine. It has worked well for us.

My home is a studio apartment with only me in it - My cleaning routine takes me 6-7 minutes a day, so its not difficult or time consuming. Most cleaning and de-cluttering experts will tell you that if you need a complex system to store things or your environment quickly turns into a mess...you simply have too much stuff.

One thing is that I try not to make my home dirty in the first place, so that nightmare cleaning operations don't have to happen so often. I just do a little bit at a time, though I often get absorbed in it when I've made a start. I can't seem to start if I'm planning to do a lot. I often begin with a thinking stage to try to make sure it goes fairly smoothly. I keep thinking about gradually getting more of my stuff into suitable easily-dusted containers to cut down on the surface area I have to keep clean. The interior fittings, paintwork, etc. are rather old and too grubby to keep impressively clean, but I've renewed the insides of 2 rooms and the stairwell and upstairs walkway quite nicely. So the place isn't terribly dirty overall, but it'll probably never be impressively neat.

I'm definitely not sitting in a heap of garbage right now

To be honest, I don't, but a lot of it has to do with how over worked I've been the last several years.

But, a few things have helped. Clear bins with tops that can stack. An index card can be set on the side as a temporary label. I stick to a limited number of sizes and ones that stack with each other.

I try to define where things go in terms of a small zone rather than a specific spot. And I aim to keep everything visible.

I've got a bunch of colored dot stickers coming and I'm hitting to use those to define where things go for quick sorting and storing.

Headphones with loud rock music.
I need that stimulation to give me energy.
Also the sensory input distracts me from thinking about other sensory concerns when cleaning.

Example: I'm scared of touching water or gunky food, but I won't wear gloves.
I have issues with the smell of food even if it's not rotten.

If I overpower all my senses with music I don't notice the other sensory problems.
Music also puts me in a good mood.
Sometimes I need to play the same song for an hour or two if I find one that works.
Other times I can manage a playlist.
Emotional, sad, or sappy music doesn't work because I'll start thinking too much.

I don't do "To-Do" lists either, because my ADHD is too severe and I have no EF.
I can't think in straight lines or in terms of task completion.
I just start cleaning whatever I see as I go along, rather like a tsunami.
There's no rhyme or reason to the order I do things.
I still don't have a "routine" after .... 30 years owning a home.

It's a big house and I don't have a husband or partner to help.
Sometimes there are 3-4 people here full-time working from home making messes.
I also have four pets.
Cleaning takes at least an entire weekend if I try to do it all.

I live alone in a small studio unit so I'm lucky that I only have myself to clean up after and I don't really own that much stuff. The downside, however, is when my executive dysfunction is particularly bad, I have no one around to help me keep things maintained. I aim to clean as I go, especially in the kitchen, and then once a week I have a set time (normally a Friday evening before my weekend begins) when I do the bigger tasks, like vacuuming (noise cancelling headphones are a must for this), mopping, cleaning the bathroom, and switching out any linen, towels, etc. If I'm unable to maintain this routine because I'm burnt out or overwhelmed, sometimes I just have to let myself rest and exist in a little mess until I'm able to even consider dealing with chores again.