Living

Cleaning motivation : when it all seems too much…

Cleaning motivation when you need it most. And for me, that’s most days 🙂

As a home educating mum of four and not much natural know-how when it comes to keeping home, I need this. And I’m sure I’m not the only one.

And so today, I’m sharing with you my not-so-guilty pleasure. My favourite Youtube cleaning channels. Along with a few blog posts that helped me see cleaning in a new light.

The Secret Slob

I heard about Flylady a decade ago, around the time we started home edding, from other home ed mums. Spending so much time with our children, amassing so many resources, and projects and paper piling up everywhere, we’re all looking for the magic formula to meet the needs of our family whilst still keeping our homes comfy and welcoming, and at least vaguely clean.

I’ve learnt loads from Flylady and I’m ever grateful for finding her site. Over the years I’ve enjoyed her podcasts, her book and regularly revisit her website. Emotionally I’m all in, I love so much of what she has to say but putting it into practice, that’s been my challenge. Until I discovered Steph from The Secret Slob. And finally I think I’ve got it.

Steph makes videos on all aspects of the Flylady system. Following her journey from the secret slob to getting her home in order, Steph’s channel is jam-packed with cleaning motivation and always cheers me up.

Her videos and short and sweet, sharing her own daily routines based on the Flylady system. Totally do-able, whatever the season of life. Steph’s just had her third child and yes, he and his big sisters do make an appearance every now and then. Adorable 🙂

Her latest series – Deep clean for Spring…

And if that isn’t enough Flylady for you, check out Diane in Denmark. Found her through Steph’s channel, not watched that many yet, but what I’ve seen I’ve liked 🙂

Clean My Space

Melissa has her own cleaning business and has loads of tips and tricks to make cleaning easier. Love the three wave approach mentioned in this video…

Clean Mama

Becky offers an alternative to Flylady. But an important element in both systems is the nightly sink scrub (or as Flylady calls it ‘shining your sink’)…

Emily Norris

And while we’re on the topic of evening routines. Emily’s cleaning videos always fire me up to get going with cleaning, and I love having her in the background while I’m tidying and cleaning…

Small Changes

One of my favourite reminders to be kinder is to imagine you’re the star of a kindness documentary. This technique works great for cleaning too. Check out Sarah discussing just how helpful making real or imagined videos can be. Love it 🙂

So now you know, some of the time I could be cleaning I might just be watching these guys 🙂

But whether I watch or listen to them while I’m actually cleaning, or just mentally preparing 🙂 they always give me a boost of energy and enthusiasm that helps get the job done, and makes it a whole lot more fun.

But even before I discovered the delights of cleaning channels, the wisdom and generosity of the home education and unschooling community came to my rescue. It wasn’t just my lack of cleaning knowledge that was my problem…

The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.

– Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean.

Yep. My mindset was all over the shop. Desperate to meet the needs of my family. Needing help but never wanting to ask. Loyal to freedom and feminism. Resenting perfectionism, patriarchy and my own personal failings. I was in a mess, physically and emotionally.

But these posts helped shift my perspective, reclaim my personal power and even find hope, joy and kindness in cleaning, who knew? 🙂

I choose joy over grumpiness : Modelling Joy by Sandra Dodd. She has a whole section of her website about chores and serving others as a gift, wonderful stuff 🙂

Chores by Joyce Fetteroll. And some housework tips too.

An answer to the chores problem by Sue Elvis.

And if you’re still struggling to find motivation to get cleaning, maybe you need to harness the power of five 🙂

Or perhaps you’ve got too much clutter? Maybe a decluttering challenge would help x

Do you have any great tips on how to get motivated for cleaning? I’d love to know if you watch any of the channels I’ve mentioned and if you have any other cleaning channels you’d love to share, all recommendations gratefully received x

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