Make Cleaning Fun
When the word "cleaning" pops into your head, you immediately groan or say "I don't want to do this" or some other complaint. In this article you will find several ways to make cleaning fun for you, or at least as fun as cleaning can ever really be!
Contents
Steps
Adding the Entertainment Factor to Cleaning Up
- Find some music to sing along to or watch an exciting movie in the background.
- Important: If you do choose to watch a movie, make sure you don't get comfy somewhere and continue to watch it instead of cleaning. Sing or play music as you clean. You could dance when you are cleaning.
- Listen to an iPod, your mobile, or a radio to keep you entertained. Choose an interesting podcast to learn something amazing while you clean.
- Pretend you're on a game show. Set a timer and see how much stuff you can pick up in the allotted time! (Also see the step on rewards below, as you could give yourself a prize.)
- Pretend you're someone in a story. For example: Pretend you're Cinderella and you're cleaning the house, but you have to be done in time so you can go to the ball.
- Dress up. Dress up like a pop star and act as if you're cleaning up your dressing room to receive important people who want to congratulate you for an amazing performance.
- Color code your cleaning. Choose colors and pick up only the things in those colors. Then switch to another color, then another, until all the things have been picked up, put away and cleaned.
- Change things into categories. Set a certain time limit in which you have to finish tidying up that category in before you can move onto the next one. An example would be you have to pick up and put away all the clean washing in 10 minutes before you can move onto making your bed or vacuuming the floor.
- Reward yourself while cleaning. Many people get less and less motivated during cleaning. Eat a little of your favorite food or decorate your forehead with stickers; something to keep yourself from stopping.
Implementing a Routine
- Have a routine. It may seem a dull thing to do but it's a way of tricking your mind into doing things automatically without having to think "what next?". This frees up your mind for thinking about other things, for listening to music and for having a more enjoyable time than simply scrubbing and vacuuming.
- Make your bed before anything else. Doing this will make your room look cleaner instantly, providing you with a good sense of motivation. Even better, it gives you space to sort things on.
- Put things away next. Hang up clothes, put dirty ones in the laundry basket and put away all items that aren't in their usual spot. Instant tidiness!
- Clean the floor last. After all, it'll be strewn with stuff, and cleaning gear, until the very end. Once it's cleared, the mopping or vacuuming will be a cinch.
Making it Easy on Yourself
- Have a bin handy, so you don't have to walk far. If a room is without a bin, bring one in for the cleaning time.
- Set a timer. Stop every 10 or 15 minutes to have a snack or a rest.
- Organize your cleaning supplies. Put the sprays and polishes together, floor cleaning tools such as mop, broom and vacuum together and, of course, the cleaning cloths together.
Involving Others
- Invite friends to come and help you! (but make sure friends want to). Cleaning is always more fun when you have someone to do it with, and it doesn't last as long.
- Play a cleaning game with your friends. For example: Tell your friend to close their eyes, tidy an object up, and your friend guesses what's missing or try to shoot items into a bin from a distance.
- If you have to clean more than one room then after you finish one room ask someone if it looks good. If they say yes then usually you'll get into the cleaning mode.
- If you have siblings cleaning their rooms too, have a competition of who cleans their room faster, or have a parent be a judge and rate both rooms 1-10. Highest score wins.
Tips
- Take before and after pictures with your cell phone. Just seeing the difference can help.
- Pretend that you're an interior design artist, and rearrange/redecorate.
- Don't get lazy and stop halfway with a pile of laundry.
- Set a clock for 10 minutes and see how many things you can put away.
- Like Twister, stand in one place and see how many things you can pick up without taking steps.
- Don't whine for a long time complaining so you can enjoy later.
- If you have siblings try to bribe them with some kind of reward at the end.
- Add your own ideas to make it even more fun.
- Think. If you clean the room your friends can come over later. Or better yet, ask them to help you clean.
- Assign point values to tasks and make it a game
- Pretend you are cleaning a hotel and you have to get it done before the next guest comes.
- Listen to your favorite music and try to finish cleaning before specific song(s) end.
Warnings
- If you decide to watch television or go on the computer whilst tidying, you may end up sitting down when something gets interesting, and then you can't be bothered to get up again. If so, your room will never get tidied.
- While breaks are great, don't allow them to extend for so long that there's no cleaning time left. Putting off till tomorrow what can be done today is a waste of time and a form of procrastination that ends up making things more effort when you do get around to doing them.
- Be careful and don't step on anything sharp you put on the floor while putting things away.
- Cleaning is boring. No amount of dressing it up will change the fact that chores are dull because they're repetitive and not glamorous, and require an energy expenditure. However, acceptance may help you to jump this hurdle––through accepting that a) cleaning needs to be done regardless of how you feel about it and b) it's not fun but the end result is worth the effort, then you can find a middle path to coping with it instead of complaining all the time that it's boring. Everyone finds it boring, no matter what age, so suck it up!
Things You'll Need
- A bin and/or bag
- A friend
- A CD or radio
- Storage boxes
- Vacuum cleaner
- Polish
- Feather duster
- Water with washing up liquid and a cloth
- A positive attitude
- Reward Items (optional)
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- Make a Clean Room Feel Cleaner
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