The Best Excuses Not to Clean
12 Brilliant Solutions For People Who Truly Hate House Cleaning
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When cleaning the house feels akin to going to the dentist or filing your taxes, you're bound to come up with every excuse in the book not to do it. Unfortunately, a messy house begets a messy house until the task at hand grows out of hand. To help tame your hatred of home cleaning, we've gathered up the best nonstarters and provided you with solutions to get past them. Keep reading to find out how even the biggest house-cleaning hater can come to have a spick-and-span home.
1 You're so overwhelmed with the mess that you can't bring yourself to start
Solution: Make the undertaking more manageable by setting a timer for 15 minutes and only working until the timer goes off. You have to start somewhere!
2 Picking dirty clothes off the floor just means you'll have to do laundry
Solution: Put your clothes away every night after you take them off and wash a load of clothes every day so you're never left with a daunting pile of laundry.
3 It might be your bodily fluids, but the toilet and sink are still too icky to handle
Solution: Keep the essential cleaning supplies in the bathroom and do regular mini cleanings so stains and grime don't have a chance to accumulate.
4 Getting rid of the stack of mail means you'll have to actually sort it and deal with bills
Solution: Divide mail into "keep," "toss," and "respond" piles as soon as it enters your home.
5 It's going to take forever to get the caked-on food off your old dishes
Solution: Deal with dirty dishes right away by either loading them in the dishwasher or hand-washing them right after a meal. If you can't bring yourself to fully clean them, at least scrape off any remaining food under running water. It will make it infinitely easier to clean later.
6 Even if you clean things up, there's no place to put them away
Solution: Use baskets, shelves, and hooks to create a home for everything essential — and toss everything you don't need.
7 Sweeping and dusting will just move the filth into the air
Solution: Take a few minutes to wipe away dust in one part of the house during your nightly tidying-up sessions so it never has a chance to accumulate and take on a life of its own, and be sure to change air vent filters regularly.
8 Trying to clean up after the kids is a lost cause
Solution: Stash bins and baskets all over the playroom and put a couple of hidden storage containers in the other living areas so there's always a place to easily and quickly toss toys.
9 The kitchen's going to get dirty again almost immediately
Solution: Clean as you go while you're cooking and never go to bed with a dirty kitchen.
10 There's no point in making your bed when you're just going to unmake it tonight
Solution: Get in the habit of making your bed as soon as you get out of it. A made bed brings a sense of calm to your entire room and doing it first thing will set the tone for the entire day — even if you're just unmaking it again that night.
11 Vacuuming is surprisingly exhausting
Solution: Consider vacuuming part of your exercise for the day and revel in all the calories you're burning while getting your floor clean.
12 You’re secretly a perfectionist and you would rather have it be a total mess than be anything less than Pinterest worthy
Solution: Spend 15 minutes tidying up each day so your house never looks so far from pinnable that you give up altogether.
