It's no secret that the holidays are a stressful time, especially when you're the host. But what you might not realize is that falling behind on all your post-party cleaning will actually make you feel more stressed. "When you have a house that's cluttered, dirty, stinks . . . it just hits all of our senses and taxes our emotional system," explains author of "Better Than Perfect", Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo [1]. Conversely, clean feels good. This doesn't mean you have to follow behind guests with a broom, but it does mean that keeping up with basic home cleanliness throughout the holidays will actually make you more relaxed and happy. If you're someone who finds any excuse not to clean [2], then you're probably starting to feel anxious about now – but there's hope: Dr. Lombardo has shared 5 tips for making holiday cleaning more enjoyable. Check them out below.
- Focus on high-reward areas like the kitchen
- Maximize your efforts with high quality cleaning tools and products
- Clean with soothing scents
- Ask for help
- Retrain yourself to think that cleaning is fun
Because you're in it the most, the kitchen gets dirty the fastest and sets a chaotic tone for the entire house. "Somehow everyone ends up in the kitchen, so keeping the kitchen clean is a great thing to do," explains Dr.Lombardo.
Use high quality cleaning products that get it done quickly and effectively. Dr. Lombardo joined forces with Scotch-Brite [3] for the holiday season because she loved that their sponges clean up messes fast, so hosts don't have to spend forever cleaning. "It's a lot quicker, which means not only are you able to get stuff done faster but then you can kind of move on to the other stuff going on in your life," she explains
Pick product scents thoughtfully as smell is the only sense that goes directly to the brain, and it can affect mood. "There's research showing foul odors cause people to have more tension with others. Positive smells, they're just going to help when you have your in-laws in town," explains Dr. Lombardo. She suggests lavender for calm, citrus for energy, and mint, cinnamon, and pine for holiday-tinged positivity.
Just because you're the host doesn't mean you have to do everything yourself. It's okay to toss your cousin the sponge or ask your uncle to scrape plates. Asking for help [4] will make your burden more manageable and guests feel more satisfied when they contribute.
"I think we hate doing it because we've been conditioned to hate doing it," says Dr. Lombardo, adding, "I have kids and right now they're young enough that they don't know you're supposed to hate school, so they still love it. Eventually though people will talk enough about hating school that they'll start to hate it."