10 Step House Cleaning For When You Don’t Know Where To Start

I’m sure we have all been there… you have been super busy lately and haven’t had any time to spend on your home. Your hamper is over flowing, your bathroom’s a mess, dishes piled high in the sink, and who knows when the last time your floors were vacuumed! You are completely overwhelmed and have no idea where to begin!

I currently work as a Registered Nurse on the night shift. I am part-time, so I only work every third weekend. If you have seen my weekly cleaning schedule, you already know that I schedule the majority of my cleaning tasks during the week to avoid when I work. But trust me when I say that sometimes things come up… and my home suffers. Regardless of why it happens, sometimes we can feel completely overwhelmed when it comes to cleaning up around the house. If you are wondering where to start… this post is for you!

1. Laundry

I like to start with laundry. Grab all of your clothes, towels, etc and make piles in your laundry room or on the floor of whatever loads need to be done. Get your first load in. This way, while you are doing laundry, you can also be cleaning the other areas of the house. Multitasking at it’s finest! 🙂

2. Dishes

Next, I head to the kitchen. For me, it’s one of the most mindless areas to clean. Empty the clean dishes, rinse and reload the dirty ones. Grab any dishes laying around the house too! If you need to do multiple loads… it’s ok! Just get your first load in and running! It’s similar to laundry in this way because you can have the dishwasher running while you work on other things! After loading the dishwasher and starting it, hand wash whatever isn’t dishwasher safe and put any “dishwasher overflow/ next load” dishes into the sink.

3. Kitchen & Counters/Stove

Wipe down all the counters and the stove. I like to clean the floor last because crumbs sometimes fall when I’m cleaning counters! I also like to quick clean out the fridge of any “bad” leftovers or spoiled/expired foods. Leftover dishes can be added to the “next load” pile or you can add them directly to the dishwasher if you still have room!

4. Tables

Clearing the table or any tabletops makes a huge difference in overall appearance. Toss any trash, go through the mail and pay any bills, file important documents,and wipe down the table tops. Put anything else back in it’s place. Pull out chairs and vacuum or sweep underneath.

5. Living Areas

Next I fold any blankets, put throw pillows back in their place, and put any toys away. Just a general tidy of the main living areas. Dust or wipe down shelves or end tables. Vacuum rugs and floors once you are done. Again, I like to clean top to bottom, meaning vacuum or sweep last because things tend to fall or settle to the floor when I am cleaning.

6. Entryway

Clean up the entry and the entry closet by hanging up jackets, putting shoes/hats/mittens in their place and vacuuming the rug.

7. Bedrooms

Once I am finished with the main living areas of the house, I move on to the bedroom. I make the beds, clear off dressers and night stands, and vacuum the floor (unless this is where your laundry piles are… then wait until after obviously haha). Personally, when I have clean laundry, I dump it onto the bed to sort and put away. It’s so much easier to do that when the bed is made! It’s also incredible to me how much of a difference that makes as far as how clean the room feels.

8. Additional Rooms & Bathrooms

Move through any extra rooms in the house, including the bathroom. It depends on how much time you have, but you can either do a full clean of the bathroom, or wipe the counters and fill toilet paper/soaps and empty trash.

9. Garbage

Collect and throw and take out any garbage. Trash cans are likely full if you have been busy, so it’s always nice to “start fresh” and not worry about not having to jam trash into your garbage cans!

10. Rotate and Relax!

By now, overall you house should be feeling so much better again! Clearly you have been busy, but now you can sit back in an area that allows you to actually relax and destress! Remember to keep rotating your laundry and put away your dishes when the dishwasher is done to keep yourself ahead of the game cleaning-wise!

It’s so easy to become overwhelmed when your surroundings aren’t up to your standards. The hardest thing to do when you are stressed is start… specifically deciding where to start. This is the order of operations for me when I’ve fallen behind on housework. If something else makes more sense to you… perfect! The most important and beneficial thing that you can do is start. Start cleaning, start putting things back together, then… my favorite part… start relaxing! 🙂