Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - How To Make Cleaning Your House Fun! | Clutterbug Podcast # 180

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

In today's podcast, I share many different ways to use play and imagination to make cleaning your house fun. While you listen, try some of these different techniques and see if any resonate with you. This may seem weird and awkward at first, but I promise this is a wonderful way to feel motivated and inspired to actually clean!    You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When is the last time you played pretend, used your imagination to turn a situation that's kind of boring into something way more fun? I'm not talking about naughty time. I'm talking about our everyday life and how we can, I call it imagination station to add some oaf into it. Hey, Clutterbugs, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. I've been procrastinating and cleaning my house because I think having my house on the market to sell, I was hyper cleaning for a little while. So I was very much like every moment making sure I was picking up after myself and cleaning and shining things. And I got real sick of it real fast. And so now that we sold the house, it was like, the brakes went on. And I just went cold turkey. And I know I shouldn't be doing this all or nothing thing when it comes to cleaning. But I definitely took a few days off. And you know what? It was Canada Day.

I know my U.S. listeners, it's going to be July 4th tomorrow. Very cool. Take some time off. But what do we do when we kind of have fallen off the wagon and we have to get back on but we're just not feeling motivated? I want to talk about a technique that helps with cleaning your house, which is turning it into play, using your imagination, kind of making a game out of it a little bit. And I'm going to talk about like, lots of different ways that we can do that today. But this, every time I've talked to friends about this because this is something I do all the time to clean my house. And my friends are like, that's weird. It's weird you pretend you're a cleaning lady to clean your own house. Or it's weird that I pretend, you know, I'm filming it and making a video out of it or whatever it is that I do. And I do lots of different things to kind of create that motivation to make cleaning fun. But I think why this might seem odd is because as grownups, we've totally lost the ability to play, to really play. Not to like have a couple beers or some wine and get together with friends play, but like childlike

play. Create a world that isn't real in our imagination to spice up the mundane stuff in our life. And a lot of people do this, you know, in that bedroom. But that's not. more we're talking about. We can do that in everything in our life that's boring, right? And I want to talk about some of the really fun things that I do when it comes to cleaning the house. I've talked about it before, but I'm hoping listening to this podcast that you have an open mind to try some of this pretend thing. And I think if you're rusty, you haven't played imagination in a really long time, you haven't played pretend. You'll have to like dust it off a bit. You'll have to warm up and get yourself back into it. It's going to feel a little bit awkward, I think. But I promise you,

it's going to be fun. You're going to feel that little spark of energy that comes with playing. And that's what we can do today. We can play while we clean the house. And so the first thing I like to do, which is I do most often, this is the play that I do. I put on an apron. I gather. I gather a bunch of cleaning supplies in like a caddy or a bucket. And I pretend that this isn't my house. I literally just keep saying it's like a fake it till you make a thing. I'm hired to clean this house. How would I methodically do this? This is a hotel and I'm a cleaner. What would I do? I take the personal aspect out and I'm just like cleaning like a cleaning lady. I dust top to bottom. I pick up the trash. I make the beds or I strip the beds and put the sheets in the wash. I'm like wiping surfaces.

I vacuum and then I mop. I'm methodical. It's not so much about organizing or putting things away and tidying like that. It's like I'm hired to clean this place. And I'm usually listening to an audiobook or a podcast or even music while doing it. But the apron kind of solidifies it for me. You know, it's like you put that on and you just go to imagination station land, which is why, you know, the fly lady is super popular. She talks about putting on your running shoes. Dressing for the job works, especially when we're bringing in that imagination component and that play component. Man, you can wear a little black dress and put on a little white apron. You can pretend you're a naughty maid.

You do you, friends. We're not judging here. But pretending definitely helps switch our brain off from the resentment. Why do we have to do this? This sucks. I'd rather be doing all these other things. I want to watch a movie. I just want to grab a snack first.

And we're in the zone. Our brain is in imagination play zone. And so we're actually doing the thing. And so if pretending you're the cleaning lady, you're like, that doesn't actually sound fun. Well, let's talk about other ways that we can. play other things and their imagination games i'm hoping one of them really really resonates with you something that you're going to see if you watch youtube all over youtube super popular is clean with me videos so people will just grab their phone and they'll put it on a tripod or they'll balance it

on a box or something and they'll video themselves cleaning and then they'll speed it up and they'll put it on YouTube. Now, you don't have to be a YouTuber to feel the most, like the reason people are doing this is yes, they're getting views, but more importantly, it's motivating them to clean. I can tell you, making videos, having a YouTube channel motivated me to organize, motivated me to clean in the beginning when I really didn't want to, because it was like accountability. I was doing it not just for myself, but for the people. watching. I felt like I was helping the people watching. And even if it's just a before and after, so you're taking the before picture, you're going to be so motivated to finish it so you can take

the after picture. Tell yourself you're going to post it anonymously in like a cleaning group or something like that. And that's a fun. You don't have to. You don't have to actually post it, but maybe you would want to post it. The act of doing this, pretending this is your motivation, this is why you're doing it to motivate others to create a video or have before and afters to really like create content i guess so motivating and so fun it's going to shut your brain off you're going to be like holy diggedy deuce i got so much more done than i normally would have because you were videoing yourself or taking photos along the way trust just trust me here this is why there's thousands of YouTube channels of people who just video themselves cleaning their house,

they're not actually really, like they're kind of doing it for the views, but mostly they're doing it for themselves and for the motivation and the fact that it's actually fun. Because when you're doing it, you're cleaning for this reason, or if you're cleaning because you're the maid, you know, and you're the hired help or whatever, it stops your, it puts your brain in like a different zone. And so now you're just looking for the results. You can't wait to see the after. You're like making something pretty for someone else. You're doing this job for someone else. And especially people pleasers, which a lot of women are, it's hard for us to do it for us. It's hard to feel like we deserve it. And sometimes we don't want to work for ourselves. If that makes

sense we're like me i'd rather just if it's for me i'd rather just sit and rest but if it's for someone else and it's a gift and it's a surprise and it's something we're doing to make and bless someone else we are so much more motivated to actually do it so those are two ways that i play pretend on a regular basis that definitely definitely motivate me another thing that i've been doing recently Now, this isn't particularly pretend for me, but the more I talk about this, the more I hear feedback of other people who are not doing this, who are using this as an imagination. This is moving. So you're putting your house on the market. You're selling it and you're making it look really good. Or if you're decluttering, you're looking at your stuff as, is this worth packing and moving to a new house? So we're playing the imagination game that you've decided, you found your dream house, you're selling this house or you're moving. If you have an apartment, you're moving to a different apartment. We have to get this one ready for somebody else coming in. And then what would we pack and move? Again, motivating. It puts that little bit of pressure on us that we don't feel. We can't really procrastinate because we have like this big important thing we have to do. But also, again, we're results. Motivating. and giving ourselves that results motivation. So we have to have the house looking a certain way

because XYZ, like it is inspiring, it's motivating and it gets us up and it gets us working. And it eliminates our ability to procrastinate, which is why so many people can clean when they're inviting someone over, right? Your mother-in-law is coming or you're having like game date with friends. We will clean. We will clean. We will finally clean because we're results motivated. We want it to look nice for when company comes. That's the result. But we also have an accountability component. They're coming at this time. We have to have it done by then. So we can still fake this with this imagination play when it comes to our house. So while you're listening to this right now and want you to start pretending,

start an imagination of some sort. Maybe it is that I'm coming to your house to visit, to do an assessment, or your friends are coming over this weekend, or you're going to invite neighbors in on July 4th, which is tomorrow. Or you're moving, or you're hired to clean this house. It isn't actually yours. You're getting paid to do it by the hour. Hop to it, friends. Start cleaning. Look at your house differently. Use your imagination to put yourself in a different situation than the one that is just, I got to do this crap every single week because I'm a grown up and I don't want to be a grown up. I want to be a teenager, but I got to be the grown up because I'm old and I own this place and this all sucks. That makes us want to not do anything and rebel. Using our imagination

to create a play-based, an imagination-based reality when it comes to cleaning can turn all of that. I want to procrastinate. This sucks negative self-talk off. Try it. Try it. If you don't have an apron, that's okay. I don't know. What else?

Put on some scrubs. Definitely put on running shoes. Dress whatever part. Put on some stilettos if you want to go there. There's no, this is a judgment-free zone, whatever it takes to get you cleaning or grab your phone, put it in the corner somewhere, hit record, shoot some befores, you're making a video. You're making a TikTok before and after TikTok. You don't even have to post it. But if you want to post it, because that's even more motivating, you can do this anonymously. It's fun. It's fun. I want you to give it a try right this second. If the idea of making a video or you just like, I don't really want to play pretendcast, this feels awkward and super weird, here's an easier way that you could dip your toe into playing pretend water and still have a really effective result. Take a before photo of your space right now,

the kitchen. Just stand back. Take a big, wide before photo. Now look at this photo. How can you make it better. You want to take an after photo, set a timer for 30 minutes and take an after photo after 30 minutes with the goal, with having that results based of making the most dramatic difference that you can, which means you're going to be really motivated to clear off the counter more than normally, to get all the dishes done, to shine those counters. That before and after photo, it doesn't matter if you're posting it somewhere or not for you is just enough play just enough of a fun different thing to like shake it up to really push you you're giving yourself a game that's that's really what this is it is so powerful and not only that when the timer goes off you're going

to look at you're going to take another photo and you're going to look at the difference and you're going to be like, wow, I actually accomplish something, which is something we don't always feel when we're cleaning our house, especially if we have a house that feels very messy, very cluttered. It could feel like what the freak is the point? I'm going to work for an hour and it's not even going to look that different and it's going to just get messy again and what's the point? And when we have that mentality, it's so hard to dig our way out. It's so hard to actually feel motivated to make an impact and we're never going to get to a point where we have a house where we crave and the house we deserve if we're stuck on that cycle. And so play can help us get there.

So take a photo. Like right now as you're listening to this, take your before photo. Let's see how dramatic of a before and after you can make. Something I do after I listen to a podcast, Lisa from Farmhouse on Boone, I do like, I want to say Little House on the Prairie, but I don't want to offend her. Homemaker? I pretend I'm a homemaker. And, you know, I don't know, again, I put on the apron, but it isn't so much like this isn't my house. It's that this is my house. And as a homemaker, I'm taking care and nurturing. This is usually where I bake a loaf of banana bread. And while that's baking in the oven, I clean the kitchen and I make things and I prepare dinner, you know, and I do all this weird stuff that normally I hate and dread, but I'm pretending, not that I'm Lisa,

but that I have the same passions that Lisa does. And I actually enjoy being a homemaker. And I pretend that caring for my space brings me immense amounts of joy and satisfaction, which sometimes it does, but most of the time it does not. I love it when it's clean. I feel so good. But I are I'm not always wanting to do the work. I'm kind of lazy and I hate boring stuff. That's the truth. I hate that boring, repetitive crap that you do it and then you have to do it again the next day and the next day. And every day till we die. We got to do dishes and laundry every day till we die. And that can feel horrible. Let's be honest. So we have to make it fun. We have to change it up a little bit. We have to like, spice it up. I keep thinking back to love life here and I don't know where my mind is going,

but let's be honest. Like, we need this. So playing Homemaker really, really motivates me. And I, I do all of these pretend things at different times, whatever I'm kind of feeling in the moment. If I've got some rotten bananas, I definitely pull out Homemaker. So while the banana bread's baking, it takes 42 minutes. I have 42 minutes to clean other areas of my home. And then afterwards, I'm like, Joe's always like, oh, you're in homemaker mode. It's not all the time. But yeah, it's fun. And the whole time I'm still listening to a podcast. I'm distracting my brain. But I am reminding myself of the game and the play at the base of this. I'm reminding myself of the game or the play. And so I'm hoping one of these resonates you. We have more. I have more little fun games that you can play. But while you're listening to this, let's start pretending. And let's start doing one of these things. As you put in that load of laundry, as you make your bed, it can be a little bit of everything in the game. While you're making the bed, you can pretend you're making a hotel bed and see how tight you can get this.

sheets while you're cleaning your kitchen. You can pretend you're a homemaker and you're getting it clean before you make this big gourmet dinner. You can pretend you're being hired to clean the bathroom and you're finally scrubbing that grout and let's see if you can get it off. Take that before and after picture. Just see how much shinier you can get your bathroom. Right? It's fun. It can be really fun. Before I talk about one of the most embarrassing ways that I I play Imagination Station and make cleaning more fun. I have to thank today's podcast sponsor, Cozy Earth. I actually made my bed this morning and I switched my sheets.

I'm so proud of myself. They were kind of nasty. But I put on my new Cozy Earth sheets that I just got a brand new white set because I'm selling the house and, oh, let me tell you, there's something really nice about having beautiful, soft, cool sheets that you crawl into. And cozy earth is hands down my favorite bedding of all time. It was named Oprah's favorite things for a reason. They are bamboo. And the more I wash them, the softer they get. But I've had some of these sheet sets for years. They do not wear out. It feels like luxury, but affordable luxury. And right now, my listeners can get an exclusive offer

up to 35% off sitewide when you use the code clutterbug. Go to cozyearth.com and use that promo code Clutterbug for up to 35% off all their beautiful sheets, bedding. I love their waffle blankets, their pillow, whatever you need to make your bed a sanctuary. I'm almost like embarrassed to admit all these games that I play with you, but whatever. It's fine. I call it cleaner. size. This one's a little embarrassing. Okay. So in imagination station land in Cass's house, cleaner size is this whole other YouTube channel that I have where I have invented cleaner size. This game has a backstory, okay? Cleaner size is where you clean your house and exercise at the same time.

And I have a set of products that I've invented to make cleaner sizing fun. I have like dusters with weights on it. So as you dust, you're also doing biceps. I have a weighted mop. So you can like, you know, press it and curl it while you're cleaning. I do squats while I vacuum, you know. I don't exercise, friends. So a lot of this is imagination. But I think about this. I fantasize about this cleaner size fantasy while I'm cleaning. And I'm not always doing exercises, but I'm like practicing out some things. Like if I'm, you know, curling in the vacuum back and forth, you know, and as I'm inventing this very convoluted, very elaborate cleaner size invention brand in my brain, I'm actually cleaning the house at the same time. I'll be loading the dishwasher and doing the

dishes and thinking like, how can I turn this into cleaner size? are we squatting while we're putting the dishes down? Is this a technique I could teach? And I haven't like actually come up with anything good, but that's not the point. The point is my brain is distracted. My brain is creating and having fun and thinking of all this stuff that's, you know, has to do with the cleaning exercise. And so this fantasy that I'm putting together, is motivating me to clean and keep going and taking my mind off, really, taking my mind off the crappiness. And you're probably listening to this and you're like, wow, that seems excessive, just literally put on some music or put on an audiobook. But that doesn't give me

the same results base. It is critical for me to distract my brain with music or an audio book or a podcast while cleaning, critical. But I also need that extra motivation to take it 100%, to take it to the end, like I would if I was inviting someone over. Otherwise, as soon as I get kind of bored of the book or board of the music, I'll just stop because I don't have that results-driven thing. I'm not trying to get to a certain end, which is what these are. kind of fantasies help me achieve. They give me a goal, which is, well, I'm going to have to show

someone the final reveal, or I'm going to have to take a picture of the final thing, or someone's hired me and they're going to come home and see the final thing. I have to complete this task to 100% as part of the fantasy I've created, which means I still have that amazing, you know, turn off your brain, not getting distracted with the music or the podcast or the audiobook, but the fantasy takes it all the way. Does this make sense? I hope listening to this that this makes sense. Okay, so the last fantasy that I do, which is also a little bit embarrassing, is I own my own cleaning company, but not like a cleaning company, but I create cleaning products. So I'm testing them.

different scents, different concoctions. I'm testing them in my home to see, you know, how effective they are. And if I enjoy the smells. And this is a whole, again, fantasy that I have. And I make my own cleaning supply. So I make my own glass cleaner. And then I go test it on all my mirrors. And I make my own multipurpose cleaner. And I'll add like essential oils for different scents. And then I'll test it on all the surfaces pretending like I'm filming an infarpose. And I'm filming an infarpose. infomercial to show how amazing these products are. You're going to think I'm so weird. I know you're going to think I'm weird. But this is the truth. I bring play and imagination into a lot of my day. A lot of my day. And this one I find very helpful. And I've talked to actually, Melissa Maker from

Clean My Space. This is sort of something she does too, but she actually created a business, you know, that that does this for a living. But this play, this imagination, even when she's not filming a video, she will kind of pretend that she is teaching someone how to clean a bathroom, teaching someone how to make a bed properly, teaching someone how to shine their counters or get the perfect vacuumed floor, the fastest, most effective way to mop your floors. You can play. You can imagine this. You can create this whole elaborate world in your mind and indulge yourself in some play. Just like kids, like we'll play on the floor and create this fantasy world and this game. You have that ability to still do that.

Just because we're adults doesn't mean that that is gone. We've just stopped doing it. And I don't know why because it's fun. And it makes life more interesting. So play today. Play while you clean your house. Give yourself that results end. Imagine, you know, someone's coming over or imagine that a magazine is coming in to take photos of your home. Or imagine you're going to post these before and after photos. Or imagine that you've invented cleaner size. And you have to come up with the different exercises of how to clean an exercise at the same.

same time. It sounds weird. I'm actually a little mortified to create this podcast, but if it's helpful, I know it's helpful for me. If it's helpful for you, that's all that matters. Because let's be honest. At the end of the day, we have to be grownups. We have to clean the house. We do. because it's the foundation for our entire life. And when it's chaotic and messy and smells and is gross, we feel like crap about ourselves. And our family feels like crap about themselves. And it damages our relationships and our self-confidence.

And it just, when it's shaky, our whole world feels shaky. This is something we can control. This is something that can elevate. Every other aspect of our life, when we feel confident that we have our home under control and we feel good in our space and it makes us feel proud of ourselves to have a clean house, every other aspect of our life is going to feel better. We're going to do better. And we don't have to be those people that clean like crazy with a toothbrush on the floor, you know, or, you know, every speck of dust. We just have to consistently do the work to have a good enough home. The dishes are done. We wash our sheets sometimes. We got to do that, friends. We don't want to. We got to do that. Our laundry is kept up on.

The living spaces are tidy. Our bathrooms are clean. Our house generally smells pretty nice and not just because we lit a candle, but because it's clean. That sounds amazing. We deserve it. And we can give ourselves that and we can make it easier and even fun by playing a little imagination station