How to Clean When You Feel Overwhelmed at Home

Do you ever feel overwhelmed at home? You’re not alone. Homemakers often feel overwhelmed at home – whether it’s due to caring for young children or elderly relatives, or just the demands of daily life. Today I’m sharing talking about how to clean when you feel overwhelmed at home.

Sometimes, the mere thought of tackling the mess in our homes can feel like a mountain too tall to climb. Whether it’s a sink full of dishes from last night’s dinner, a pile of laundry that seems to regenerate quicker than you can fold, or a living room that looks like a tornado just went through, the overwhelming sensation can be paralyzing.

When this happens, the urge to retreat under the covers and hope the mess magically disappears is strong. But the peace lies not in avoidance, but in the simple act of starting—and doing so with intention and strategy.

If you’ve ever felt suffocated by the clutter and disarray, this post is for you. I’m here to help you break through the overwhelm and get your home in order.

Anecdote:

I remember a weekend when I had just come back from a week-long business trip. As soon as I walked through the door of my home, I was greeted by a scene that could only be described as “chaotic aftermath.” There were unopened bills on the kitchen counter, a living room scattered with random items—somehow there was even a shoe on the coffee table—and my bedroom? Let’s just say it looked like my wardrobe exploded.

I stood there, frozen, luggage still in hand, thinking, “Where do I even begin?” The weight of the task ahead felt so overwhelming that I considered booking a hotel room just to avoid dealing with it all. But then, a memory from my childhood surfaced. My grandmother, with her boundless energy and wisdom, once told me, “When you don’t know where to start, pick up just one thing. Clean one corner, one shelf, one drawer. Focus on that one task, and before you know it, you’ll find the momentum to do the rest.” Taking a deep breath, I set my luggage down, picked up that lone shoe from the coffee table, and began my journey of reclaiming my space—one corner at a time.

Video Transcript

Hi everyone! Welcome to today’s video. I’m going to be talking about three ways to help you get started cleaning when you feel overwhelmed.

I remember, as a young Homemaker, feeling very overwhelmed especially if the kids made a huge mess in the house or just if the kitchen was a disaster, my whole house was a disaster, and feeling very overwhelmed. It just felt like too much to overcome. 

How to Clean Your House When You Feel Overwhelmed

Over the years I learned that if I’m feeling overwhelmed by whatever task it is that I need to accomplish – whether it’s cleaning the living room, cleaning the bathroom, cleaning the kitchen – if it feels more than I can handle – if you’re having a bad week, a bad month, a rough year…

I mean there are times when our houses just kind of get out of control where we feel like there’s just so much that needs to be done and it can be easy in those instances to feel like you just don’t know where to start. And then you end up just kind of feeling paralyzed and nothing gets done.

#1 Choose a Place to Start

Okay, so the first thing you’re going to do if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the mess in your house, the first thing to do is just choose an area to start. Whether it’s your living room, your bathroom, your kitchen – it really does not matter. 

The goal here is just to choose an area in your home to tackle first. It doesn’t even have to be an entire room. You could say, I’m going to clean this corner of my living room. And you just choose that space.

So it really does not matter what you choose. The the most important thing is that you choose something.

#2 Break the Area Down into Manageable Tasks

Number two is: you’re going to break that area down into manageable tasks. So, for instance, if you chose your living room and you have dirty dishes sitting on the coffee table; and you have toys scattered around where the kids were playing; maybe you have unfolded laundry on the couch; maybe a pile of shoes close to the door… You have all of these different things and maybe you’re feeling like it’s just so much. And you don’t know where to start.

You’re going to break it down into manageable tasks. You want to think to yourself what what kinds of things in here are the same? Do I have laundry everywhere? Do I have piles of clothes that need to be put away? And you’re going to do that one thing first. 

So, you fold all the laundry or you pick up all the dirty clothes and you put them in the laundry room. You do that one thing first and then if you’re mentally worn out; you’re emotionally exhausted from doing that one thing – you can take a break.

Then, you’re going to choose another thing and you’re going to do the next thing. So if it’s maybe all of the Legos are out, pick up all the Legos.

This works really well for kids rooms too. You can explain to your children pick up all the Legos, put all the books on the shelf, put all of your blocks in the box where they go, put all of your laundry in the hamper. They can do step by step, one thing at a time. One like thing at a time. 

Instead of just picking up one Lego they pick up all the Legos. Instead of picking up one piece of clothing and then picking up something else, they pick up all the clothing. And then move on to the next task. 

It works really well for adults too.

You can mentally kind of break the space down into manageable tasks so it doesn’t feel as overwhelming. Because you’re not saying to yourself: I have to spend three hours cleaning this room because it’s such a big mess. You can say to yourself: I’m going to spend 15 minutes folding all the laundry and putting it away. Or, I’m going to pick up all the dirty dishes and go load the dishwasher. Or, I’m going to have the kids help me pick up all of the toys off the floor and put them back where they go.

You just you break it down into manageable tasks so it doesn’t feel so overwhelming.

#3 Work as Quickly as Possible

And the third thing that you can do… I kind of mentioned this already but, you want to work as quickly as possible. So number three is tidy up as quickly as possible.

If you feel like you only have a mental capacity to handle 15 minutes, set your timer for 15 minutes and say I’m going to tackle the laundry for 15 minutes. You do that one thing.You get it done and then you can give yourself a break if you are feeling emotionally exhausted or mentally worn out from trying to overcome this overwhelming space in your house.

Just work quickly. Try not to get distracted. You don’t want to and I’m guilty of this sometimes where I will pick up something in one room and take it to another room and then I’ll see something in that room and I’ll start taking care of that – instead of going back to the job I started. 

I want to really encourage you and it can be helpful to get a laundry basket and put all the things that go into a different room in the laundry basket so that you’re not walking back and forth. 

That’s a really great way to help you work as quickly as possible cleaning up the space that you’re working on. So that you’re not constantly walking across the house trying to put things away and then possibly getting distracted.

You want to just focus on the task at hand and work as quickly as possible so you just get it done.

I promise you’re going to feel so much better once you get whatever space it is you’ve decided to work on done. It’s going to allow you to feel more motivated to get the next task done. You’ll feel a sense of accomplishment and and it really does motivate you to continue working through the house and getting it all done.

So to recap: the first thing is to choose one space to work on. 

Number two is to break down that space into manageable tasks and not try to do everything at once but focus on one thing – or group those things together.Whether it’s the laundry, toys, or whatever. Do all those things at the same time. 

And number three is to work as quickly as possible to get the one task done. Take a break if you need to and then continue on. Set that timer because you can do anything for 15 minutes, or anything for five minutes.

Whatever you feel like you have the ability to manage, set the timer, and then push through it and get it done. 

You’re going to feel so much better! 

So if you have ever struggled with feeling overwhelmed by a mess in your house, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

I hope these tips help. I remember just being a young homemaker and really struggling with feeling overwhelmed by being a new mom and having young toddlers and not knowing how to manage my time well. Things would get out of control and it seemed like it would happen so fast.

I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. It is possible to get your house into a manageable place where you’re not feeling overwhelmed all the time. I hope to be able to help you in the coming weeks to get to a place where you feel like your household is being run efficiently and in a way that  serves you and your family well.

So, I will see you in the next video! Let me know if you have any questions about homemaking or cleaning your house – or really anything.If you have any questions just ask in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

All right, y’all have a great day and I will see you next time.