If you were doing really well at keeping a clean house before the holiday season and now you feel like you can’t get your cleaning motivation back, you’re not alone. This happens to SO many of us every. Single. Year.
And no, you’re not lazy. (I mean it)
What’s usually going on here is burnout, overwhelm, or *both.*
One of the mamas in my cleaning routine membership shared this exact experience recently. She said she had finally been feeling on track and motivated. She felt like she was staying on top of her house and things were actually working for her, thanks to my podcast cleaning routines she’d been following.
(Click here to try some free episodes)
Then Christmas happened.
Between the holidays, family visits, kids being home, illnesses, and just regular life continuing to happen, everything unraveled. When things finally slowed down, she felt totally stuck. She wanted to get back into her routine, but she couldn’t find the motivation to start.
And y’all I know she isn’t the only one! If you feel like you’re drowning a little and no matter how much you want to get momentum back, you just can’t seem to do it, this is for you.
I’m going to walk you through a step-by-step plan to help you get your momentum back, and then I’ll share some quick practical tips that can help you ease into a realistic cleaning routine without making it feel like a huge uphill battle.
Step One: Stop Beating Yourself Up
Before anything else, you need to stop shaming yourself for falling behind. Girl, I mean it.
A lot of us experience a huge drop in energy and motivation after the holidays. Hear me when I say, that’s very normal. Routines get disrupted, schedules change, and you’ve just come off of carrying the massive mental load of the holiday season.
Wrapping up the year, buying and wrapping presents, managing kids’ activities, scheduling (and keeping track of) events, traveling or hosting, trying to create magical moments for your loved ones— it’s a lot. Even when the holidays are enjoyable, they’re still exhausting.
That feeling of “I can’t get back on top of things” usually comes from burnout. When you label that as laziness, it makes everything SO MUCH HARDER. So the first step is to stop talking to yourself like that.
Seriously. Don’t be your own bully.
Step Two: Stop Waiting for a Clean Restart
Sooo many of us get stuck waiting for the “right” time to start again. Monday. Next week. The beginning of the month. “Once things calm down.”
But things don’t exactly calm down, right?
What actually helps is starting right where you are.
If it’s Thursday, do Thursday’s cleaning tasks! (Need a routine? Here’s my blog post on my cleaning routine!) If you’re not following a routine, set a timer for 15 minutes and work on one thing. That still counts. It still builds momentum.
You just need to get the ball rolling.
Step Three: Ease Back In Instead of Going All In
Trying to jump straight back into your old productivity level usually backfires. And “trying to get caught up” REALLY backfires. When motivation is low, pushing yourself to do everything at once can shut you down fast.
Instead, ease back in.
Do part of your routine instead of the whole thing. Do some of the cleaning instead of all of it.
If you’re following my cleaning routine, I usually recommend skipping weekly tasks for the first week back. That means bathrooms, the fridge, and deeper cleaning can wait.
Focus on the things that have the biggest impact if they don’t get done. For most people, that’s
- Laundry
- Dishes
- Picking up clutter.
A load of laundry each day. Keeping dishes under control. Clearing surfaces. As your momentum starts to come back, you can add the weekly tasks back in, like bathrooms and airing the beds. There’s no rush.
Step Four: Hack Your Brain with Sound!
This came up a lot in our community conversation. When your brain is tired, the hardest part of cleaning is making decisions and staying on task.
That’s why audio routines are so helpful!
With my podcast cleaning routines, you don’t have to figure out what to clean, how long to clean, or what order to do things in. I guide you through everything in timed increments. All you have to do is press play.
While you’re cleaning, you get to listen to something comforting — I have audiobooks like Anne of Green Gables or Little Women, or old 1950s radio shows like Dragnet or Father Knows Best.
These routines were created specifically for days when motivation is low but you still want to make progress without having to think. There are free episodes available here if you want to try them out.
A Quick Note About Motivation
One thing that’s important to understand is that motivation usually shows up after you start, not before.
You’re probably not going to wake up one day suddenly feeling excited to clean. (I mean I never have, except for when I’m procrastinating something else!) Motivation tends to build when you start small and see things improving, even a little bit.
That said, there are some simple things that can make starting easier.
Cleaning Motivation Tips to Help You Get Moving Again
1. Cleaning Motivation Tip: Invite People Over (Soon)
One thing that helps a lot is inviting people over for something within the next week. Not months from now — soon enough that you can’t ignore it, but not so soon that it feels stressful.
Pick something you’re actually excited about, like a girls’ night, a craft night, a movie night, or having friends over for dinner. That date on the calendar gives you a reason to start cleaning again. Even if you wait and panic clean at the last second, it will still give you a jump start!
2. Cleaning Motivation Tip: Schedule a Full-On Rest Day
This one is especially helpful if you’re an introvert or you have ADHD like moi! Schedule a “rot day” where the goal is to do absolutely nothing.
Couch rot. Bed rot. Easy food in the crockpot. TV, books, snacks. No productivity asllowed. I usually plan these for Sundays.
Knowing that rest is coming can help motivation come back naturally. And honestly, most of us don’t fully relax in a messy house, so having a cozy day ahead often gives you just enough push to get caught up on cleaning in the week beforehand.
3. Cleaning Motivation Tip: Clean While You’re on the Phone
If starting feels hard, try calling someone while you clean. Set up a 20–30 minute call with a friend or family member and just catch up while you tidy.
You don’t have to overthink what you’re cleaning — use a checklist or a routine and work your way through it as you talk. After a week or so of doing this, a lot of people find they don’t need the call anymore because the routine starts to come back on its own.
4. Cleaning Motivation Tip: Turn Cleaning Into a Game
Getting started is often the hardest part, and games can make it feel lighter. One member in the community shared that she plays solitaire, and every time she loses a round, she does a cleaning task. If she wins, she gets to keep playing.
You can also clean during commercials or pair a small task with something fun. The point isn’t to be efficient — it’s to make starting feel less heavy.
5. Cleaning Motivation Tip: Get Dressed Like You’re Going Somewhere
This one surprises a lot of people, but it helps more than you’d expect. Get dressed. Throw on concealer or mascara, maybe lipstick, a comfortable outfit, and shoes. Feel pretty!
This tip goes back to FlyLady, and it’s not about looking good. It’s about shifting out of rest mode and into do mode. Sometimes that small physical change is enough to get things moving again.
What Getting Momentum Back Actually Feels Like
Getting back into a routine doesn’t feel like a sudden burst of motivation!
It looks like picking up one thing.
Pressing play on one routine.
Doing today’s tasks and stopping there.
If you’re struggling right now, it doesn’t mean you failed. Start small.
If you want, here are free episodes of my podcast cleaning routines, so you can try cleaning with guidance and see how it feels. And if this helped, I’d love for you to stick around so we can do this together again sometime.