Monday through Friday I go to the clubhouse, and sometimes to the Y afterward. Today being Saturday, and Tuffy no longer being critically ill (thank God!) I planned to clean the house. But as I look around, I feel overwhelmed and don't know where to start.

What do you do in a situation like this?

Glad to hear that your kitty is feeling better LbF

I sooo know where you're coming from with the overwhelmed by cleaning the house thing! What I do is make a mental list, compartmentalize each task, and just focus on that one task at a time. Sometimes I turn it into a sort of "Beat The Clock" type of game. For example I usually start by throwing a load of laundry in the washer (2 min). Empty the dishwasher (2 min). Turn on some music and try to beat or meet the time allotted. Make the bed (2 min). The smaller you break down each task, the faster the time flies!

Great ideas, releve! (And thank you for the good wishes, chitown.)

I remember a game my second daughter and I used to play, when we were both overwhelmed. Top That! I'd put away one item, sit down and say, "top that," she'd put away two, then I'd put away three, and so on. Even then she knew it was a "help mommy stay on task" technique. What I ended up doing Saturday was having her come over and help. I also started on one end of the house and worked my way to the other end. Actually, I got quite a bit of work done. I cleaned the master bedroom and bath, did three loads of laundry, and with Tiffany's help, organized the home office. Hubby swept, mopped, and vacuumed. Tiffany did the kitchen and living room. The house is not completely clean to my standards, but I have very high standards. It won't be.

You're right about the music. 50's doo-wop usually gets me in the mood. Don't know why.

I get that way a lot. The very thought of cleaning the ENTIRE house is scary to me. So what I do is focus on one thing at a time, like for instance.. today I will just clean my kitchen. And if I do more hurrah its a bonus.. but just focusing on one thing at a time saves me big time. If I don't think like that I would crawl into a hole and never get anything done.

I have the same problem. Doesn't take much at all for me to get overwhelmed, then I don't get anything done becaue then I just sit and stare at it.

I learned that making a written list helps me big time. I write down all of the chores I need to do and then I check them off as I go. Even at work (I am a teacher) I will make a list of things to accomplish and do them ONE at a time. If I try to think of everything as a whole, that is when the freak out momen starts.

Even though the weekend is over, maybe next time try the list approach. I use it all the time!

I'm with Leenie. I don't like to clean my whole house at once because it seems like such a big job. I dust one day, do bathrooms another, etc. I have to vacuum about every other day and I pick days during the week to strip one or two beds and wash the sheets. I have 3 boys so there's no shortage of laundry and that goes on every day. I also try to get more done on the days that I am home longer so on the days where I'm running around, it doesn't bother me if I don't get anything done. This method certainly won't work for everyone, but it does for me. I find that breaking things up makes it a whole lot easier. The other way to do it is to really clean all the sinks one day (bathroom, kitchen), so floors the next day, etc. I also keep Clorox wipes in my bathrooms so I can clean up in just a few minutes. Sorry for so many different ideas, but they all work for me, sometimes in combination.

Kids old enough? Hubby around? Get them to help! Our house we each start doing something. So while I was washing the dishes hubby picked up stuff and cleaned the couches. Then after I swept the floors he mopped, and so on.

I do a couple things when housecleaning is overwhelming.

1. Say "I will work on X for 15 minutes". 15 minutes is hardly any time at all, really, but you can actually get a LOT done in that timespan. And then once that 15 min is up, you switch to a different task. I use this on big projects (re-organize closets, for example) that can overwhelm me, and on tasks I'm dreading (because I can do ANYTHING for 15 minutes, even if I don't like it much).

2. Make a list of what needs to get done. If you're having trouble getting that started (sometimes I feel like just writing down "Everything!" when my house is out of hand and I'm overwhelmed), start at your front door and work backwards, room by room, listing what needs to be accomplished. Take pride in checking items off of your list!

3. I also usually give list items a priority and then set a total time I'll work - whatever timeline I have that day. So I might decide that getting the bathroom and kitchen clean is higher priority than, say, cleaning the garage. I work on the high priority stuff first, so that'll get done even if I run out of time.