Please help! I have Multiple Sclerosis, become easily overwhelmed, and have limited energy.

by Sandra
(Alabama)

I have Multiple Sclerosis and I use to have a spotless home. Now my home looks like someone just dumped all of their boxes of clothes and junk in every room and I am not only overwhelmed, I don't know where to start. Could you please give me some idea of ways to get my organization and my clean home back with my limited energy level?

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Jun 03, 2011
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by: Samantha

Hi Sandra, it all starts w/decluttering & setting aside small amounts of time to do it. There's no way to clean & organize clutter.

Then you'll focus on setting up a cleaning routine, again in small increments of time to get your whole house clean weekly! Seriously.

Right now focus on decluttering where you tend to collect the most clutter & spend at the most 30 min a day decluttering. Break the 30 minutes down into 10 min increments & focus on three areas. For instance, kitchen counter for 10 min, kitchen table for 10, then the coffee table for 10. The key is to stick to 30 minutes max, then you're done for the day.

Be sure as you go through your day, when you use something, put it away, don't leave it out. This will go a long way in getting your home organized and decluttered. After a month of this, you'll have made quite a dent in the clutter.

Once you've decluttered, you can begin to clean. Focus on the busiest areas of your home first... typically the kitchen, bath, den, entry, etc.

But, first set up a cleaning routine & don't clean to perfection.

Break cleaning up into small time increments too, say 30 minutes a day. Here's an example of my cleaning routine of 30 minutes a day, keep in mind there's six of us here and it's high traffic, so you may not need to do this much.

Kitchen: after dinner clean up the dishes, wipe out sink with hot soapy water using the sponge I washed dishes with, rinse & dry out sink. Toss sponge in dishwasher w/dishes. Spray & wipe counters, stove top with all purpose cleaner. Do other appliances as needed. Wipe table & chairs down & sweep up under table & kitchen floor. Use rag that I wiped up table with to clean up any spots or spills on the floor. Time,10 min max!

Baths: Cleaned everyday as they would be pretty gross w/four kids. Once a day, I take a rag & wipe off spots on the mirrors. I use the same rag to wipe up the counters with an all purpose cleaner wiping off the faucet & the sink out too. I then wipe the toilet starting at the top ending at the bottom with the same all purpose cleaner and rag I used on the counters. I use a toilet brush and with some hand soap or all purpose cleaner squirted on it to quickly swish and swash the toilet bowl and I'm done. Time is 10 minutes max for THREE bathrooms!

The last ten minutes are used to spruce, dust, & vacuum the other high traffic areas such as my den or wood stairs & hallway which always seem to collect dust bunnies.

Other than the 30 minutes a day, I do spend at the most an additional hour a week devoted to dusting, moping, and vacuuming the other parts of my home.

That's a total of 38 minutes out of my day cleaning & organizing my home! Laundry is thrown in there too. That's it!

The key is to declutter, set up a simple & fast cleaning routine, & do it for short bursts of time daily and before you know it, you'll be able to enjoy an organized and clean home.

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