How To Get Motivated to Clean? A Science-Backed Strategy.
We’ve all been there, waiting until the clutter piles up before getting ourselves together to start cleaning the mess. And still, sometimes when things get messier, it gets harder to clean or tidy up your room or house.
Yes, cleaning is an unpleasant and boring activity, and it is not something you are excited about doing. We all procrastinate on cleaning from time to time.
But how do you overcome cleaning procrastination?
Cleaning is viewed as a very tedious activity. Because, let’s face it, you iron your clothes, sweep the floor, wash the dishes, clean the table,… And one or two days later, you get to do it all over again. How exasperating!
But what if I told you that there is a simple yet highly effective strategy that can make cleaning and tidying up part of your daily habits? This strategy I use personally has been life-changing, and my clean and orderly house can attest to that.
This strategy is called the “Five S strategy” and is based on hard scientific evidence and also on personal experience. It will allow you to establish a sustainable cleaning habit.
I will present in this article this strategy and the science behind it.
Trust me, this will work if you give it a try. You just need to commit to the five steps.
You’ll be able to tackle your housework like a pro, not a pro-crastinator.
Let’s get into it.
Table of Contents
First, and before starting with the strategy, I need to be honest with you. I am not going to answer the question: “How to get motivated to clean?”, for the very simple reason that this question is wrong, as in fact, motivation and cleaning don’t belong in the same sentence.
And you know why? Because you’ll rarely if ever get really motivated to clean your house, no matter how often you do it or how much you reward yourself for washing those dishes or dusting the furniture. Cleaning is boring, and it is going to stay that way, at least for most of us mortals.
Your first step to getting yourself to clean and tidy up is to understand why motivation is completely unnecessary and why you should toss it in the trash in order to become productive and overcome your clutter procrastination.
A more in-depth read on clutter procrastination.
The Motivation Myth: Why Motivation is the Worst Enemy of Productivity.
I am at a point in my life where I have literally banned the word “motivation” from my vocabulary.
Motivation is one of the most destructive concepts that hinders productivity and slows down your progress in life.
Relying on motivation is a surefire way to be disappointed and lose all confidence in your abilities and your overall self-esteem.
I don’t want to get overboard on why motivation is garbage and worthless, but there are three main reasons.
Motivation Is Unpredictable: trying to predict when your motivation will strike is like predicting the British weather. It is a game of chance. Yes, sometimes you’re more motivated in the morning, or late in the afternoon, but you can’t reliably predict how motivated you’ll be to clean your messy room.
Motivation Is Unsustainable: Let’s assume that you have a great deal of motivation to clean those dirty windows or iron your clothes. Do you think you’ll be able to sustain this motivation for a long period of time?
Your motivation can come and go in a matter of minutes, especially if you’re faced with the daunting task of decluttering. Rest assured; motivation is not there to stay. It is like an unfaithful friend; you don’t know when they will turn their back on you.
This goes back to what’s called the “ego depletion effect,” which is the idea that willpower and self-control are finite resources, and the more you use them, when pushing yourself to do things, the more they get drained and depleted until your capacity for self-control becomes impaired.
Motivation Is A Trap: This happens when you tell yourself, “I need to feel motivated or be in the mood before I take action.”
You wait for motivation to strike before beginning tasks. You rely on something unpredictable and unsustainable to start cleaning the room or mopping the floor.
This is a dangerous trap, because you’ll fall victim to the cycle of motivation-action, where you’ll always be at the mercy of motivation before getting things done.
Over time, you’ll be so disappointed in yourself that your self-confidence takes a serious hit, and you’ll miss out on a lot of opportunities to be productive.
You need to understand that action precedes motivation; you need to take action first, and motivation may follow or may not; it is not important anyways.
For example, you hesitate to go to the gym, because you’re not motivated. But when you go and finish your workout, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment and a good feeling about yourself.
Now that you’ve wiped out the word motivation from your vocabulary, let’s start with the “Five S strategy.”
The "Five S" Strategy:
I have been using this highly effective and science-backed strategy for years now, and it has been a game changer in regard to overcoming my procrastination and reluctance to accomplishing tedious tasks, including cleaning or tidying up.
The Five S Strategy stands for:
- Sequence
- Schedule
- Shackle
- Set a timer
- Strengthen
1. Sequence
A cleaning routine should be a sequence of actions that need to be planned ahead of time. These actions involve all the chores that you need to do as part of your cleaning routine.
How you establish a cleaning routine largely depends on your available time, your house surface, your home appliances, etc.
First, pick up a pen and paper and start writing down your different chores.
For example: your daily cleaning routine can look something like this:
Put the dishes in the dishwasher → Put the clothes in the washing machine → clean the table → fold clothes and sheets → clean my cat’s litter.
Please remember that the important part here is that each routine is composed of a set sequence of tasks that need to be done in the same order every time. This means you choose an order of actions to follow, and you need to stick to it.
… Now, write down your cleaning routine in your preferred order.
The Science Behind Sequencing (The Ego Depletion Theory)
If you are interested in the science behind this technique, read this part; if not, jump to the next step.
Sequencing involves creating and accomplishing a set of tasks in the same order every time. Or, at the very least, you maintain the same order as much as possible.
This is important because if you don’t have a clear series of tasks, you will have to start making decisions and choices on what to do next. This process of deciding what to do next will cause what’s called “ego depletion” or “decision fatigue.”
In other words, your self-control is like a battery that gets drained with each decision you make, so the more decisions you make, the more likely you are to get mentally drained, and the more likely you are to procrastinate and avoid activities that require some self-control.
One way to reduce decision-making and thus save energy is by grouping tasks together in a sequence so that you already know what to do beforehand and won’t be thinking about what to do next.
The term “decision fatigue” was first documented by the social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister to describe the mental and emotional strain resulting from the burden of making choices. Subsequent studies, such as that of Vohs KD (2008), confirmed the existence of this phenomenon
2. Schedule:
Your cleaning routine should be scheduled daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly etc.
Some chores can be done on certain days of the week. For instance, clothes washing can be done on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Do what suits your particular situation and needs.
Now, use a calendar or a planner app to schedule your routine on a time that fits you, particularly when your energy is at its peak, like on Sunday mornings for big cleaning, and evenings for simple tidying up tasks.
You may also set different frequencies for your chores. For example:
- Some days of the week: wash clothes, disinfect surfaces, vacuum the floor.
- Weekly routine (once a week): mop the floor, clean the microwave, dust your home.
- Monthly routine: deep clean your home, declutter the garage, clean the fridge.
The Science Behind Scheduling (The Power of Planning)
A schedule establishes a predictable routine that reduces uncertainty and improves efficiency. It also makes you less likely to procrastinate when you are specific about what to do and exactly when to do it.
Scheduling also helps make yourself accountable; it prevents forgetfulness and promotes commitment.
There is evidence in the scientific literature showing the power of scheduling your important tasks.
A study on tetanus vaccination rates showed that 28% of Yale University seniors got the shot when they were prompted to schedule this action, as opposed to only 3% of the seniors who were not asked to do so.
3. Shackle:
Now that you have established a nice, sequenced cleaning routine with a clear schedule, your next step is shackling.
Commonly called “habit stacking,” as popularized by James Clear in his book “Atomic Habits,” this technique is going to make a big difference in sustaining your new routine.
Shackling means that you need to chain your new routine to an old habit or ritual.
Your cleaning should not be isolated from your other day-to-day activities. You need to bind it with an old habit.
Let’s assume you chose to do your big cleaning routine on Sunday morning. You need to find something you do habitually on Sunday morning. For instance
On Sunday morning : wake-up → brush your teeth → take a shower → have breakfast → watch Dr. Phil on YouTube.
That’s an already established habit. Now, you need to shackle your cleaning routine to it.
So, it will become something like that.
Wake-up → Brush your teeth → take a shower → have breakfast → start your cleaning routine → watch Dr. Phil on YouTube.
That is going to be your new ritual each Sunday morning. This new habit will take some time to settle in, but it will stick sooner than you think.
The Science Behind Shackling (The Power Of Daily Rituals)
You may be wondering why this technique is so effective. Well, it also has to do with decision fatigue, which means that the decisions or choices you make throughout the day gradually exhaust your energy to accomplish more tasks later.
This is why chaining your cleaning routine with an old habit, such as brushing your teeth or taking the morning shower, will eliminate the necessity to decide what to do next, so you are preserving your energy.
On the other hand, stacking your new habit with an old one makes it easier for the new habit to stick and for your daily activities to flow smoothly.
A 2016 study by Duke University scientists showed that habits leave a lasting mark on specific circuits in the brain. This may suggest that old habits are already well-built in your brain, and by binding them with new ones, you are making it easier for the brain to adopt the new behavior.
4. Set a Timer
Now that you’ve shackled your cleaning routine to your old habits, you will need to reinforce your new set of tasks by using a timer or, even better, a Pomodoro.
The Pomodoro Technique consists of working in 25-minute intervals with 5-minute breaks in between, while using a stopwatch or a Pomodoro App to keep yourself accountable.
After 4 pomodoro sessions, you take a longer 15- to 30-minute break.
Using a timer or Pomodoro while doing a task is a highly effective method to keep yourself focused, enhance your attention on the task, and limit distractions.
Also, taking short breaks in between work sessions increases your attention span and replenishes your energy.
So, your cleaning activity will go something like that.
Cleaning (25 minutes) → short break (5 minutes) →
Cleaning (25 minutes) → short break (5 minutes) →
Cleaning (25 minutes) → short break (5 minutes) →
Cleaning (25 minutes) → long break (15-30 minutes)
Regarding the timer, you can use either:
- The timer on your cellphone.
- Pomodoro timer app, like FocusKeeper or BrainFocus.
- Pomodoro timer gadget, like Ticktime Pomodoro Timeror Hexagon Rotating Productivity Timer.
- Pomodoro online timer, like TomatoTimer or Pomodor.
Check this article for an in-depth explanation of the Pomodoro technique.
The Science Behind Setting A Timer (The Power Of The Pomodoro Technique).
Research has shown that many components of the pomodoro technique, such as taking frequent breaks and working uninterrupted for a set amount of time, are effective in increasing focus and improving productivity.
Researchers examining the habits of employees discovered that the top 10% of the most productive workers typically put in 52 nonstop minutes of work, followed by a 17-minute break.
The National Institutes of Health researchers determined that taking brief pauses while practicing a skill (like playing the piano) strengthens memory and can help our brains better learn new skills.
5. Strengthen
Now that you have successfully established your new routine, it is unfortunately easy to relapse into your old bad habits of letting your house get messy and abandoning your chores.
So, you need to strengthen this routine. Here are some tactics to make sure you stick to your new habit.
Reward Yourself After Accomplishing The Tasks: after getting the job done, give yourself a pat on the back, a small reward, a cupcake, a nap, a walk in the park, listen to your favorite playlist, watch some YouTube videos, have a nice dinner … be creative!
Reward is important, especially in the beginning. As your new habit gets repeated over and over again, you’ll find out that you don’t need to systematically reward yourself after each cleaning session. You can reward yourself intermittently and less often.
Make Your Cleaning Routine Fun: One of the most effective ways to make your chores less boring is to associate them with a fun activity. This association should occur during the activity.
One way is to listen to good music while working, or even to an audio-book, a TV show, or a stand-up comedy show. This can make the activity seem more enjoyable, or at least more bearable.
The Science Behind "Strengthening" (The Power of Positive Reinforcement)
Rewarding a behavior by using positive reinforcement is one of the most well-studied and effective methods to build and reinforce new habits and behaviors.
Positive reinforcement occurs when you associate the target behavior (cleaning) with a desirable stimulus (reward) in order to reinforce it.
Positive reinforcement has been studied in both animals and humans, and it has been consistently confirmed that “what is rewarded is repeated.”
Rewarding good behavior is part of what is called “operant conditioning,” which is a learning method based on the works of B.F. Skinner and basically means that a behavior that is reinforced (rewarded) will likely be repeated, and a behavior that is punished will occur less frequently.
Takeaways
Let’s wrap it up. If you want to build a good habit of cleaning your house, you just need to follow a science-based and highly effective strategy called the “Five S.”
First, don’t rely on motivation, because it is elusive and unreliable. You don’t want to build sustainable habits on fragile ground.
Follow the Five-S Method to get yourself to clean and tidy up in a consistent manner. The Five S include:
Sequence : cleaning routines include a set of tasks that must be completed in a specific order.
Schedule: you need to schedule your cleaning routine on a specific day and frequency, depending on your specific situation.
Shackle: you need to chain your new cleaning routine with an old habit or ritual so it will flow naturally throughout your daily activities.
Set a Timer: use a timer or a pomodoro to time your routine and take 5-minute breaks in between 25 minutes of work. Take a 15- to 30-minute break after 4 pomodoro sessions.
Reward: make your cleaning routine an enjoyable activity and reinforce it with small rewards afterwards.
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About the author
My name is Sam David. I am the founder of "Proactivity Lab," a website that provides comprehensive strategies and resources for understanding and overcoming procrastination.
The website's resources are the culmination of more than 20 years of research and experience, during which I embarked on a long and gruelling journey of study and self-discovery.
Being a former procrastinator myself, it took me years of investigation and numerous trials and errors to gain a clear understanding of the underlying causes of procrastination and the most effective and scientifically supported strategies to permanently conquer the vicious cycle of procrastination.
I would like to share my knowledge with you, for free.
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