How to clean your home when you're feeling down

Feeling down or in a low mood can take a toll on your ability to perform everyday tasks and affect your desire to do things you once enjoyed. Whether it’s spending time with friends and family, cooking dinner, or simply cleaning your house, what may be considered natural to most can feel like a hurdle of monumental proportions.

During these low times, it can be challenging to keep your home clean. The mounting accumulation of mess and clutter can further bring down your mood and affect your overall quality of life. When depressed, cleaning will be the last thing on your mind. However, it can be beneficial to try to do some basic chores, with research showing that a tidier home can help reduce anxiety and feelings of being overwhelmed and improve one’s focus.

Fortunately, dealing with a messy home is often not as challenging as it appears. However, it does require you to take the initiative to take small steps towards improving your living environment.

Tackle mess as it accumulates.

The longer you go without cleaning, the more daunting the task becomes. There are few things as demotivating as realising you need an entire day to deal with the mess that’s accumulated, particularly when dealing with depression-induced fatigue and low energy. However, small tasks can go a long way towards keeping your home clean.

Rather than letting dirty dishes build up in the sink, clean utensils like pots and pans as you cook, and rinse your bowls, plates, and cutlery after eating. While not a cure-all, it prevents stacks of dishes from mounting up; and the scent of lemon myrtle and mandarin essential oils in our Natural Dish Wash helps to enliven your senses as you clean.

Other small tasks include putting dirty clothes in the laundry hamper right away (as opposed to flinging them on the floor or a dedicated ‘dirty clothes’ chair), using a squeegee with our oxygen bleach to wipe down your shower to prevent mildew buildup, and wiping down kitchen countertops with our Natural Kitchen Cleaner after cooking.

Take it one room at a time.

While cleaning the entire house may seem like an insurmountable job, dividing it into smaller tasks can make it more manageable. Set aside thirty minutes to an hour a day and focus on a different room of the home each day. Start with the bathroom before moving on to the kitchen. Then, you can focus on decluttering your bedroom and living room and finally washing any laundry that’s built up.

Create a cleaning checklist

Depression can inhibit your ability to focus and make decisions, making formerly easy tasks seem difficult. To simplify the process, make a cleaning checklist. Include daily tasks like making your bed, tossing dirty clothes into the laundry hamper, and doing the dishes, as well as weekly tasks like taking out the trash, doing a load of laundry, and cleaning the bathroom.

Consider outsourcing certain tasks

If you have the means to do so, hiring a cleaner can benefit those who are time-poor or in the throes of severe depression. Using a cleaning service can aid in freeing up valuable time so you can focus on your mental health, your career, and spending time with friends and family. However, even if you utilise a cleaning service, it’s still important to keep on top of the day-to-day tasks mentioned in the first point (think: washing dishes, wiping down surfaces, putting dirty clothes in the laundry). 

Don't wait until you feel better to get started

Not feeling like yourself isn’t linear, with some days better than others. It can be tempting to wait for a ‘good’ day to undertake tasks; however, this isn’t a consistent source of motivation. The reality of having some hard days means recognizing that there will be both good and bad days — it’s essential to recognize this is human and be kind and gentle to yourself.