Take our Self-Esteem Test

Find a therapist near me

Keeping the house neat and tidy does not come naturally to everyone.

The field of health behavior change offers insight into successful strategies to improve cleaning behaviors.

Nine small changes can help you build self-efficacy, create constructive habits, and keep your home tidier.

Some people have a natural instinct to keep their environment tidy. I, unfortunately, am not one of those folks. I tend to prioritize other activities over clearing and organizing–writing, my vegetable garden, a cookie recipe I’ve been wanting to try. The house frequently spirals out of control, and I become frustrated with myself.

Hoping to break this cycle, I looked for research studies that would provide evidence of what would help me stop procrastinating and be less messy. My attempt at a literature review brought up nothing. Home cleanliness, it seems, is not a major research field. Then I had an epiphany: what works to change health behaviors would also likely work to change cleaning behaviors. As a health psychologist, I decided to take a taste of my own medicine and practice what I preach. Here are nine principles from health psychology to help you, like me, keep your home cleaner.

Identify a realistic, achievable goal to start. Setting good goals is one of the most common, effective starting points for changing behavior. If your entire home is chaotic, “cleaning the house” might be too vague and too ambitious of a target. Make the goal more specific and realistic for your time frame, such as “declutter the living room” or “collect all of the dirty dishes scattered around the house and wash them.” You might also identify an ongoing goal related to changing a habit, such as “start the dishwasher every night before going to bed.”

Problem solve what might get in the way of your goal. There’s a reason we don’t all have perfectly clean houses all the time: things get in the way. Identifying barriers will allow you to problem-solve in advance. If you want to clean out the garage over the weekend but the space gets........

© Psychology Today