Follow This ‘Mapping’ Strategy on Big Cleaning Days

When you’re facing a big cleaning project, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and not know where to start. You can use specific techniques for certain parts of your home, but how do you figure out which parts to even do? Here’s how: you follow this mapping strategy, which helps you figure out what to clean, when.

Why you need a strategy

Cleaning and mental health are deeply related. If your space is cluttered, you can feel anxious or stressed—but if you’re anxious or stressed, you may feel unable to clean. It’s a vicious cycle, but having a plan before you even try to begin can make a huge difference. For the same reason you might want to heavily schedule a busy workday in advance, or write down guiding questions before you start reading important material, setting a step-by-step plan before you clean can help you feel more in control and give you something to fall back on when you lose track of what you should be doing.

Before you start, make sure you block out time specifically for cleaning (and only cleaning). Put it in your calendar or on your schedule, and give yourself ample time to get everything done. Then, write down the areas you’ll do in order, even drawing a little map if it helps you to see it all visually.

Your best cleaning strategy

Some cleaning methods, like “junebug” or “rounds,” advocate for cleaning in a more circular pattern, moving from task to task until everything is done. When you’re following a pre-defined guide, area by area, you’ll have more structure. Some of the strategy advocates call for “following the wall,” or moving around your home, following one wall, and cleaning everything directly in front of it. That works, but it misses a few key spots—namely, everything above you.

Instead, your map should focus on one room at a time and move top to bottom, then left to right. Start with anything up high, like corners of the ceiling or a fan, and clean those first, moving down the wall to the baseboards. (This ensures that any dust that falls in the process is cleaned up when you start cleaning the room itself.) When that’s done, start on the left of the room and clean steadily, moving right. You can work in another cleaning method, like the “five things” technique, which makes you tackle trash, laundry, dishes, things with a specified place, and things without a place. Just be sure to do this for each section and also tackle any windows or closets in your path before moving on to the next one farther to the right.

When you finish the room, vacuum any dust and debris left behind, then move on to the next room. Following this step-by-step mapping strategy will ensure nothing gets left behind and you stay on-task to get it all done.