Where to start cleaning a messy house

Not with the whole house. Pick one room and do three things in it, in this order: collect the obvious rubbish, clear one surface you can use, and put the cleaning things away. The goal is one small area that works, not a clean house — and stopping after the first step still counts.

The three steps, anywhere

Collect the obvious rubbish. One bin bag, one room. Packaging, empties, wrappers, old post. Only what is plainly rubbish — anything you would have to think about stays where it is.Done looks like: No rubbish on the surfaces or the floor of that room.
Clear one usable surface. Pick the one you need most. Move everything off it — what lives elsewhere into one box or pile to sort another day — then wipe it.Done looks like: One surface with nothing on it that you can use straight away.
Put the cleaning things away. Tie the bag and take it to the bin outside, rinse the cloth and hang it up, and put anything you got out back where it lives.Done looks like: Nothing from the reset left out, so the clear bit stays clear.

You need a bin bag and a cloth. Sorting, deep cleaning and the other rooms are for another day; a box of things to sort later is allowed.

This is a practice checklist for right now. The ticks are only on this page while it is open: they are not saved, they do not count towards any marks, nothing is posted to the wall, and the link you send has none of them in it.

Kitchen: three steps

Bag the rubbish in sight
If the kitchen bin is full, tie it and take it out first. Then a bag round the worktops, the table and the floor: packaging, empties, takeaway boxes, and food that has gone off.
Done looks like: No rubbish on the worktops, the table or the floor, and room in the bin.
Clear and wipe one stretch of worktop
The bit beside the sink or the hob. Dirty dishes stacked by the sink, things that live in a cupboard into the cupboard, anything else into one box. Then wipe it.
Done looks like: One clear, wiped stretch of worktop you could make a sandwich on.
Put the cleaning things away
Bag out to the bin, cloth rinsed and hung up to dry, spray back in its cupboard. The stacked dishes can stay stacked.
Done looks like: Nothing from the reset left on the clear stretch.

From choremen.fun/where-to-start?room=kitchen

Keep this room manageable — start a free list

That opens a free, private list with “Kitchen bin and worktops, every other day” filled in, and it says when it is next due once it is on. Nothing is added until you press Add — making an account does not add it, and the ticks on this page do not come with it.Why that often.

Bathroom: three steps

Bag the rubbish in sight
Empty bottles and tubes, toilet-roll tubes, wrappers and anything else plainly finished — off the bath edge, the shelves, the cistern and the floor. Empty the bathroom bin into the bag.
Done looks like: No empties left anywhere, and an empty bin.
Clear the basin and the ledge round it
Keep out only what you use every day; everything else into a cupboard or one box. Rinse the basin, then wipe the tap and the ledge.
Done looks like: A basin you can wash at, with the tap and the ledge round it clear and wiped.
Put the cleaning things away
Bag out to the bin, cloth rinsed and hung up to dry, anything you sprayed with back where it lives.
Done looks like: Nothing from the reset left on the basin or the floor.

From choremen.fun/where-to-start?room=bathroom

Keep this room manageable — start a free list

That opens a free, private list with “Clean the bathroom, weekly” filled in, and it says when it is next due once it is on. Nothing is added until you press Add — making an account does not add it, and the ticks on this page do not come with it.Why that often.

Bedroom: three steps

Bag the rubbish, and take the dishes out
A bag round the floor, the bedside and the windowsill: wrappers, empties, receipts. Cups, plates and glasses go to the kitchen in one trip.
Done looks like: No rubbish and no dishes in the room.
Clear the bed
Dirty clothes into the laundry basket or a bag; clean ones folded into one pile or a drawer; everything else off and into one box. Pull the duvet straight.
Done looks like: A bed you could get into tonight without moving anything off it.
Put the bags where they go
The rubbish to the bin, the laundry to wherever the washing gets done, and the box against a wall rather than on the floor in the way.
Done looks like: Nothing from the reset left on the bed or in the way of it.

From choremen.fun/where-to-start?room=bedroom

Keep this room manageable — start a free list

That opens a free, private list with “Change the bedsheets, fortnightly” filled in, and it says when it is next due once it is on. Nothing is added until you press Add — making an account does not add it, and the ticks on this page do not come with it.Why that often.

After that

Another day, another room, the same three steps. Somebody on their way round? The guests-arriving checklist. Want the whole place on paper? Work out a cleaning schedule, no account.