Motivating yourself to start spring cleaning feels impossible when you’re faced with a mountain of dirty dishes, a pile of wrinkly clothes, and stuff everywhere—especially if you’re already overwhelmed with work, your social calendar, and bare minimum self-care. But there’s one simple hack that can make everyone’s least favorite chores more manageable—and less time-consuming: The “five things” method.
“No matter how much clutter there is, there are really only five item categories in any room,” KC Davis, LPC, Houston-based therapist and author of How to Keep House While Drowning, previously wrote for SELF. There’s “trash, dishes, laundry, things that have a place, and things that don’t.” By addressing each of these messes individually, refreshing your home should become much less intimidating, Davis says.
Here’s how the “five things” method works:
- Deal with the trash: Start by grabbing all your miscellaneous trash in a bag—empty water bottles, granola bar wrappers, clothing price tags—and leave it by your front door.
- Put used dishes in the sink. Mugs on your bedside table, random forks on the kitchen table—gather them all and pile them in there.
- Toss dirty laundry into the hamper. Whether that includes sweaty gym clothes, rogue socks, or the abandoned outfits piling on your chair. (You don’t actually have to put them in the washer yet—nor take out the trash or clean the dishes. The goal right now, Davis says, is simply getting things where they belong—because seeing that visual progress can be surprisingly motivating.)
- Move miscellaneous items back to their designated spots: Once trash, dishes, and laundry are sorted, “put away all the items in the room that have a place,” Davis says. Maybe your kids’ toys belong in a basket, for instance. Your sneakers should be on the rack in your closet or bin by your entryway. Concealer brushes lingering on your vanity or bathroom counter can be popped back into your makeup organizer.
- Finally, make a pile for stuff that doesn’t have a “place”: This could include your partner’s spare earbuds or any new purchases you’ve been meaning to return. “You can then either spend time finding permanent homes for the stuff in the no-place pile”—like a designated junk drawer or a storage box in your closet. “Or set that aside in a basket, bag, or bin for another day.”
