Why Can’t I Stick to a Cleaning Routine? Maybe It’s Not a Motivation Problem

Journaling Techniques

Why Can’t I Stick to a Cleaning Routine? Maybe It’s Not a Motivation Problem. How did I come up with this resolve? ...Oddly enough by contemplating my struggles with journaling. I’ve heard time and time again that journaling is really good for you. Write down your thoughts, reflect on your day, work through your feelings, set your intentions—the list goes on. I’ve heard it suggested so many times, but I just can’t seem to get into it. It feels like it’s just one more thing that would be added to my to-do list but wouldn’t really bring me any results.

It’s not that I don’t see the value in self-reflection. I actually find a lot of value in it, and I do it in my head all the time. I’m constantly thinking about what happened, why I reacted a certain way, what I could have done differently, what I want to change, and what I’ve learned from something. I know there is value in getting those thoughts out, but sitting down with a notebook and writing them all down has never really appealed to me. I can’t help but think, “What’s the point?” I’ll write it down in a notebook, and then what? I’ll probably never read it again. Maybe I’ll even forget which notebook I put it in.

Morning Journaling Idea

I was lying in bed this morning when I had an idea. What if, instead of journaling, I blogged?

Physically, this seems like such a small shift. Instead of writing my thoughts in a notebook, I’m typing them on my computer. But mentally, it makes a world of difference. Now, instead of just writing on a notebook that no one will ever read again, probably including myself, it’s something that actually goes out into the Internet world. Maybe someone will read it. Maybe it will help someone else think through something in their own life. Maybe it will help someone grow. And maybe it will even help grow my business.

That’s a double win. That’s progress. That’s something I can get into.

Creating Habits

What If Blogging Could Be My Version of Journaling?

I’m not even sure where this idea came from. Maybe it started at back-to-school night when I was talking with my son’s English teacher about outlines, discussion boards, and peer editing. Maybe something about the idea of writing something down and having other people interact with it stuck in the back of my mind. Or maybe my subconscious mind works through things while I’m sleeping and then hands me the answer when I wake up. Who knows? I’ve had that happen before, where I’ll go to bed thinking about something and then wake up with an idea that seems to have come out of nowhere. Maybe this is one of those times.

We’ll see if this works better.

In the past, it’s been very hard for me to get myself to blog consistently. I’ll get on a streak for a few weeks, write regularly, feel really good about it, and then somehow fall off. Then eventually I’ll get motivated again and start over. I’m sure I’m not the only person who has this problem.

But I’m wondering if part of the issue is that I’ve been thinking of blogging as something I should do instead of something I actually want to do. If writing becomes something fun—something that feels more like, “I get to journal, but I also get to create something useful”—maybe I’ll be more likely to do it.

It’s also faster and easier for me to type than to write by hand. And I already have these thoughts going on in my head anyway, so why not put them into a blog post? If I can take something I’m already doing mentally and turn it into something that might help someone else, that feels much more worthwhile to me.

How to Stick to a Routine

Why Can't I Stick to Routines? Maybe the problem isn’t the habit or the routine. And that’s what got me thinking about habits in general. What if the problem isn’t that I can’t stick to a habit? What if I just haven’t found the right version of the habit for me?

I didn’t suddenly decide that journaling was valuable. I already knew that. I didn’t suddenly become more disciplined or decide that I was going to become one of those people who gets up every morning, drinks a glass of lemon water, meditates, journals for 20 minutes, and somehow has their entire life together before 7 a.m. 😂 I just changed the way I was doing it, and suddenly the idea sounded more appealing. And that’s when I started thinking about cleaning.

Cleaning Routines that Work

How many times have you started a cleaning routine and thought, “This time I’m actually going to stick with it”? Maybe you’ve found a cleaning schedule online, made a beautiful checklist, decided you were going to clean the whole house every Saturday, or promised yourself you were going to spend 30 minutes every morning cleaning before the kids got up.

And maybe it worked. For a little while.

Then life happened. Someone got sick. Someone had practice. You had an appointment. You stayed up too late. You had a crazy week at work. Or maybe you simply didn’t feel like cleaning one day. Suddenly you’re behind, and before you know it, you’re looking around at your house wondering how you got back to the same place again. Then the thoughts start: “Why can’t I ever stick to anything?” “What’s wrong with me?” “Why can’t I just be consistent?” But what if we’re asking the wrong question?

Cleaning Motivation

What If You Don’t Have a Motivation Problem? What if you’re not lazy? What if you’re not bad at cleaning? What if you don’t actually have a motivation problem? What if you have a system problem?

A cleaning routine can be a perfectly good routine and still be completely wrong for you. Maybe it takes too long. Maybe there are too many steps. Maybe it requires you to make a bunch of decisions every day about what needs to be cleaned. Maybe it expects you to have an hour of uninterrupted time when you barely have 15 minutes.

Maybe it was designed for someone who enjoys cleaning. And maybe you don’t. That’s okay!

I don’t think we need to become people who love cleaning in order to have a clean home. I think we need to find a way of cleaning that fits into the life we’re actually living.

Not the imaginary life where everyone puts their shoes away, nobody spills anything, the laundry somehow folds itself, and you have two peaceful hours every Saturday morning to deep clean the house.

Real life.

Best Cleaning Routine

Maybe You Need to Find Your Version of Cleaning. We spend so much time looking for the “right” way to do things. The right cleaning schedule. The right morning routine. The right planner. The right productivity system. And when we can’t make that system work, we assume we’rethe problem.

But maybe the better question is, “What would actually work for me?”

What does “clean enough” mean for your family? When do you realistically have time to clean? Which cleaning tasks make the biggest difference in how your house looks and feels? What can you do on an ordinary Tuesday—not your most motivated Tuesday, but a completely average, slightly chaotic Tuesday?

That’s the question I think we should be asking.

Not, “What could I accomplish if I really tried?”

But, “What could I realistically keep doing?”

Because that’s where consistency comes from.

How Can I Make Cleaning Easier?

What If Cleaning Could Feel Like Progress? I think this is another piece of the puzzle. One of the reasons my blogging idea suddenly feels exciting is because it feels like progress. I’m already thinking. I already have all these thoughts running around in my head. Now I’m taking those thoughts and turning them into something useful.

Maybe someone reads it and gets an idea. Maybe it helps another mom. Maybe it brings someone to my website. Maybe it helps my business. So even though I’m doing something for myself, I’m also creating something that can go somewhere. It doesn’t feel like I’m checking another box on my to-do list just because I’m supposed to.

And I think cleaning can feel like that, too.

When cleaning is just an endless list of chores, it’s really easy to feel like you’re working all the time and never actually getting anywhere. You clean the kitchen, and then someone makes lunch. You do the laundry, and then there are more dirty clothes. You clean the bathroom, and then someone uses it. It’s like the chores regenerate overnight. 😂

But what if your cleaning routine was designed around maintaining progress instead of constantly trying to get your entire house “done”? What if you didn’t have to clean everything every day? What if you knew which things actually mattered today and which things could wait?

What if instead of looking around your house and seeing 47 things you should be doing, you had a simple plan that told you, “Here’s what we’re doing today. That’s enough.”

I think that feels very different.

Home Cleaning Planner

The Cleaning System I Believe In is the one you'll actually use! This is really what I’ve come to believe about cleaning:

Cleaning should make your life better, not be another source of stress in your life.

You shouldn’t need to spend your entire weekend cleaning your house to feel like you’re keeping up. You shouldn’t have to constantly decide what to clean next. You shouldn’t feel guilty because you didn’t complete some giant list of chores. And you definitely shouldn’t have to be perfect.

I think a good cleaning routine should take the thinking out of cleaning. It should give you enough structure to know what needs to happen without making you feel like you’re failing when real life gets in the way. It should help you make progress, and most importantly, it should be something you can actually live with.

Because the best cleaning routine isn’t necessarily the one that gets the most cleaning done in a single day. It’s the one you can actually keep doing.

Consistency Comes From Making Something Easier

And that’s really what brought me back to my original journaling experiment. Maybe I don’t need to force myself to become a person who journals. Maybe I just needed to find a version of journaling that made sense to me.

And maybe you don’t need to force yourself to become a person who spends hours cleaning every Saturday. Maybe you don’t need more motivation. Maybe you don’t need more guilt. Maybe you don’t need another complicated cleaning schedule.

Maybe you just need a system that makes cleaning easier.

I’m going to find out if this blogging-as-journaling thing actually works for me. Maybe I’ll stick with it for months. Maybe I’ll fall off in three weeks and wake up one morning with another random idea. 😂 But either way, I think I’ve learned something useful.

Consistency doesn’t always come from trying harder. Sometimes it comes from finding a better way to do something.

And if that works for journaling, maybe it can work for cleaning, too.

Mom Blog

So Hopefully, This Is One Journal Entry of Many. And that’s the funny part. I set out to figure out how I could make myself journal, and instead, I wrote a blog post. And now this little thought that was bouncing around in my head this morning is actually something that serves two purposes. I would have used the old phrase to kill two birds with one stones, but I am mostly eat a vegetarian and vegan diet so that just doesn't feel like a match. But I think one thing is clear to me, I think I found a small pivot that will make all the difference in my consistency and much better results.

This blog is my journal. These photos are my art. This website is my portfolio to share with you.

Now my blog will be more like a digital magazine written by myself, a real mom, rather than a collection of SEO articles I forced myself to compile. Instead, I'm documenting my life, my thoughts, the things I'm learning, my home, my routines, my experiments—and turning those into something useful for others moms like you.

Maybe you will read this and realize your not failing at keeping your house clean. Maybe you'll realize your cleaning routine just isn’t working for you. Maybe this mental shift will make a small change. Maybe it’ll help. And if it does? Well, that’s a double win. Apparently, I may have just found my version of journaling. And maybe that’s the bigger lesson. You don’t have to become a different person to create a habit that works. You just have to find a way of doing something that works for you.

"Dear Diary: I Hate Cleaning, But I Want a Clean Home. Here’s the Plan." Book Launch

And because apparently documenting my cleaning struggles on the internet wasn’t enough, I decided to write a whole book about it. 😂 Dear Diary: I Hate Cleaning, But I Want a Clean Home. Here’s the Plan. is my 6-week plan for making cleaning easier, faster, and (hopefully!) a lot more fun—without spending your entire life cleaning. It’s packed with the system, routines, and strategies I’ve learned to help you stop wondering why you can’t keep up and start following a plan that actually works with real life. The book launches in January 2027, and you can preorder your copy now for $14.99. I can’t wait for you to read it—and, more importantly, to see what six weeks with the right cleaning plan can do!