5 Mindful Cleaning Tasks to Reduce Stress and Keep Your House Clean

OCTOBER 14, 2021 | Cleaning Tips, Get Organized

Meditation instructors encourage people to use cleaning tasks as a way to destress, even though many people consider them taxing. Finding ways to be mindful and take care of our mental health helps each and every one of us live happier, longer lives. So, let’s get cleaning! Here are five mindful cleaning tasks to help you create a peaceful sanctuary in your mind and your home at the same time.

1. Doing the Dishes
In Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Art of Mindful Living, one of the first ways he suggests practicing mindfulness is by doing the dishes. To provide some perspective, he tells the story of a woman he met who lived the majority of her life without access to clean, running water. When she was gifted an apartment with a sink, she spent the entire first day washing and rewashing dishes purely out of joy.

Most of us don’t think of running water as a luxury, but it is! Next time you wash your dishes, practice gratitude for your dishwashing setup. Here are a few ideas to help you enjoy the experience even more:

• Use soap scented with soothing aromas, like lavender or eucalyptus.
• Scrub dishes with the highly effective Scrunge^Ⓡ Non-Scratch Sponge.
• Use Playtex^Ⓡ Living^Ⓡ Gloves to keep your skin protected and comfortable.

You can make it a truly mindful experience by focusing on your senses, one at a time, while you scrub, rinse, and dry. Listen to the trickle of water down the sides of the sink. Inhale the aroma of the soap. Enjoy the warmth of the water on your skin. Watch the soap bubbles slide off your plates as you rinse. Doing the dishes can be more than just a chore!

2. Sweeping
Taking a little time out of your day to clean your floors goes a long way. Try bringing a little mindfulness into your sweeping by letting your thoughts and to-do lists drift away while you focus on every sweep of the broom and watch every bit of dust and dirt go into your dustpan. The more often you sweep, the more time you can spend enjoying dirt-free floors. Instead of dreading sweeping, give yourself peace of mind with the broom that gets into every groove and corner: PowerCorner^Ⓡ PetPro Broom (pro tip: this is an exceptional cleaning tool for pet owners!).

3. Deep Cleaning
If you like your home tidy, you most likely set aside regular time to clean. But how much do you notice when you deep clean? The next time you need to dig in deep, go beneath the surface in multiple ways by doing it mindfully. Slow down and focus on the movements of your hands as you clean. If you notice your thoughts drifting, like what you’re going to do next or what you’re going to have for dinner, just acknowledge those thoughts are there and refocus on the act of deep cleaning. You can even pay attention to how you maneuver your favorite cleaning tools in your space. Find more ease with cleaning tasks by using tools that require minimal physical effort and eliminate the need for chemicals, like our EasyWring™ RinseClean™ Spin Mop System.

4. Decluttering
Clutter has a tendency to accumulate fast, which is unfortunate because it can have a major effect on our focus and ability to relax. As it’s becoming more normal to work from home, this kind of distraction can interfere with your ability to be present in meetings and complete your tasks as efficiently as you’d like. You can keep the clutter at bay by:

Having a “home” for everything, and always putting things back where they live when you’re done with them.
Providing yourself and anyone else who lives with you a place for “junk,” like a drawer or basement closet.
If you don’t use it, donate, recycle, or give it to someone else!

It can help to set aside some time every week for decluttering. Go room by room, shelf by shelf, and be mindful about your choices. Pause with each object in your hand, think about whether it belongs, and make an intentional choice about where it’s going to go.

5. Doing Laundry
We wear clothes every day, so it’s just a given that there will always be laundry to do. First, take the pressure off of this task by getting specific about what needs to be washed and what doesn’t. Do your laundry to restock your essentials, eliminate the pile on the floor, and enjoy the feeling of freshly cleaned clothes, mindfully, of course. When you bring some awareness to your laundry routine, you can create a system that fits into your day-to-day schedule much better. You can even liven it up by putting on your favorite music or movie while you fold. Once you get your system down, laundry can become one of your favorite cleaning tasks.

Clean your way to a stress-free home

As you can see, whether you look forward to or dread cleaning tasks depends heavily on your mindset. You are cleaning because you choose to take care of yourself, your family, and your home. With a little bit of intention behind each cleaning task and some effective cleaning tools on hand, cleaning can become an activity that reduces your stress rather than adding more to your to-do list.

For more cleaning tips and tools, check out more articles here!