5 Ways to Make Cleaning Fun

1. Make Plans

Without a deadline in place, it's hard for me to push past a mere tidy home to a truly clean home. To combat this, I try to make plans to have a friend or two over for dinner or a yoga session once a week. A couple of days before the event, I walk in my front door and try to look at my home through my guest's eyes. What areas are welcoming and which are off-putting? From this perspective I create a list of chores. Keeping an image of my ideal gathering in mind as I work makes the work seem more worthwhile.

2. First Thing You See

I like to play a little game called First Thing You See when the amount of tasks I have to accomplish throughout the house seems intimidating. The idea is simple: as you enter a room, you fix, clean or put away the first thing you spot. Just the first thing, nothing more. For instance, don't do the entire sink of dirty dishes, just do that large pasta pot that's balancing precariously atop a stack of dirty bowls. Once you get the pot out of the way, you can see the bowls as the First Thing the next time you pass into the kitchen. Once the single task is finished, you move on to the next room and do the same.

Often completing one task will automatically take you into another room, such as when you take something to a trash bin, or put something in its proper place. As you enter that other room, be sure to note the first thing you see, and as soon as you finish with your current task start working on the next. If, instead, the task has kept you in the same room, pick another room at random. Sometimes I even roll a die to pick my next room, having numbered the rooms in advance.

Breaking my chores into these small tasks makes housework seem incredibly easy and I'm always amazed at how quickly my apartment can change from a complete wreck to neat and tidy in just one short, fun, hour. Besides, if you are scurrying from room to room, you're burning a few extra calories along the way. You can even enlist young children to help with this game, but beware as the youngsters will delight in finding tasks for you to do. Make sure they do their fair share!

3. Beat the Clock

When you write out your list of chores, put down a time estimate next to each one. Set a timer, if you have one, or write down the time when you start the task. If you finish the task before your estimated time, use that time to do something fun, or just put your feet up for a bit. I always enjoy time on the couch better when I've earned it.

4. Get Inspired

Turn your TV on and get to work! I tell my Tivo to catch episodes of BBC America's How Clean Is Your House and put an episode on while I clean. Kim and Aggie's show is full of practical advice. They'll even show you how to use common household ingredients like baking soda and lemon juice to clean. But, really, any show about home design or home cleaning can inspire you to not just pick up your socks, but totally reorganize your sock drawer. So turn on your TV... and then get moving.

5. Shake Your Booty

Finally, if none of these techniques is working, it's time to crank up the tunes. Put on your favorite happy dance music and scrub to the beat. It's okay to take a minute off from dusting and bust a move, too. There is nothing wrong with getting a little cardio in with your housecleaning. If you have the ability to make a playlist of your music using iTunes or a similar product, make yourself a Housecleaning Mix. Classic rock songs that you love to sing and dance to are fun, like Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" but so are driving dance beats like Apollo 440's "Can't Stop the Rock." Or groove to Roisin Murphy's funky "Ruby Blue."