Avoid Distractions by Cleaning Your House in 'Rounds'

With spring cleaning season bearing down on us, we've been discussing a variety of "methods" that can help anyone clean up their home, even when you're just not up for it, you can't get past how overwhelming it is, or you are easily distracted. Another approach--the "rounds" method--is getting some attention on TikTok, and it might just be the best option for you if you can't focus on big tidying tasks for long.

What is the "rounds" cleaning method?

The trick comes from TikTok user @polkarooboo, who says cleaning in rounds helps her "ADHD brain way better than traditional clean-up methods." She demonstrates how she moves from room to room, tackling the same task in each and moving, essentially, in a circle.

First, she gathers up items in each room that don't belong there, and places them in the room where they do belong. Then, she picks a new task.

"Now that everything's back in the room they belong in, we put the things back where they belong in that room," she explains. What this looks like in practice is easy enough. If your robe belongs on the bathroom door but you find it over the chair in your room, you put it in the bathroom during round one, then move to round two, which involves going to each room and putting the just-moved items back into their rightful place. So when you get to the bathroom, you'll just put the robe on its hook.

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When that's done in all the rooms, it's time for another round, so you go back to the room where you started. Anything still out of place in those rooms now gets put into its spot. Once you're done with that in each room, you go back around, wiping down the surfaces in each room.

There's room for customizability here as you do the rounds that work best for you. For instance, she chooses to dust simultaneously as she goes around wiping, but if you really need to stick to your designated rounds, you can turn dusting into its own round altogether. You can dedicate a round to sweeping or vacuuming, or one to scrubbing. Whatever works for you, as long as you stick to going around and doing each task in each room before moving on to the next task.

Why this could work for you

This is similar to the "junebug" method in that it's helpful for anyone who gets distracted easily. Picking one task and doing it exclusively in each room until it's done can help you feel less overwhelmed than if you were trying to tackle the mess in each room on its own.

You can even try combining this with other popular methods. Another CleanTokker, Renee Alyse Bell, says that scheduling breaks and rewards into her cleaning routine helps her when her ADHD gets in the way, too. Your break and reward can include anything that motivates you, like a social media scroll or a little wine, as long as you commit to cleaning during the chunks of time you set aside for that. Coupling this with the "rounds" method could look like taking a short break after each round, so you feel accomplished after finishing each task in every room and reward yourself with a treat in between. The goal here is chunking up your cleaning into manageable bits and getting each necessary step done before moving on so you feel less distracted and overwhelmed.