Surrounded By Chaos?

Do you have a holiday home hangover--the big mess that results from all the good times, gifts and celebration? If you feel surrounded by chaos after all the fun, you're not alone. (My house looks like it was struck by one of those fabled indoor hurricanes!) And you can actually get things clean without driving yourself (and everyone around you) nuts. Here are some strategies:

• 1) Put on some music and enjoy yourself while you clean. Music has been shown to have healing and stress management benefits, and can supply you with a burst of energy and an atmosphere of fun. Why not clean up and rock out?

• 2) Get help from friends. Cleaning up is a big job, and it's only fair that those who helped make the mess can clean. If you get everyone in your household (kids, roommates, even good-natured houseguests) to help you clean for 15 minutes, it can be a fun bonding experience (make a game out of it--see who can clean the fastest!) and can save you hours of doing it yourself.

• 3) Don't get help from friends if it's more stress than it's worth. Sometimes getting in there and cleaning up by yourself can be relaxing, while nagging kids or reluctant adult helpers to stay on-task can be frustrating for you and everyone else. It's your call.

• 4) Use mindfulness to make cleaning an exercise in stress management. If you focus deeply on each task, you can get lost in cleaning and take a mental vacation from stressful thoughts and emotions. (Read more about mindfulness here.)

• 5) Drop the perfectionism. Just do a good-enough job and leave things better than you found them. Perfectionists tend to cause themselves (and others around them) undue stress, and can actually be less productive than their merely-high-achieving counterparts. Take a few minutes to learn

Even if you end up blowing off these ideas and putting off the cleaning until tomorrow (or the next day!), you might want to try some of the links (embedded in the text above) to learn more about various ways to relieve stress and make a fresh start for 2009! Good luck!