When my son was younger we had the mixed blessing of way too many toys. Which led to the decidedly not blessing of way too messy a room. Clean up was overwhelming. Yet, clean up (and ultimately responsibility for one’s stuff) is an important skill for children to develop.
We turned it into a game – pick up 5 black things. Pick up 4 things with wheels. Sometimes it involved some outside strategy (like the time we put a parking garage in his closet for all the big trucks). Usually once he got going, he kept going.
There are days when I have to use the same strategy for myself – what I call 5-minute clean ups. Just work for 5 minutes at something. No more than 6. Then stop. It’s amazing what you can do in 5 minutes. It makes a huge difference but doesn’t overwhelm. Of course, there are days with much more sustained effort, but breaking a seemingly insurmountable task into smaller chunks makes it manageable.
Puzzle Pieces Coaching 