I hate cleaning. My secret is to start with the most horrible looking thing. The thing that once you've got rid of it, the scenery suddenly looks a lot better, and more encouraging. Another thing is to do the essential, that makes it look as though you've cleaned up, but it's just to bluff the visitors that you've invited. (Obviously you've invited visitors, otherwise why would you want to do the cleaning?) Once the place LOOKS clean, you feel so pleased with yourself that you want to continue a little. (I said a little) The third thing, is not to take the advice that they give you on television programmes that exist precisely for that reason. They're always made my people that you can see LOVE cleaning, and so haven't the slightest idea why people like us are incapable of doing it the the way they think we'd want to do it.
I never can. I force myself out of necessity. Habit is the biggest helper, just having a routine that fits with all the other things on the schedule.
Ari & I tolerate more mess than most people, and positively enjoy the "lived in" look, but we won't let it affect hygiene or get to the point of inconvenience.
I'm with you there. When I put up an ad looking for a roommate years ago, I cautioned that I wasn't a big fan of cleaning, but I wasn't dirty either. If people understood what that meant and agreed with it, we'd get along fine. If they didn't get it or disagreed, they'd skip the ad. The girl who rented the room was less tidy than I was, but she was tolerable and we never fought about cleaning. :)
By forcing myself to notice all the dust and dirt. We have a large house for just the two of us with the result that at any given time only maybe one and a half or two rooms are really clean.
Nice Jugs 