There are all sorts of reasons that a mess in our homes can get away from us. Kids, illnesses, work deadlines, depression, you name it – any or all of those things can let things build up to a place where we’re feeling too overwhelmed to know where to start.

If that’s you (or it has been or will be), this “five things” tidying method can be a real lifesaver in the moment.

The method comes from licensed professional therapist, self-help author of How to Keep House While Drowning, and TikTok influencer KC Davis.  She hopes that she can help people who are struggling with daily tasks be able to accomplish them a little bit at a time.

So, if you’re looking at a huge mess and are feeling paralyzed about where to start, she suggests breaking the items in the room down into 5 categories.

• Trash
• Laundry
• Dishes
• Things that have a place
• Things that don’t have a place.

It breaks the mess down into manageable tasks and keeps you from getting distracted and ending up with handfuls of things that go a bunch of different places.

“To keep from getting overwhelmed, you have to do one at a time over the whole space.”

Which is to say, don’t stop with one category and move onto the next until the first one is complete.

@domesticblisters

The OG video of my 5-things tidying method! Follow me and we’ll make cleaning less overwhelming 💜 #MentalHealth #ZodiacSign #CleanTok #Parenting

♬ Send Me on My Way – Guy Meets Girl

For example, you decide to start with trash, so you get a trash bag and ignore everything else in the room until all of the trash is disposed of. Then you get all of the dishes, and so on, leaving “things that don’t have a place” for last.

She suggests in later videos that doing trash and dishes first is the best choice, since getting rid of those two things will make your space cleaner and healthier if you don’t get around to the rest right away.

For the things that don’t have a place, go ahead and make a pile, put them in a box or basket, etc, and deal with them when you feel able – but make sure when you do put them away that you find them a permanent home.

Davis always reminds her readers and followers that “being untidy isn’t a moral failing,” and those reasons we mentioned up top for getting behind? They happen to everyone sometimes.

So give yourself a break, take a deep breath, and start with one thing on this list.

I promise you’ll feel more like tidying the rest as you dive in.