I 'employed myself' to spring clean my home — and it might just be the perfect motivation hack
The author, Grace Dean, shares her personal experiment of 'employing herself' to complete spring cleaning by setting aside time and paying herself an hourly rate as motivation. She found that treating cleaning like a paid job helped shift her mindset and made the task feel more rewarding. After three weeks of following this method, she felt more motivated and viewed it as an effective psychological hack for household chores.
- ▪Grace Dean decided to 'employ herself' to spring clean by paying herself $30 per hour for two hours of cleaning on a Saturday morning.
- ▪She chose the early morning time slot to accommodate her schedule as a parent of two young children.
- ▪The money earned was designated for personal treats, helping her prioritize self-care despite a busy family life.
- ▪Dean repeated the experiment for three consecutive weeks to evaluate its effectiveness.
- ▪She concluded that framing chores as paid work improved her motivation and attitude toward cleaning.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Home I 'employed myself' to spring clean my home — and it might just be the perfect motivation hack How To By Grace Dean published 1 May 2026 A little incentive goes a long way When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Shutterstock) Copy link Facebook X Reddit Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter I've never loved cleaning my home and I know I'm not alone when I say that. It doesn't matter how many shiny cleaning products I buy or hacks like the '15-minute Friday reset' or 'drip drop' cleaning method that I try out, it still feels like an arduous task that, even when complete, just keeps coming back.
…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Tom's Guide.
Discussion
0 commentsMore from Tom's Guide
