What Is The Junebug Cleaning Method?

Taking out the trash, washing the dishes, moving the laundry, or mowing the lawn — trying to balance all your cleaning tasks can be a chore in and of itself. Staying on top of things can be difficult for anyone, especially if you have an attention deficit disorder. Research shows that people with ADHD may struggle with messiness because they have an impaired capacity for working memory, the short-term memory storage that helps you to stick to a current task (via Healthline). If you have ADHD, you may set out on a Sunday morning with the best intentions of cleaning your whole home but only accomplish a few tasks by the end of the night.

Are you feeling overwhelmed by your chore list this week? Looking for cleaning methods that will play to your strengths? Whether you've been diagnosed with ADHD or you just struggle to focus while cleaning, the Junebug cleaning method may be a good solution to your forgetful moments. Learn everything you need to know about this cleaning hack so you can get busy bugging.

The Junebug cleaning method is particularly helpful for people with ADHD or ADD, but it can also benefit kids or anyone else who tends to get distracted while cleaning. In response to a question posed on Tumblr and shared by Spoonie Living, Tumblr user jumpingjacktrash came up with an idea they call "Junebugging." The concept is based on the image of a Junebug climbing a window screen. When the Junebug's little legs are attached to the window screen, he is on task and focused. When the Junebug gets distracted, he falls off. He might fly around and dance in circles for a while, but eventually, he lands back on the window screen.

Jumpingjacktrash suggests looking at your cleaning in this way. For example, you might start cleaning your bathroom sink, then get distracted and start scrubbing the bathtub or sweeping the floor. When you catch yourself "Junebugging" like this, slow down, put down the broom, and go back to your first task. If you can keep returning to your original task, Jumpingjacktrash says, "not only will the bathroom sink almost certainly be clean, and probably the mirror and soap dish too, you might've swapped in a fresh toothbrush, a new soap, you might've unclogged the drain — you will probably also have cleaned or fixed up several things in the near vicinity" (via Spoonie Living).

If you're ready to try Junebug cleaning, start by choosing a very specific task. Instead of just "cleaning up the kitchen," break the area down into smaller pieces, like loading the dishwasher, sweeping the floor, or wiping the countertops. Until you're done with the specific task, jumpingjacktrash says to imagine an invisible bungee cord tethering you to the spot. When you find yourself "Junebugging" and wandering away, just laugh it off and let that imaginary bungee cord pull you back in.

Cleaning this way might take some time, but at the end of the day, you're still accomplishing something, and you should end up with at least one fully completed chore. There's no pressure to get it perfect either; jumpingjacktrash says, "you're done when you feel done, or you're too bored to live, or it's bedtime, or any number of other markers, you get to pick. But the thing is, by returning repeatedly to that one spot, you harness the 'hyperactivity' part instead of wasting all that energy battling with the 'attention deficit' part." (via Spoonie Living). If you're still having a hard time, Healthline recommends using reminder notes to stay organized. You could combine the Junebug method and Healthline's note-keeping idea by sticking a bright sticky note by your task as a visual reminder of your bungee cord.