Owning a home, especially if you’re a single, young professional who has just started your journey of having your own space, can be frustrating when it comes to keeping your house clean. As a working person, you rarely have the time to clean the house yourself, as you work on your nine to five and just rest after a long day at work. Weekends, however, are for relaxing, unwinding, Netflix and chill, or even inviting some friends over for a small get together. Now, here’s when the “messy home” thought creeps in. You barely get the time to do your laundry, wash your dishes, and now cleaning your whole space might sometimes feel a little bit overwhelming. So when you think of inviting friends and family over, you kind of start overthinking. But what you might not know is that cleaning also has to be set on a perspective or mindset. You don’t have to clean every nook and cranny of your home everytime guests come over. You just need to have a cleaning habit that will work best for you. Here are four ways to change your cleaning mindset in order to help you clean more with less time consumed.

1. Only  do tasks that make your space function for you

One way to ease your load is to understand that some domestic tasks simply don’t have to get done to keep your home functional. Do all your clothes really need to be neatly folded, or could some just be thrown straight from the dryer into the closet drawers? There are different types of people when cleaning homes, some try their best to clean every corner so it would put their mind at ease and then everything will be functional for them. But there are also the types of people who function well in tasks as long as they don’t see anything cluttered in plain sight. So you need to think, but not overthink, about how you want your clutter to be. Do the things you use daily in the kitchen have to be returned to a cupboard after each use, or can they remain on the counter? Do you have to wash your dishes right after you use them, or can you stack them by the sink and do them all together, once a day? You have to figure it out first.

2. Put tasks on a schedule that works for you.

You might be pressured that your friends do their house chores during the weekend or bit by bit every day. But always keep in mind that your day always goes differently than the others. Some tasks — laundry or taking out the trash — have to get done, but could be completed less often than you’re used to, or just on a different schedule. So it’s better if you choose a schedule that fits you best. If you choose not to have a schedule, however, it might be hard to keep up. Random chores are hard to keep up. If you wait to run the dishwasher when it’s full, you could be in the middle of something else and not have time for it.

3. Start with the “five things.”

If you’re starting from scratch and are still lost on how to start cleaning for your upcoming family gathering, you need to take these five things on top of your priority list:

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

Once you see your home all cluttered up, it's normal to drop your shoulders and feel like you’ll never get started at all. It just looks too much and too messy. But if you do each of these things one by one, in the same order, it will be less overwhelming, and you’ll just see yourself halfway in progress. Oh, and you can throw some

4. Remember, mess is normal.

You might feel particular pressure to make your home look spotless and pristine when you’re expecting guests, but for the most part, they don’t care if your space looks perfect. A functional space is one that makes the people you invite inside feel comfortable, at home, and welcome so there are only a few things you really ought to do to prepare for guests. First, you need to clear up the places where you would have them seated. Then you can prepare your dishes clean so you can invite them for dinner. And of course, if you’re not having any sleepovers, you can leave the bedroom out of your cleaning routine for guests. But if you will invite your friends and family into your bedroom, then you might want to put on some new sheets. But there is no need to hide your day-to-day items, boxes or clutter. Just seeing your things shouldn’t affect guests’ ability to feel comfortable in your home. After all, life is too precious to spend all your time on housework. So don’t stress too much about it.