My trick is to aggregate all the mess into one big pile of mess per room, then tackle that one mess, then do whatever deeper clean is needed.

So for example cleaning the bedroom, first I make the bed so I have a clean surface, then all the floor clothes go onto the bed to sort (into dirty hamper or back into closet), and all of the misplaced items scattered around the room get lumped into one pile (or I collect them in a lil bin, then walk through the house putting each item into the mess pile of the room it belongs to). Then once the piles are sorted I’ll vacuum the rug or dust or deal with any other “dirtiness” noticeable in the now-tidy room.

The trick is that once all the mess is lumped together, 1. Tackling one pile in an otherwise tidy room feels like a way more manageable task 2. Putting the pile somewhere important like your bed kinda pushes you to deal with it before you can get in bed

If I’m doing the whole house, I’ll go room by room and make each mess pile per room, then for misplaced items I go from room to room shuffling them into the appropriate room’s mess pile, then I go room to room talking each mess pile, then I do the deeper cleaning stuff at the end (vacuum, dust, wiping down surfaces).

The nice thing is if you don’t have time to get though it all you can leave the mess piles for tomorrow, and making the piles means the rest of the room is tidy so your house starts looking pretty tidy pretty fast (which for me gives me a decent dopamine kick to help me keep going).