How to Build the Perfect Playlists for Your Household Chores

If you ask us, everything is better with the right soundtrack, and that definitely includes otherwise boring or tedious household chores.

Getting your space neat and sparkling clean is so much easier (and more fun) backed by music you love. However, while pre-made playlists can certainly get the job done, we prefer a more personal approach that doesn't just include Top 40 hits. If you're looking to curate your own custom playlist to make housework a little less dull, we have a few important tips to help you get started.

Set the Vibe

Before you actually start building out your playlists, think about the kind of energy you want to curate with them. Generally, upbeat and positive vibes are ideal for productivity playlists, but those broad categories can be divided up even further. For starters, you might want to make different playlists for different varieties of chores.

For example, if you're going to be deep-cleaning an entire room, you may want to fill the playlist with faster-paced songs that'll drive you to keep your actions to the beat and keep up a good pace. At the same time, you don't want the playlist to be so long and intense that you feel overwhelmed by it. Smaller tasks, like vacuuming, washing dishes or doing laundry, may call for less frenetic tracks that are feel-good, yet relaxed. We're also big fans of cooking playlists inspired by the regional cuisine we're making. Perhaps you even want to create multiple playlists for the same kind of job, but featuring different genres or eras of music to keep things fresh. Whatever the case, you're going to save yourself a lot of time and energy if you start with a plan.

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Also read about: Playlist Category Ideas Every Music Library Should Have

 

Carefully Select Your Songs

Once you've got your playlist theme ready, it's time to start selecting the songs to fit it. Again, productivity playlists often have fast, inspiring beats of more than 100 BPM to drive your actions forward, but this doesn't have to be an exact science as long as the song has that special something that makes you feel motivated.

Playlists specifically built for certain tasks also get to throw away some of the usual "rules" for making great playlists. After all, they're not about impressing anyone. In other cases, you might want to have a big variety of artists, tempos and genres, but any diversity in these playlists should be driven solely by what will inspire you and prevent you from getting bored. If there's a certain artists who always makes you feel like your best, most proactive self, there are zero rules against making them most (or all) of the playlist.

Also be mindful of the things that impact your energy. Some songs can have the best beats for getting a move on, but pair them with lyrics that might bring you down emotionally. Some people don't listen to the lyrics at all, or even prefer music with no lyrics to really focus on the task at hand, especially with things like homework. There are no hard and fast rules that apply to everyone, so use your judgment to decide what you find most helpful.

 

Rearrange for Flow and Length

This may sound obvious, but the length of your playlists should suit the task at hand. There's no reason your dishwashing playlist needs to be four hours long, and similarly, you won't get very far if your playlist for cleaning the entire bathroom is only 15 minutes. Too long is better than too short, as you can always rearrange things later into multiple, more highly designed playlists later.

Flow is also super important for productivity. While other types of playlists might want to ease you in, the first song of a cleaning playlist should immediately grab your attention and put you into the right mood. From there, you'll want to generally maintain the same level of energy to keep you in a flow state, before also ending on a high note. Don't make your playlists so long that you never get to the best stuff!

And most importantly, test out your playlists. It can take a bit of trial and error to make sure that your choices don't clash due to weird transitions, but it's worth the effort to get a playlist that feels smooth and seamless and keeps your mind occupied from beginning to end.

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Also read about: Tips for Keeping Your First Apartment Clean

 

Allow Your Playlists to Evolve

Just because you think you're done making a playlist doesn't mean it'll stay that way forever. The most important test is actually using the cleaning playlist and seeing if there are any places it falls flat. It's natural to get sick of certain songs or artists from time to time and swap them out with other choices, or sometimes you'll find a playlist just doesn't work and you can scrap it altogether to try something entirely different. Sometimes, you'll realize one song is the anchor for the playlist, and you can choose other songs with similar energies to accompany it. Keep an open mind and let new discoveries and obsessions guide those chances to keep you feeling inspired.

 

Have Fun

If there's one most important thing for making any playlist, it's to have fun. This process makes us feel invigorated and excited to hop into our housework, but that won't be the case for everyone. If making playlists is starting to feel like yet another chore to add to the pile, maybe that approach isn't right for you, and you're better of just shuffling your favorites or listening to other people's suggestions. This should make life easier for you, not harder, so don't be afraid to drop it if it doesn't benefit you.

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Naturally messy? Click HERE to discover our favorite easy methods for tidying up.