How about making yourself a schedule and stick to it? Say you have 21 days and 20 rooms between the 2 houses. Clean/organize one room a day. Make a chart for yourself. Work like you do at your usual job. For example, get up at 6, start work at 8, take your usual coffee breaks and lunch, and finish at 5. Good luck!

first make a list of things you think you'd like to do that are fun.

Write one on every day (scatter the time-consuming ones around, so they're not all on the same week).

Then, make a rule: If you accomplish a goal on a day, you can do the fun thing.

Maybe the goal one day is to completely clear out a room. or clear off a surface.

Or the goal is to work without stopping for 30 minutes, then a mini-reward, then another 30 minutes, then a mini reward.

also, shake it up a bit, so you don't run out of steam.

Spend 3 days on your house, doing complicated stuff. Then send 2 days at mom's, throwing out "simple" garbage. Try to create some artificial variety in the type of things you do, or the types of rooms you tackle, etc.

I clean my house by picking first up all the garbage, then declutter,then clean. By clean,I'm talking about dusting, vacuumimg, washing floors,etc. The clutter is the hardest part. Deciding where to store things and deciding to chuck things I no longer need. It's tough butn necessary. Some stuff can can be given to charities, like unused items and outgrown clothes.

another organizing trick I learned at work:

Create the file folder before you start the project.

So, create the place to put the garage-sale stuff BEFORE you start gathering it.

you guys are the best-I love all the ideas and it really helps me get motivated-thank you all for your input and if you think of more ideas just bring them on-and THANKS again

I have copied the show clean sweeps way of tackling a room. Works well with a cluttered teens room. We clear it out- except heavy furniture and have a give away pile, a store in attic pile and a Throwaway pile.
The room is thoroughly cleaned,and then the teen can start working on a pile at a time, and take bags out to trash as they fill, decide what goes back in etc. works for us. It is certainly scary at first- a bigger mess than what you start with, but it helps us see what will fit where etc. And it really helps get rid of clutter. HTH Sue