I struggle with keeping to a cleaning routine. For example, often I just can’t be bothered doing the dishes or laundry and before I know it everything is piled up and I end up spending a whole day each week just tidying up… it’s stressful. Any advice?

Yup. What helps me is this: forget about tidying a whole area completely. Mark a timer for 10 minutes (every day, ideally), possibly with music you like, and clean something up until the countdown goes off. Items, dishes, vacuum cleaning,… You will sometimes want to finish an area even though the time is up. But if you're not in the mood, you're free after 10 minutes – and that's a pretty good feeling.

1. Robot vacuums changed my life. You don't need to spend more than $300 and if you insure it, you'll basically never have to vacuum again. Robot mops also exist.
2. If you or a family member can speak Spanish, you can find inexpensive ($40/1.5 hour visit) housekeepers to give you a hand.
3. If you live near a big city, laundry services can be cheaper than doing it yourself.
4. Find a way to enjoy some kinds of cleaning. I used to hate it but if I play music or make it meditative, it feels good.
5. Cleaning is the best excuse for procrastination ever.

Take some time every night to tidy up. It doesn't havent to be a deep clean, but just take some time to put some things away. Everything in the home has a place, so just make sure everything is in its place

I spend 30 minutes each day on this before bed. Go round quickly picking up and putting away. And each day I focus on a different room to vacuum, clean, empty bins, etc. That way I'm not doing lots at once and everything is staying in order. And I can go to sleep with a sense of achievement, in a relaxing environment. You can also link tasks together. So do the washing up as you cook. Put laundry on while the kettle boils, hang it up during an ad break, fold and iron in front of the TV. Listen to music while you clean to make it more fun. Set a timer, and see how much you can get through in the time. Give yourself small rewards for getting it done.

Try using a technique (which I forgot the name) where you link one action to another. For example: Every time I eat at home I do the dishes. This way you create a correlation and a rule.

If you minimize the decision process you are more willing to actually do something. If you know that "everytime I do eat at home I do the dishes", you don't have to think "should I wash it now? But I am tired, I think I'll do it later".

There is no "should I", "what do I do", or any decision process to be made because it's already decided. If you ate at home, you will do the dishes.

Another thing that might help is saying out loud right before sorting to eat. "I'll eat and then do the dishes". You're not only thinking but telling your brain that that's what you decided to do.

Or, if you need accountability, just tell someone you live with that from that moment forward you will always do the dishes after eating at home. This way if you end up thinking of not doing it, you may feel ashamed or embarrassed because you already told the person you would, so you fell accountable and ends up doing the dishes.

You can tray geting up at 5:00 am and make a list of plans and do them in pland time and then you have done what you nided to do end now you have the rest of the day free