I've found the key is to get one room straight and then make a plan to maintain it, before you start the next one.
Otherwise you can spend loads of time doing what fly lady calls a "crisis clean" and then before you know it every room needs doing again.
So for example sort out your dining room, declutter and clean it and then plan to spend a couple of minutes everyday checking it, moving anything thats out of place - post, magazines, dirty cups etc. literally the time it takes the kettle to boil no longer and plan to spend another few minutes once a week giving it a dust/vac etc. Add any bigger jobs like sorting out a cupboard to a "to do list" and you try to tick one or two jobs off the list each week. Things like oven cleaning and carpet cleaning go on the "to do" list.
The idea (based on flylady) is to get to the point where you're actually spending very little time on general cleaning because it all gets regular maintainance and doesn't need a big clean up
Much easier said than done, my downstairs (and bathroom) is basically like that at the moment, there are still some jobs on my to do list, but my MIL or cleaning obsessed SIL can call anytime and I'd be comfortable inviting them in - bedrooms are next on my list.
Have you looked at flylady?
You don't have to do the whole thing, just pick the bits that work for you, the basic principle is little and often so it never gets really bad.