How to Clean Your House in 15 Minutes (and Why You Should Do It)
If your home is a mess but you don’t know where to start, it’s time to set a daily cleaning schedule, but don’t feel the need to do everything at once. It’s well known that working in short bursts can help you stay motivated when you’re feeling overwhelmed, and cleaning in 15-minute bursts will do the trick. There are plenty of places around your home that have everything you need, so get started today and thank yourself in a few weeks.
What to do when cleaning
First, commit to spending 15 minutes a day cleaning. This can actually be in the morning, evening or whenever, but ideally it should always happen at the same time. (More about this here .) Choose a different place to clean every day. I’ll share some ideas below, but in general you want a small piece of a large room to avoid being overwhelmed. It may make sense to divide rooms into groups – so you do bathroom spots for a few days, then move on to kitchen spots for a few days, etc., but you can also dedicate your energy to any space. needs it most on a given day.
No matter what you choose, it is important to be decisive and take action. Choose a cleaning or decluttering method that works for your situation and apply it to each of the regions you’re focusing on. No matter which method you choose, you’ll essentially be clearing out space, choosing what stays and what goes, and then reorganizing what you keep.
Use the principles of time boxing and limit yourself to just 15 minutes a day. When you use a timebox, you dedicate a predetermined amount of time to a specific task and work on it without distractions, but stop when the allotted time is up. If necessary, you can restore the task in the next time interval. Even if you’re really passionate about cleaning, try to stay within the 15-minute mark each time to prevent burnout and keep yourself on track so you can fully focus on the task at all times.
Stains that can be cleaned in 15 minutes or less
Depending on the circumstances in which you work best, you can schedule what you will clean for a week or even a month or in advance. I’m not going to tell you exactly what to do, but I will say that a little pre-planning is helpful when you’re lacking motivation because you go into a time slot already knowing what you need to do.
If you’re not sure what to clean, here are some ideas for areas that take 15 minutes or less (or at least most of the cleaning can be finished in that time, with the occasional need to return to cleaning the next day). However, don’t limit yourself to the list; walk through your home, pick out small areas, and do what makes sense for your situation. Here are some starting points to help generate ideas:
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Your spice cabinet
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Your first aid kit
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Places where you store your accessories, such as belts or bags.
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A place where you throw away mail , keys, or anything else you have in your hand when you enter the house.
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Your refrigerator
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Wardrobe , be it a wardrobe or the one in your room.
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Your table
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Your bookshelf
The list goes on and on, but will you look at this? I think I’ve already written handy guides for cleaning and organizing these spaces, which means you can start there and work your way from there. But you’ll also notice that these are all really specific areas. Your goal here isn’t to, say, clean the bathroom in a day. Rather, you need to break down the task of cleaning your bathroom into several smaller tasks, from the toilet to the medicine cabinet and everything in between, so that you don’t burn out doing the job.
Breaking this rule also helps turn cleaning into a habit, so gradually you do it simply instinctively. A little work each day adds up, and at the end of each 15-minute fight, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment that will push you to push harder the next day. By the end of a few weeks, your space will be noticeably cleaner, and you won’t have to stress yourself out or dedicate a whole precious weekend to cleaning.