This post is sponsored by Method
Tell me, what is your cleaning routine? About a year ago when we were taking trains around Europe I made a list of all the things I wanted to change when we came back home and one of them was getting into a more structured cleaning routine. A messy house made me feel anxious and I couldn’t work on projects when I was surrounded my clutter. My mind would always wander to the areas of the room that I needed to pick up, do you do the same? I needed a routine that was part of my day, that wasn’t structured soley around when guests were coming, and that had a specific start and stop time since cleaning a whole house can be a pretty daunting task.
Keep reading to see what my solution was…
I started what we call now as the daily five minute cleanup. I set the timer for 5 minutes (or 7 if I’m feeling really wild or if guests are coming) and pick up/clean as much as I can in that one room. When the timer goes off I have to stop and move onto the next room. The whole clean up takes about 40 minutes since there are seven rooms and it keeps you on your toes too since you’re waiting for that timer to go off. It’s not a deep clean of course, but it gets the house picked up enough that I can relax and get work done. Five minutes in each room seemed much more doable than telling myself that I was going to clean the house for 40 minutes. The kitchen usually needs double so I leave it for last and hit that timer twice for at least 10 minutes. It’s been working pretty good over the last year.
I’d love to hear your cleaning routine though, do you have a certain amount of time you spend cleaning every day or are you disciplined enough to work until the house it all clean?
Also, have you seen Method’s Fabric Softener Spray? So genius, it gets rid of those annoying dryer sheets altogether with just a couple sprays. They gave me one to test out and I love it.
I have to say, that I don’t usually pay much attention to the adds on blogs, but this one caught my attention and I bought the method dryer sheet spray a couple of weeks ago. I love it! No more annoying dryer sheets falling on the floor or being stuck in pants.
I love that you open the post talking about thinking about cleaning while on vacation. lol. I have definitely done that before!
I love this idea. I’m starting to feel overwhelmed by tidying but I could do five minutes!!!
I absolutely feel your pain! I have two kids and a husband who has rose tinted glasses when it comes to “seeing the mess”. I like my home to be clean and most of all TIDY on Friday evening ready for my weekend. I just don’t feel zenlike and able to enjoy my weekend without a “kind of” clean home. So my routine is similar to you, lots of small tidy and cleaning sessions through the week. I blitz one room at a time and all the stuff which is out of place goes on the stairs in piles of “ownership” so that each owner can take it to their room when they run upstairs! A big deal in my home a couple of years ago was space for storage. We had a few diy jobs to create more space. Shelves, an under stairs cupboard, kids sorage buckets were created/bought so most things now have a “home”. This helps a LOT! I am also a big recycler, charity shop donater and I am known to be VERY ruthless….
awesome idea! Will def try 🙂
I absolutely cannot focus when there’s clutter! Definitely going to give this idea a try. And, omgosh. That Method video is out of control. LOL!
So smart! I usually only have the energy to clean the kitchen and living room at the end of the day. The house is usually a mess by the weekend!