Instead of taking the entire day to clean, maintain your house by developing a 10-minute cleaning routine
Cleaning your home in one session can be strenuous and, let’s be honest, difficult. When you make a plan to clean your entire house in one push, the pressure is on, and it may take up all of your precious Saturday. However, many people find that when they clean in short bouts, (even in the hard-to-reach areas) they’re more able to clean more consistently without devoting a whole day to the task.
Below we’ve shared some tips to create a cleaning routine that takes about 10 minutes per day. If your budget allows, you can also pair your own cleaning sessions with the services of a local professional cleaner.
To save time, ensure you always have a full stock of any cleaning supplies you might need. Typically, necessary house cleaning supplies include:
Vacuum cleaner
Mop
Store-bought cleaners (glass cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, etc.)
Broom
Dustpan
Sponges
Toilet wand
Baking soda
Rags/cloths
Gloves
Decluttering your home is a simple task you can implement daily. Do a walkthrough, picking up miscellaneous items as you go, and return them to their correct place. If you don’t have the time to replace everything, that’s totally fine—getting what you can off the floor is still a great way to declutter daily.
Not only will this step help your home feel more in order, but it’ll also be much easier to actually clean the house when there isn’t an abundance of items lying around.
No one likes coming home to dirty dishes, and loading up the dishwasher is a quick chore that will save you time next time you’re cleaning the kitchen. If the dishwasher just ran, unload it to save time before your next meal. This tip may seem like a no-brainer, but by doing the dishes right away, you take this task off of your plate when things get busier.
Since it’s unrealistic to clean everything in your 10-minute session, it’s a good idea to plan and prioritize cleaning duties. You can make a list of what cleaning tasks need to get done and rank them by importance. This ranking can vary based on your personal opinions and needs. Then, go off and do these, in order, throughout your week.
Note: Having the constant reminder in the form of a physical house cleaning checklist posted somewhere is a great way to hold yourself accountable and get the cleaning done.
Although we love to dream, we’ve got to be realistic: Thoroughly cleaning the entire house or apartment takes more than 10 minutes. However, if you allocate each room to a day of the week, you can develop a structured cleaning regimen and ultimately maintain a clean space.
Additionally, taking on small chunks of cleaning each day is less daunting than the entire house, so you’re more likely to follow through.
Multitasking is key to a successful 10-minute cleanup. Luckily there are plenty of chores that you can complete in one go. For example, you can do multiple chores in the bathroom when you’re showering, such as cleaning your shower grout or steam cleaning your mirrors. You can also clean while waiting for your laundry in the dryer or washer.
A stack of mail can pile up after a few days, so if you sort any loose pieces of mail every day, you prevent it from accumulating. You don’t even have to take any real action during this cleaning session other than maybe making a few piles. You can designate these as trash, important, and miscellaneous. Then, later, you’ll overall be more organized, saving time you would’ve spent sorting through the mail.
