You can accomplish a lot in just one hour, such as getting in a good workout at the gym or watching three episodes of Friends reruns. You can also clean your house in one hour, even if the place currently looks like a disaster. By setting aside 60 minutes each week, you can easily transform your house from a cluttered mess into a well-organized sanctuary. This speed cleaning concept is ideal for people who wish they had more free time to clean around the house, as you’ll really notice a stark difference in just an hour.
Make a Plan
With only an hour available, it’s hard to imagine cleaning every corner of the house in just one go. Make an assessment of which areas need the most attention. Maybe you’re having guests next week, so you should tackle the guest bedroom and bathroom. Or perhaps you’re hosting a dinner party soon, in which case the dining area should receive special care. These rooms should be prioritized to some degree, and you can always move on to the others if you have any time left over afterward.
Remove Distractions
With such a short window to clean, every minute is precious, and you don’t have time to deal with the unexpected. So before diving into the hour-long clean, eliminate any potential distractions. This could mean shutting your phone off, asking your spouse to run an errand, or telling your children to head to the park and play there for a bit. Once you’ve got the house all to yourself, set a timer for 60 minutes and get to work.
Tackle Clutter First
Before scrubbing away on your hands and knees, go room by room and eliminate any obvious clutter. Place dirty laundry in the hamper, put your dog’s toys away, remove anything from your bathroom countertop, and so on. This quick scan of the entire home should only take a few minutes and clears the way for scrubbing and dusting.
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Pretreat Where Necessary
Certain cleaning products require time to work, such as placing bleach in the toilet or treating dirty grout with hydrogen peroxide. If you know anything needs time to settle, then go ahead and tackle this step next so that you’re not rushing at the very end.
Tackle the Tough Jobs First
Bathrooms and kitchens are generally the messiest places in the home and require extra care when cleaning. While this may eat away at a good chunk of the hour, it’s important to focus on these rooms rather than let them get worse. Cleaning the bathroom may take up to 30 minutes this time, but hopefully, that number will decrease each week as you grow more comfortable with speed cleaning.
Keep Going!
It may be tempting to rest, but remember that the timer is rapidly counting down to zero. That’s why keeping going at a sprinter’s pace for the whole hour is important, knowing you’ll have time to breathe when the 60 minutes are up. If you sit down for five minutes while the timer is going, you’re doing yourself a disservice and preventing your house from being as clean as possible.
Dust, Then Vacuum
No matter which room of the house you’re in, always dust from top to bottom. If you go from bottom to top, the dust may fall onto areas you’ve just cleaned. Once you’ve completely dusted every area of the room, use a vacuum to clean up any that may have fallen onto the floor.
Adjust Each Week
As speed cleaning becomes a more regular part of your routine, you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t. Keep a journal of what you’d like to do differently going forward and incorporate that approach into your clean the following week. The more time passes, the more you’ll settle into a perfect routine.
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Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Optimism Media. He is also a freelance comedy writer, devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.
This article is for general informational purposes only.
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