I am often asked some version of this question: How much time should I spend cleaning?
Sometimes the questioner is asking about daily tasks. Sometimes they are asking about decluttering. Sometimes they’re asking about deep cleaning.
I used to wonder, too, so I understand the desire to know how much time I should designate to “cleaning” on my schedule. I’ve learned, though, that asking this question wasn’t helping me get my house under control.
I was trying to figure out exactly what I needed to do and how long I needed to spend doing it before actually doing it. And every time I tried, and then failed, I added on an hour or three to my mental estimates. That made future cleaning/decluttering more daunting and putoffable.
By going ahead and starting before I perfected the schedule of what I was going to do and how I’d do it, I made progress. Immediately. And the more progress I made, the more time I freed up in my schedule.
And that’s my best advice when the “How much time should I be spending on this?” question gets asked.
Go ahead and do the dishes. Today, then again tomorrow, and then again the next day. Go ahead and try Laundry Day. Go ahead and do a five minute pickup, even if you feel like five minutes won’t make a dent. Go ahead and do a two minute wipe down of the bathroom or a spot mopping with whatever tool you have available for spot mopping.
I can always (and you can always) make more progress in two minutes of actual cleaning than in four hours of thinking about or researching cleaning. Not that there aren’t ways to make it more efficient. I’ve linked to some of those ways below. Mostly, these are mindset shifts that will truly change your home because they will free you to start now.
Here are some blog posts, podcasts and other resources that will help you see how much time it may take.
Blog Posts:
The Layers of a Clean House
The TWO Tasks that Will Get and Keep Your Home Under Control
Ways to Make Your House Seem Clean (without actually Cleaning)
Why I Have to Run My Dishwasher EVERY Night
Ideal Cleaning vs Actual Cleaning
10 Easy Ways to Have a Neater Home in the New Year
What is the Very Least I Can Do to Keep My House Clean? No, Really.
Podcasts:
062 Layers of a Clean House Podcast
435: Why Understanding the Layers of a Clean House is So Helpful
234: What Happens After the Basic Habits Are Under Control?
114: 10 Simple Ways to Have a Tidier New Years
128: Make Your House Look Clean Without Cleaning
Videos:
Layers of a Clean House video
The Layers of a Clean House (Why Cleaning Feels So Hard)
The Two Cleaning Tasks that will Keep (or Get) Your Home Out of Disaster Status
5 Truths About Doing the Dishes (Whether or Not You Have a Dishwasher)
5 Ways to Have a Cleaner House!
Five More Simple Ways to Have a Neater House
A Lifestyle of Decluttering – What It Looks Like
Live Q&A Videos:
When you click on the link, you’ll go straight to the timestamp in the video where I answer the question.
Trying Again for Live Q&A 53.34 “How do you know how many minutes to do your daily clean up?”
Decluttering Q&A March 28 ’23 27.42 “How do I get started with the 5 minute tidy? I can declutter, but when it comes to the tidying I find I have a mental road block. Do I just think of it as cleaning or picking things up?
Live Q&A 02.05 “You talked about having certain days for cleaning tasks etc. Do you still use those scheduled weekly (or monthly/quarterly) tasks? Would you share what those are?”
Decluttering Q&A 9/12/2023 27.00 “I’m having a hard time getting home under control w/two little ones. What do I do when I literally only have five minutes a day to clean/declutter?”
Decluttering Q&A 18.30 “I struggle with keeping the house clean , esp. after cooking. when I only clean the kitchen. the rest of the house is a mess. and vise versa how do I balance both
Decluttering Q&A: Jan 9, 2024 36.54 “Can I use a different step to start out with so that I can move forward in decluttering my house? First step is to clean the kitchen and keep it clean every morning. Difficulty getting past.”
Decluttering Q&A with Dana K White May 16, 2023 31.19 “I’ve been decluttering and catching up with cleaning for some time now. I think it’s time to move from “project” to “maintenance”. I don’t know how. Daily tasks and… what? and also, timestamp 31:19 “We have to pull everything out to be able to deep clean, how do I keep from making a huge mess and getting halfway and wanting to clean?”
Decluttering Q&A 12.12.2023 39.43 “I’m abut to start decluttering kitchen cabinets. How do you do no mess decluttering of spaces when you need to also wipe down/clean the containing space?
From My “Audio Product” Series, Decluttering Deep Dives:
My “audio products” are a series of six 40 minuteish single audio products in which I go deep into answering decluttering questions I get regularly. They are very similar to podcasts, but they aren’t podcasts. They are paid products available on platforms where audio books are sold. And they were professionally recorded and edited in a studio (as opposed to my homespun podcasts). They are also often available from library systems that offer digital audiobooks. PLEASE NOTE that these “audio products” cost significantly less than an audiobook, usually around $5 (determined by my publisher and the audiobook seller so I can’t say for sure), so don’t use audiobook credits to purchase them since those are often worth around $15.
One of those audio products is Why Cleaning Felt Impossible (my affiliate link) and it just might be the thing to encourage you and help you find that cleaning rhythm you are looking for.
Additional Resources:
My book, How to Manage Your Home without Losing Your Mind, walks/talks you through the layers of a clean house and the daily/weekly habits that will help you maintain it all.
