Cleaning Tips

A CLEANER HOME, THREE MINUTES AT A TIME

There can be something deeply satisfying about digging into a day of housecleaning, when the spirit moves and you’ve got the time. Sometimes, that’s not always possible. But you can keep up with clutter and the cereal crunching underfoot with small bursts of cleaning that deliver, over time, big results. Try one of these micro-cleaning strategies and you might be surprised what a difference they can make.

The secret is in the timing, literally. Set the timer on your stove or cell phone for whatever small increment of time you’d like: say three, five, ten or twenty minutes. We all know there’s something about a “deadline” that tends to sharpen our focus and heighten efficiency, even when it’s self-imposed. In your allotted cleanup time, you’ll find yourself naturally zooming in on the tasks that need most attention and yield the biggest results.

Try this with children. Play one of their favorite songs, or simply sing it together two or three times while they move about the room picking up toys or clearing their places at the table. You can even build cleanup into television time: during commercials, get up and load the dishwasher, throw in a load of clothes, or make out your to-do list for the next day. Children can use those short increments to organize their backpacks or collect their dirty laundry and still catch their favorite shows. Tasks done in small, manageable chunks tend to reduce looming monsters into something friendlier and tamer, with less nagging and complaining along the way.