How Can I Keep My House Clean In 30 Minutes A Day?
If you have a busy household you’ll understand the need to clean as efficiently as possible. Whether its because you have a full on job that leaves you with little time; a house with young children and pets or you just would rather do something far more interesting with your time, cleaning up as quickly as possible is appealing. So you’re thinking ‘how can I keep my house clean in 30 minutes a day?’.
Having lived in a home with 3 children under the age of 3 as well as supporting full time jobs and still finding time to enjoy past times like cycling regularly, we’ve had to find ways to keep the house clean as efficiently as possible daily.
Below we are going to take a look at the 6 ways you can keep your house clean in 30 minutes a day which cover:
- 1 – Clean Up As You Go
- 2 – Make The Beds First Thing
- 3 – Vacuum Daily
- 4 – Keep The Laundry In Check
- 5 – Have One Set of Kitchen Items
How Can I Keep My House Clean In 30 Minutes A Day?
So, how can I keep my house clean in 30 minutes a day? Let’s take a look at some key suggestions to help achieve this,
1 – Clean Up As You Go
The first suggestion is a general principle rather something you can do in 30 minutes but it will underpin your whole system. The idea is that rather than letting things build up for you to clean in one go, you clean up as you go.
So for example, in the kitchen rather than finishing your lunch and leaving the dishes by the sink to wash later, you simply wash them quickly as soon as you’re done or stick them in the dishwasher. This may take you an extra 2 minutes at the end of your meal but if you do this after every time you use something throughout the day it will mean there’s no pile up of dishes that could take you far longer to clean. If everyone in your house gets into this habit then it makes life easier.
The other thing to keep in mind is to also make sure that everyone inside the home tidies up after themselves once they’ve finished eating so again you are not left with a big job at the end of the day.
2 – Have One Set of Kitchen Items
This next one is a kitchen time hack that could save you a lot of time and mean keeping your house clean in 30 minutes a day becomes a lot more realistic; have one set of kitchen items for everyone. Rather than having 10 plates, mugs, glasses etc for a 3 person home you trim down what’s used in the kitchen to one set of items per person.
This will greatly reduce the temptation for people to use items and then dump them in a pile of dishes before grabbing a clean set the next time they need them. This system not only encourages everyone to keep their stuff clean which takes a minute or two but also means that you simply can’t use too many items when you’re cooking and eating.
Once you’ve reduced the availability of items in the kitchen that need to be washed, you’ll find that you’re using less time overall to clean up in there which can be one of the major time sucks around the home.
This system does rely on everyone signing up to it and using it correctly but even if you’re in a home with young kids it can still leave less work for you.
3 – Make The Beds First Thing
Another way to try keep your house clean in 30 minutes a day is to make the beds first thing every morning. This will only take a few minutes but make a big difference to the appearance of all your bedrooms and get a task out of the way early.
In addition, it’s been said that making your bed can lead to you being more productive throughout the rest of the day. Once everyone in your household understands this you may find everyone clamouring to make the bed first! Okay, maybe not but nonetheless it’s a habit that help you keep the house looking tidy and is an easy early win.
4 – Vacuum Or Sweep Up Daily
The theme you’ll have seen by now is that keeping your house clean in 30 minutes a day is underpinned by doing things in a manner that is little but often. One of the most effective areas you can implement this strategy is with vacuuming (or sweeping) your floors daily.
If you can get into the habit of vacuuming your floors daily it makes the whole process of cleaning your home in 30 minutes much more realistic. This is because if you’re hoovering daily, you won’t have as much dust and dirt build up to contend with so you won’t need a long vacuuming session each day. Now you may still need to once in a while (perhaps once a week) do a longer deeper clean around the home but if you maintain daily vacuuming and cleaning over time this may also reduce.
The other thing to note is that you may not need to vacuum daily everywhere as there will be some areas that see very little foot traffic and action daily. For example your hallways and entry points e.g. in and out of the garden may benefit from daily cleaning as they’ll likely see the most action and have the most significant impact on the level of cleanliness around the home.
If you can get your floors looking clean daily it will make a big difference to how clean and tidy your whole house feels.
If the thought of vacuuming every day even for a few minutes with your trusty old vacuum cleaner feels unappealing due to the setup and storing away time then maybe consider getting yourself a cordless stick vacuum. These allow you to grab and go at the push of a button and you don’t need to worry about a long cable and plug to deal with. We found it much easier to keep our 3 bedroom house tidy once we started using a cordless stick vacuum as we could quickly pick it up everyday and go over the high traffic areas.
If you’d rather avoid vacuuming yourself at all every day then maybe consider grabbing yourself a robot vacuum. This will mean you won’t have to worry about doing this task yourself and many allow you to automatically set a cleaning schedule daily. So whilst you get on with something else in your 30 minutes of cleaning time, your robot will take care of your floors.
5 – Keep The Laundry In Check
Another great time hack when it comes to keeping your home clean in 30 minutes a day is keeping your laundry in check. If your laundry is allowed to get out of control it will quickly make the house feel cluttered and messy even if the clothes are actually clean. Find a system that means
- All of your clothes have a proper place to be stored – e.g. a system we use for the kids are coloured baskets to go into their wardrobes. We then fold (when we can!) their clothes according to the colour. Having small baskets also means we can easily categorise clothing straight out of the wash and into the baskets e.g. one basket for socks, another for tops etc.
- The dirty laundry has a clear storage areas – make sure everyone knows where used clothing needs to go. Having a basket that looks tidy but can take clothing somewhere people are likely to use it e.g. in the bathroom or just outside. This will help avoid people leaving their clothes strewn around the house leaving you with less work to do to keep the place tidy.
- You wash clothes frequently – rather than waiting for clothes to pile up, try wash regularly to keep them at bay. To keep your environmental impact to a minimum you could use short eco-friendly washes on your washing machine.
