Follow the 5, 10, 15 Rule!

Mourning Routine to keep your home tidy – Total: 15 Minutes

We are all busy. Work, school, kids, meals, laundry, house cleaning, how can we possibly do it all? Cleaning is a necessity, but a chore most of us don’t really care for. What if I told you I have found a way to keep your home tidy in 45 minutes a day! Well, I have!

Is my house always spotlessly clean? Um, no! I do continuously fight the “have a presentable, sparkling clean house” with the “wonderful, chaotic mess” that comes with crafting and cooking and life”? I have; however, found a schedule of 5 , 10 and 15 minute mini cleaning blocks that seems to work for us (my family and me) and keep the house relatively tidy and presentable. Clean enough that I am OK – not even a little nervous or embarrassed, if someone decides to drop in unexpectedly.

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So, how does my cleaning schedule work:

Make bed – 5 minutes

First thing in the morning when I get up, I make my bed and pick up anything in my room that is out of place from the day before and put it away. This usually takes less than 5 Minutes. The kids do this too, most of the time; but, if not, the untidy bed is behind closed doors, right?

Kitchen – 5 Minutes

I head to the kitchen. While waiting for the coffee to perk or the tea to steep I empty my dishwasher and wipe the counters. (Less than 5 Minutes). OK, full disclosure – I don’t drink coffee or tea – I am actually allergic, but if I didn’t add in time for it there might just be an uproar – I do drink a probiotic mixture in the morning and often have a warm apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and honey pick me up so the timing still works.

Washroom and Laundry – 5 Minutes

After my drink, I head to the washroom where I do a quick tidy: spraying an antibacterial, wipe down any surfaces, brush out the toilet, etc. while my shower water is heating up. When I get out of the shower, I again spray an antibacterial on the shower walls and rinse it down with the shower spray. Then head to the laundry room and press start on the washer (more about the laundry later…) All of this takes me less than 5 minutes – without the shower time, of course. If you have more than one washroom, rotate through them, one each day, they don’t get that messy in a day or two and will be Deep Cleaned once a week if you follow our Deep Cleaning Routine Post coming soon.

Time for Work and School

Time to get the kid(s) up – only 1 home now, for me! 🙂 As I make and eat breakfast – or they do – we rinse and put our dishes right in the dishwasher (it is already emptied and ready for the day’s dishes). Any that require hand washing get rinsed and set in the sink for later. This takes no time really, just part of our breakfast routine.

Time to get ready for work and school. *Note: If the kid’s beds aren’t made, we do it now. I really don’t just close the doors. Before we leave the house I move the laundry from the washer to the dryer and turn it on. (This really doesn’t take any time, I count it as part of the 15 minute morning routine laid out above). *Note: I work from home and am OK with the dryer running. If you don’t like it running when you are not home just switch your laundry time to the evening.

So, the morning routine above should have you well on your way to Keeping Your Home Tidy. Add in our evening routine and it should stay that way.

Evening Routine to keep your home tidy – Total: 25-30 Minutes

Sweep and/or vacuum – 10 Minutes

Before I started working at home, I would vacuum or sweep the house when I got home from work. A quick 10 minute sweep through – I have a bungalow so 10 minutes does it. If you have a two story or larger house, you can do one floor or area each night.

Supper

While making supper I rinse and put in the dishwasher any thing used for preparation but not for presenting and eating supper. After supper, dirty dishes go in the dishwasher and hand wash ones are rinsed and placed by the sink. You can do these now but I prefer to do them as part of our before bed cleanup.

Take some time to relax with the family – that is what it is all about!

Bedtime – 10 Minutes

Bedtime! 10 minutes before your normal bedtime routine, announce “bedtime” and have everyone do a quick walk through the house and pick up anything that belongs to them that isn’t where it should be and put it away. I wash up the left over dishes and then go behind them with a damp cloth and wipe down surfaces, picking up anything of mine that needs putting away and any strays they may have missed. The house is now pretty tidy again!

Follow your normal nighttime / bedtime routine : baths, stories, songs, whatever and when you reach the part where the kids are getting their ‘jammies on and brushing their teeth, collect their dirty clothes and quickly sort them in the laundry room (the kids can do this themselves, if they are old enough). I keep two hampers and a basket permanently in the laundry room and sort the night’s laundry into them according to the laundry schedule below. Tomorrow’s laundry items go directly into the washer and the others get sorted appropriately. Then go back and finish the bedtime rituals.

The cleaning part should take about 10 minutes, once you get in the routine and should cause minimal disruption to your bedtime routine.

Laundry

Now, the kids are all tucked in bed and you only have one task left to help keep your home tidy. Folding that load of laundry you put on this morning. One load of laundry should only take 5 – 10 minutes to fold and put away and you have the rest of the night to yourself or for quality time with your spouse. Enjoy!

Laundry Schedule

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Towels	Darks	Lights	Bedding	Miscellaneous

As the chart above shows, I only do laundry on weekdays. I try to keep weekends free for family stuff but I do collect dirty items Sunday night and sort them for Monday. I mentioned above that I keep two hampers and a basket in my laundry room. The two hampers are for lights, darks and towels. OK, I know, that is three things and only two hampers but I use the washer itself for my third sorting vessel – why sort twice, if I don’t have to!

For example, on Sunday when I sort, I put all dirty towels in the washer and sort the lights and darks into the hampers. On Monday night dark items go directly in the washer and lights and towels get sorted into the hampers. Adding darks in the hamper to the washer, empties a hamper for the towels.

Thursday is bedding day – each Thursday instead of making all the beds in the morning, we strip one and wash the bedding, remaking it with a set of extra sheets. We only have two beds in use at the moment – so our sheets get washed every other week. When both of my girls were home, I would wash their bedding together and still have everything washed biweekly.

I sort delicates or special items into the basket and deal with them on Friday, my miscellaneous day! If there is no delicate or special items, I use Friday to wash throw blankets and pillows or jackets, etc. Whatever might need washing that didn’t get done during the week.

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So, That’s how to keep your home tidy in 45 minutes a day!

Let me know what you think in the comments below.