clean sweep: 30 day trial, no money back guarantee
I recently read a post on Apartment Therapy titled “How to Clean Your House in 20 Minutes a Day for 30 Days“. The idea is that rather than spending several hours one day a week cleaning your entire home, you can do a little bit each day and not lose one whole Sunday each week (as is usually my case). The article actually has the whole month mapped out, with a task for each day. For example, on the 30th of the month (which is today), the schedule says to sweep and vacuum all floors.
photo credit: saltycotton
When I first read the article, I was skeptical, mainly because history has shown that I am not good at sticking to a strict routine, and this plan hinges on a person’s ability/willingness to set aside 20 minutes every single day of the week. I also questioned whether some of these daily chores might not actually take longer than the allotted 20 minutes. For example, deep cleaning the bathroom might take more like 30-40 minutes, if done properly. I debated about adopting this new cleaning routine, but decided to put the idea on the back-burner because it was the middle of the month when I read about it, and I thought if I were going to try it, I should start on the 1st.
Well, Tuesday is February 1st and I figure, what the hell, I’ll try it! I figure the worst that can happen is that I slack off for several days and neglect my daily chores, freak out, and in a moment of caffeine-induced panic, throw myself head-first into a cleaning frenzy, which ends with me passed out in the middle of the tile floor wearing nothing but my yellow rubber cleaning gloves. No big deal, right?
And in case you were wondering, yes, I am roping Will into this – we agreed on it this afternoon. So since this could wind up being quite an interesting experiment in domesticity, I will try to post updates about how it goes. Wish us luck!
. . .
By the way, here is the list for those of you too lazy to click the link at the beginning of the article:
1. Surface clean living room and kitchen (pick up stray items, dust, sweep, vacuum)
2. Clean bathrooms (toilets, showers, floors, walls, mirrors)
3. Surface clean bedrooms (put away toys, clothes, dust)
4. Surface clean “extra” rooms (basement, office, play room)
5. Surface clean living room and kitchen
6. Clean bathrooms
7. Clean all interior windows (white vinegar and newspaper works great and is cheap!)
8. Sweep and vacuum all floors in the house (don’t forget stairs)
9. Surface clean bedrooms
10. Deep clean living room (mirrors, baseboards, dust artwork)
11. Clean bathrooms
12. Clean out closets (hang up clothes, mittens, jackets, hats)
13. Surface clean “extra” rooms
14. Deep clean bedrooms (organize drawers, check under bed, tidy closet, dust artwork, fans, lights, mop)
15. Surface clean living room and kitchen
16. Deep clean bathrooms (clean inside drawers, inside of trash cans, tops of mirrors, tile, mop)
17. Clean all door knobs, phones, entertainment equipment (remote controls), switch plates, banisters and other things that are repeatedly touched.
18. Clean out the refrigerator, take stock of food, organize pantry
19. Clean entryway, sweep porch (if you have one), clean out car (because they’re often our home away from home)
20. Surface clean living room and kitchen
21. Surface clean bathrooms
22. Surface clean bedrooms
23. Sweep and vacuum all floors in the house
24. Clean linen closet, straighten towels, sheets or regular closet if not applicable
25. Surface clean living room and kitchen
26. Deep clean kitchen (scrub appliances, wash trash cans, base boards, wipe down and straighten cabinets)
27. Surface clean bathrooms
28. Surfaces clean bedrooms
29. Clean one item you’ve been meaning to get to and haven’t (deep clean your stove, wipe down all light fixtures, tackle a particularly unruly area)
30. Sweep and vacuum all floors in the house
Huh…I’ll approach Steve with this and see what he thinks. We were both pretty sad today that the whole day went to cleaning. Let me know how goes it. – dedra
That’s how we feel, too. Plus I think that if some of the jobs were split between two people (like sweeping/vacuuming) they would go even faster. And if you wanted a day off, you guys could double up and do two days in one. If you try it, you have to tell me how it goes, too
Interesting idea, but it would never work for me. Such as it is, I only clean about once a month anyway.
Really??
Sadly, yes. Who’s gonna complain? Tex?
Update – maybe I was feeling guilty/gross, but I cleaned my bathroom last night! Kudos me.
Yay! I knew the Brat would come around! And actually Tex has been complaining… I just didn’t want to tell you.
Hi! First time visitor to your blog
I think I’m going to give that 30 day schedule a go, I’m so sick of devoting such a large part of my weekend to cleaning!
Welcome and yay! Hope it goes well for you – It’s day 2 for me now and so far, so good!