You know those times when you learn your house is going to be receiving guests with 15 minutes notice? Or when the house is a bomb site but you can’t spare much time to clean it because you have work to catch up on. These are the moments that call for my magic 15 minute tidy.
It’s something I have perfected over the years to give the illusion of order and cleanliness, even though you haven’t done a proper tidy up in weeks.
I use it all the time, and although in some sense you are just papering over the cracks, you are making a bit of a dent in a job that actually needs doing as well.
One Rule to Remember
For this to work, you have to remember one rule: this is not a full clean, this is damage control.
Don’t get sucked into giving the windows a quick polish or hoovering behind the sofa since you’re cleaning up in there anyway. No. This eats into valuable time. Remember, you only have 15 minutes, so you need to use each one of them strategically.
If you don’t follow this rule, you will end up with one room that looks alright, but you won’t have time to do anything to the others. What we want is a minor upgrade throughout.
Now, here’s the plan.
Close Doors
If there are any rooms you won’t be using, close the doors and forget about them. They are tomorrow’s problem. This isn’t lazy, it’s practical and it’s prioritising.
That’s what I keep telling myself anyway š
Time: 30 seconds
Clear Surfaces
For some reason, ‘stuff’ on surfaces is psychologically stressful. It is for me anyway. So the first thing I do (after closing doors) is sweep through the house clearing surfaces.
Anything left on a kitchen counter, a coffee table, or on any other surface where it doesn’t belong, gets dealt with in one of three ways:
- Back where it lives if that’s easy to do
- In a ‘sort later’ basket if it’s not
- In the bin
I’m ruthless here, I waste zero time.
Time: 4 minutes
Floor Sweep
Now it’s the floor’s turn. Same thing. Sweep through and get rid of anything that has been left on the floor that isn’t able to be hoovered up in one of the same three ways as above.
We’ve got a cordless vacuum, so this comes out now the floor is clear. I’m not moving chairs or tables to get to the skirting boards, I am doing the floor I can see and that’s it.
I’m after anything obvious: fluff, crumbs, bits of new sock, a rogue Cheerio, that sort of thing. I’m not trying to rid the carpet of a months worth of dust.
Time: 5 minutes 30 seconds
Reset
The rooms now look less cluttered, people aren’t going to get breakfast cereal detritus stuck to their socks when they walk on the carpets, so now it is time to make the place look pretty.
Plump cushions, fold blankets, tidy shoes, and wipe up any obvious spills or stains on the kitchen counter. Do anything that makes the rooms that are going to be seen or used look put together and organised.
Time: 3 minutes
Freshen Up
Last but not least, open all the windows in each room (so long as it’s not raining š§ļø) for a minute or two so a breeze can blow away any stale air.
Then, grab the Febreze and walk through the house with one hand held high, finger poised, leaving a trail of air freshener behind you as you go.
Wait for it to get blown around and settle, then close the windows, and marvel at how much better things can look in so little time.
Time: 2 minutes