Clean house fast and efficiently by setting a timer to accomplish household chores. The timer helps you stay motivated, quick, and focused.
I love having a clean house, but I don’t necessarily enjoy doing the cleaning. It’s so hard to get motivated to clean week after week. Most of the time when I clean I get distracted by all of the other things that need to be done and at the end of the day I’ve accomplished nothing. I was getting tired of feeling like I wasted all of my days and never had a clean house.
I came across the Pomodoro Technique one day on Instagram and decided to use implement it with my household chores. It has made a massive improvement in my productivity and the all around cleanliness of my house. I’ve learned how to clean house fast and efficiently thanks to this method.
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed in the 1980’s. The basic principles of the method are that you decide on a task that you want to accomplish and set the timer (usually for 25 minutes), then get to work. When the timer goes off, take a short break, then repeat until your task is accomplished.
My method to clean house fast involves setting the timer for smaller increments and racing to complete my tasks before time runs out. For example, I know that it takes me around 10 minutes to clean the powder room, so I set my timer for 10 minutes and get to work!
Why Using a Timer Helps Me Clean House Fast
Setting a Timer Helps Kick Start My Motivation
Most days the hardest part is starting. It’s easy to look around the house and get overwhelmed before even getting started. What’s even easier is setting a timer and dedicating just 10-15 minutes to one task. Once that task is accomplished and I’ve got the satisfaction of a completed job under my belt, it’s easier to set the timer for the next task. Then, the next and the next. Next thing I know I’ve finished half of my to-do list!
A Timer Helps Get the Job Done Quickly
After years of spending almost an entire day cleaning my house, I learned everything can actually be accomplished in about 2 hours. The only way for me to learn this was from shrinking my timers down to the shortest amount of time possible (while still doing a thorough cleaning job). For example, I used to give myself 25 minutes to clean the master bathroom. I dusted, tidied everything away, wiped down the sink and counters, scrubbed the toilet, cleaned the shower, vacuumed and mopped.
I used to use the whole 25 minutes, but I started pushing myself to clean faster. Now, I can clean the whole bathroom in 15 minutes.
By challenging myself to work with less time I clean house fast. This means that I hustle and work up a sweat, but after a few hours my house is clean. It’s way easier to get motivated to clean when I know that it’s only going to take 2 hours.
A Timer Helps Me Stay Focused
I get VERY distracted while cleaning. I will see a stray jacket or a messy stack of papers. Next thing I know I’m spinning in circles. I could spend an entire day running around and end up not accomplishing much at the end of it. Setting a timer helps me know that all I have to do is get through 10-15 minutes of cleaning, then I can put away the toys on the kitchen table.
This also helps me not get distracted by the kids wanting a snack or wanting me to play. I can finish my task before helping them because they can totally wait 10 minutes for a snack or for me to turn on Netflix. (Obviously, this only applies to non-emergent needs. I will stop what I’m doing to break up a fight, change a diaper or prevent injury!) I can clean house fast when I’m not distracted by the rest of my to-do list.
Having A Clean House Starts the Week on a Productive Note
I set aside every Monday morning after breakfast to clean house. After the girls finish eating I set them up in the living room with a movie or a few episodes of Daniel Tiger. Then I get to work. I finish my cleaning by the time the little one needs a nap. And I usually have time to shower before lunch.
Once lunch is over I’ve got the whole rest of the day to spend with the girls. Not to mention the whole week in front of us!
It definitely sets me up for a productive week, which I enjoy even more in a clean house.
I definitely agree that timers help me focus. I think I need to get a big timer to use though because my oldest son thinks that the timer going off is annoying and sometimes turns it off before I hear it! But you’ve inspired me to get back to my timer regime!
Haven’t used this method to clean house, but I have with writing projects and work. If you are prone to overthink or overdo, this works well. Hope you hnave new converts.
I love this method because it makes me realize that it might FEEL like I’m cleaning for hours but it’s actually not as long as it seems!