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The Secret to Keeping Your House Clean (All the Time)

The Secret to Keeping Your House Clean (All the Time)

I can't tell you how much easier my life would have been if I'd discovered this trick years earlier. That being said, I can largely credit this one, silly-sounding rule for being the reason my house doesn't look like a tornado just hit.

Written by Liz Bayardelle, PhD   |  See Comments   |  Updated 09/24/2018

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Repeating Item Cleaning Plan

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Repeating Item Cleaning Plan

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The Secret to Keeping Your House Clean (All the Time)

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I want to start out with a disclaimer that I did not invent this rule.  Unfortunately, this was one of those gems gleaned from one of those Pinterest screenshots of a Tumblr post we find at 3am (when the toddler wakes us up...again) that is then nowhere to be found the next morning.  
So, with that said, here is the one housecleaning rule that changed my life.

The Two Minute Rule

The premise of this one is exceedingly simple:

When you see something that needs cleaning, fixing, or organizing in your house, ask yourself if it would take more or less than two minutes to do it.  
  • If it takes less than two minutes, do it right then and there.
  • If it takes less than two minutes, write it down on your to do list.

Get a bill in the mail?  It takes 60 seconds to write a check, throw a stamp on it, and chuck it by the door to go in the mailbox.  Do it now.

Get several bills in the mail?  That would require a trip up to your desk, some quality time with Quicken (or whatever financial app you use), and way more than two minutes.  Write "pay bills" on your to do list and put it in the appropriate pile on your desk (an act which takes less than two minutes, so you do it now to get them off your counter), and move on.
 

Benefit 1:  An Easy Choice

The first benefit of this rule is that it eliminates the hemming and hawing we all go through when we see that pile of dirty laundry on the floor or the dog drool splattered across the wall.  (Yes, non-great-dane-owners, this is actually a thing.  I have wet-wipe our walls at least once a week to erase the giant furbaby's splatter art.)

With the Two Minute Rule, the second we see something, we can apply this quick litmus test and know exactly what to do.  It saves time, but also thought.  And we moms know that's just as rare of a commodity.

Benefit 2:  Immediate Action (Reprograms Your Bad Habits)

This one will feel like a chore at first, but once it becomes a habit you'll be shocked at how helpful it is.

When you see something, no matter what you're doing, you immediately take action on it.  Whether that action is writing the task down or actually getting it done, this will effectively eliminate your bad habit of seeing a task and thinking "meh, I'll do it later".

Giving yourself a "to do list" option for tasks that would take longer than two minutes means that you now respond immediately to 100% of your messy items, the second you see them.  Not bad, right?

Benefit 3:  The Clutter is ALWAYS Gone

So from now on, every time you see something that needs cleaning or organizing, you either clean it right away or put it in the appropriate pile with a "to do" item with it's name on it.  This means that, either way, the mess is dealt with immediately!  

You'll be shocked how fast your house goes from mildly messy to actually clean.

The Only Downside

This doesn't really need to be said, but for completion's sake I'm going to put it on the official record.  Eventually, you do have to do the tasks you put aside on your to do list.  

You can't keep your house clean if you never do anything that takes longer than two minutes to complete.

(Laundry would pile up into mountains, I would never ever deep clean my irritatingly-white baseboards so my house would look like a bumper-car ring, etc.)

However, if you occasionally set aside some time to really dig down and complete your "to do" tasks, the Two Minute Rule will keep your house looking shockingly clean and tidy in the meantime.

Your Next Step

Right now, make a decision to give the Two Minute Rule a one-week trial run.  From this second on, every single time you see something that needs doing, it gets assessed and either done or "to do" listed. 

Commit to that awkward getting-used-to-it phase where you feel like you're spending more time writing things on your to do list than you do on anything else.  

Decide that no matter what, you take some kind of immediate action the second you notice something needs doing.

I promise you'll be shocked by the results.  

Let me know how it works in the comments section!  What was the biggest change you noticed when you tried it?

Want More Help?

If the two minute rule sound helpful, you should know that there are other productivity life hacks that will make it simple and easy for you to transform your current dust-bunny-breeding-ground into a spotless, magazine-worthy home.  I've attached a free PDF workbook that will guide you through the process of getting your house organized and keeping it clean!

Start Your Next Step

Repeating Item Cleaning Plan

Start Your Next Step

Repeating Item Cleaning Plan

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About the Author

Liz Bayardelle, PhD

 Founder   |     Contributor

Liz (or Dr. Mommy, as her toddler started calling her after learning what a PhD was) is the happily sleep-deprived mom of a toddler (and professional raccoon noise impersonator), a sparkle-clad kidnado, a teenage stepdaughter, 200 cumulative pounds of dog, and herd of dustbunnies (if daily vacuuming doesn't occur). During nights and naptimes, she uses her PhD in business psychology as an author, speaker, and consultant. She also serves as an executive and principal for three companies, two of which she co-founded with her very patient (and equally exhausted) husband.

My Motto: All I can control is how hard I work.

Motto: All I can control is how hard I work.

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