The average person spends about six hours a week cleaning, often rotating tasks on a weekly basis (like bathrooms and floors) while doing daily upkeep (dishes, tidying) and less frequent deep cleans. While weekly cleaning is common for major chores, the exact frequency varies greatly with lifestyle, home size, occupants (kids, pets), and personal standards, with many deep cleaning only a few times a year.
If the 5x5 method is as new to you as it was to me, allow me to explain. Coined by Steph of The Secret Slob, this technique requires nothing but a timer and twenty-five free minutes. Pick five rooms or zones and dedicate five minutes per area. In twenty-five minutes, Steph promises a cleaner, less cluttered home.
Most people find that scheduling their house cleaning on a biweekly schedule is the perfect frequency and it takes a huge weight off their shoulders. Less Upkeep Between Cleanings - Scheduling your cleanings biweekly will mean less upkeep on your end in between visits.
The 30-3 rule basically means 30 minutes, 3 times a day. This means you only need a hour and a half per day dedicated to your home to keep things not only tidy, but very clean.
The 20/10 cleaning method (or rule) is a time-management technique for tidying and organizing, involving focused work for 20 minutes, followed by a mandatory 10-minute break, and then repeating the cycle, inspired by the Pomodoro Technique. It breaks overwhelming tasks into manageable chunks, preventing burnout by building in rest, making cleaning more approachable and sustainable by focusing on consistency rather than marathon sessions, and encouraging completion by finishing tasks like putting laundry away during breaks.
The 12-12-12 decluttering method, created by Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist, is a simple, manageable system where you find 12 items to throw away, 12 items to donate, and 12 items to return to their proper place in a room, totaling 36 items, which helps to quickly reduce clutter without overwhelm and build momentum. It's a quick, repeatable process for any area, focusing on immediate results by tackling trash, donations, and misplaced items in small, achievable steps.
Determining how often to clean a house depends on size, how often rooms are used, and the types of furniture and surfaces you have. Certain things require more frequent attention and need to be cleaned every day, while a general clean can be done once a week, and a deep clean every few months or annually.
The Core 4 Method was created by professional organiser Kayleen Kelly. It's designed to keep things simple and strip decluttering right back to the basics. The four steps — Clear Out, Categorise, Cut Out and Contain — give you a structured plan that says exactly what it does on the tin.
Non-food-contact surfaces
The 2017 FDA Food Code has many recommendations for cleaning such surfaces. For example, iced tea dispensers and consumer self-service utensils that do not come into contact with TCS foods (tongs, scoops, ladles, etc.) should be cleaned at least every 24 hours.
"And the 50% decluttering rule offers a simple solution: remove half the items from any given area." When it comes to this decluttering method, she points out that small edits don't cut it, since this rule forces you to be intentional in the moment and makes a significant impact almost instantly.
In 2 hours, a cleaner typically focuses on high-traffic areas like kitchens and bathrooms, dusting surfaces, vacuuming/mopping floors, wiping counters, cleaning toilets/sinks, and emptying bins, often covering 1-2 bathrooms and a kitchen/living area for a weekly upkeep clean, rather than a deep clean. Prioritizing tasks and having the home tidy beforehand maximizes the time, ensuring essential areas are refreshed.
The amount of time a weekly clean takes will depend on the size of the space being cleaned, the level of cleanliness required, and the specific cleaning tasks that need to be done. However, generally, a weekly clean of a moderately sized home or apartment should take around 2-3 hours to complete.
A bi-weekly house cleaning schedule works well for households that can manage some light cleaning in between professional services but still benefit from regular maintenance. It keeps your home fresh and hygienic without the commitment of a weekly cleaning service.
The idea behind the 10-10 decluttering method is refreshingly simple—which ups the chances that you'll be able to stick to it! Over the course of 10 days, you'll declutter 10 items a day from 10 different areas or rooms of your home. Not hardcore enough? Try limiting each day's decluttering session to only 10 minutes.
Walk through your home with a garbage bag and collect 27 items. Do not stop until you have 27. Then close the garbage bag and throw it away. Next, take an empty box and go through your home collecting 27 items to give away.
Daily Cleaning Checklist
The 20-minute cleaning rule is a simple, effective method to keep your home tidy by setting a timer for 20 minutes of focused cleaning, often followed by a short break (the 20/10 method), preventing messes from overwhelming you by tackling small, consistent tasks daily instead of big, daunting clean-ups. It's about progress, not perfection, breaking down chores into manageable sprints to reduce stress and maintain order.
You may be surprised to hear that Americans spend an average of about 6 hours per week cleaning their homes. However, if we include laundry, lawn care, and recycling tasks, that number more than doubles to nearly 14 hours a week.
The 333 method philosophy revolves around one simple rule: you choose 33 items to wear for 3 months. This includes clothing, accessories, outerwear and shoes, but excludes essentials like underwear, sleepwear or workout gear.
The method is commonly referred to as the "four box method" because features of a case are organized under four topics: (1) medical indications, (2) patient preferences, (3) quality of life, and (4) contextual features.
Make fast decisions
The best way to speed up the decluttering process is to choose quickly. Follow your gut instincts about items, and move through them as fast as possible to keep momentum going. In order to make decisions quickly, I only give myself five options, and I use bins to keep myself on track!
In general, you should clean your bathroom thoroughly about once a week to help you maintain a baseline level of bathroom cleanliness. However, there are other factors to consider, too—like how often you touch different surfaces and how many people live in your household.
Monthly cleaning schedule + checklist