We all want to keep a clean home - whether it’s just for our own mental wellbeing or so we’re not rushing around before visitors pop round.
While there’s plenty of big jobs we can do to achieve the organised, pristine space we’ve always dreamed of – from dedicating some time to decluttering your home to making a plan to try to clean the most neglected household items – it’s fair to say that sometimes, we don’t have the time or energy.
This is where an inspired one-minute rule comes in. The deceptively simple solution keeps rooms looking in order and leaves you with enough energy to tackle bigger projects when the mood strikes.
The trick to this rule is as simple as the name suggests - if a cleaning or sorting task can be done in less than a minute, you do it right away.
For the rule to be a success, there needs to be some consistency. But when it takes less than a minute, you’ll barely notice that you’ve been ticking off tasks each day. You can even do them while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil or the microwave to ping.
The originator of the rule - New York Times best-selling author Gretchen Rubin - also shared that a personal benefit of the rule is not needing to have a plan or making a list of priorities - you simply do whatever needs doing in the moment.
Much like many of the best professional decluttering methods, this one-minute rule has gained a huge online following.
And while the rule was devised to be about life admin in general, it makes perfect sense to hone in on cleaning tasks.
Think about it? When you look at plates that need to be put in the dishwasher, or clothes that need to be taken out of the dryer, the list can feel endless. All that weighing on your mind can add up, and you might put it all off until you have an afternoon clear to do a big clean.
But it makes so much sense to spend less than a minute just ticking things off your to-do list there and then.
Easy tasks you can do with the one-minute cleaning rule
If you’re unsure how helpful the one-minute rule could be, realising just how many rooms and jobs you can use it for demonstrates the big impact of little but often efforts. Daily one-minute jobs can include:
- Making the bed
- Loading/unloading the dishwasher
- Wiping down hobs
- Hanging up clothes
- Popping your shoes back in the cupboard
- Binning any expired foods from the fridge
- Wiping off watermarks on any sinks or taps
- Running a microfiber cloth over the windows
- Plumping up the pillows
- Running a microfiber cloth over any dusty surfaces nearby
- Putting any loose paperwork or old magazines in the recycling.
To keep this trick efficient and consistent, one top tip is to make sure you've got what you need to hand easily. Leave cleaning cloths in an easy-to-access cupboard or drawer, for example.
