Cut Cleaning time by 70% (by understanding this!)

So the average American woman spends 2.4 to 2.7 hours per day on household tasks. This includes cleaning along with grocery shopping, meal planning, cooking, tasks that involve the kids. Two and a half to three hours a day, that's a big chunk of time. Today, let's talk about how you could cut that down by 70%. How understanding the layers of a clean house and streamlining some of these other tasks can significantly cut down the amount of time you're spending, no matter what season of life you're in. So this idea of layers of a clean house is something that I've learned from both Cass from Clutterbug and Dana from A Slob Comes Clean. And recently Dana did a video on the layers of a clean house too. I will link to that down below. I want to talk about how we can use this idea to clean so much faster, to run your whole household so much faster. And then also answer some of the other questions that come up so frequently, like how do we get our family involved? And then also a recent question that's come up, like, Hey Dawn, you said you have a housekeeper. Like that doesn't count. Like how does that factor into this? Also some ideas around the best cleaning products and overall, how you can clean your house faster and keep it cleaner. And so this is going to be probably the most in-depth video that I have done on cleaning, but I feel like I have learned so much around this. I'm excited to share it with you. And I will use timestamps here so that you can jump around and skip ahead if you want to. But first, let me explain this idea of the different layers of a clean house. Okay, so I think we're going to be split down the middle of this being like, yeah, duh, Dawn. And others being like, oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Okay. I was in the, oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I never thought of it that way kind of category. So if you're being like, yeah, duh, just hang with me because I have some other ideas for you too that maybe you don't know already. Okay. Layers of a clean house. So I think how we were raised plays into this in a huge way. So I was raised in a house that was messy. I've talked about this. My mom is the coolest person I know. She is one of the hardest working people I know. And our house was a mess growing up. And so every Saturday we would bail it out. We would do all the cleaning from the week. We would do all the dishes and the laundry and the picking up and pull the whole house back together. And then at the end of the night, we would usually make a good meal that day. Like one of our favorite was mashed potatoes with hamburger gravy. And then we would go into the living room and we would sit on the, I remember, sitting on the brown carpet with a plate and watch Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. And it was great. I loved those days. I loved how the house felt when it was all pulled back together. I knew it wasn't going to stay that way, so I enjoyed it while I was there. And it was fine. But my mindset around cleaning then has always been that cleaning involves decluttering. It involves tidying or picking up. It involves the regular cleaning and also the deep cleaning. Because we did all of these things every Saturday. So in my mind, cleaning was hard. It took a lot of time. It wasn't easy. You know when you wash dishes where everything's been stuck on after a week, that's harder. Right? Cleaning a shower that only gets cleaned when company comes or you have house guests, that's harder. And again, it's fine. It just was what it was. But I then moving forward have always had this skewed idea of cleaning because it was all of this. Now, some of you, for you, cleaning is just cleaning. Right? It is literally doing the dishes, wiping the surfaces, mopping the floor. That's cleaning. You keep the other stuff done, picked up. Maybe you're a naturally tidy person or that's how you were raised, so you adopted those habits. You just naturally run the dishwasher every night. You don't put something down, you put it away. All these mantras. Right? And so when you go to clean your house, you're literally just doing the cleaning because you have already done these other things or you have plans for when those things get done. And so you can just clean. And that's awesome. That's super cool. Right? Now there's still ways we can do this faster and involve others. So we're going to talk about that today. But for those of us who, when we go to clean that it feels so hard, I do want to encourage you that I think it is very much possible to get to a point where cleaning does not feel hard. And you might even say it's enjoyable. I actually enjoy cleaning our house now. Yes, that's weird. Okay. So, so we're going to talk more about this process. How can we get habits around this, systemize it? It does not have to be a routine or checklist, but it can be. But how do we start to incorporate this so that it's not hard and it's getting done on a regular basis? And then I have some other questions too that we're going to answer. Like how can we declutter faster? With tidying, how can we get family involved? How do we create that into a habit? Cleaning, like I said, wait, Dawn, you have a housekeeper. How does that play into the equation? Right? Do you have a cleaning routine or checklist? What are your favorite cleaning products? And then also how do we systemize the deep cleaning as well? So again, I want to, in a pretty neat and tidy way, go through all of these questions today. Okay, so cleaning, washing sheets and putting clean sheets on, when you were growing up, how frequently did that happen in your house? Was there a routine to it? I feel like you're expecting a very good routine. Because my upbringing was a clean house, everything put away and neat and orderly. Yeah. So was there, do you remember though, was there a routine to sheets and bedding? Really? So what's funny then, when we got married, actually my mom talks about being very neat and tidy until my brother was sick when he was an infant. And then after that, she was like, you know what, this is, I'm not going to kill myself over this. It's just not worth it. Then when we got married and started having our own household, my standard then was Tom's mom, because I knew he grew up in a neat house. And anytime I would go to his parents' house, it was always perfectly clean and tidy. But I never put that on you. No, no, no, no. I really took this on myself. Because I knew you guys for many years. So I knew the environment you grew up in and all that stuff. I just wanted to defend myself. No, no. I took this on myself. And one of the first things then I did, like I would try to find cleaning routines and stuff. I came across CrossFlyLady, who many know, and I never could stick to her actual cleaning routines. But two things that always stuck with me were to shine your sink, to get your sink emptied each night and to clean it. And then to get dressed to your shoes, to get dressed for the day and have shoes on to the point so that you feel ready and active. And so, so a lot of my cleaning stuff has evolved over the years. We still have no set routine for laundering linens and sheets and that kind of thing. But does it bother you? Not one bit. It's very much an as needed basis where it's like, oh, I'm cleaning, I'm just going to strip them off quick and go throw them in the wash. I'm trying to get better at that though. I actually think that if we had a routine, it would probably stress me out. Cause it would just feel like another thing that we have to do on a regular basis. Whereas now we clean as needed. And so it just kind of feels like more natural. You know what I mean? Okay. I have another question for you around that too. But first, today's video is sponsored by Helix. Who would have ever thought 15 years ago when we got married, we'd be sitting in this house talking about a mattress we love, making a cleaning video. Who would have thought, right? Never, ever, ever. Oh, and pink comfort. All right. We'll talk about that in a little bit. And they have their President's Day sale going on right now. So that means you can save 25% off of your Helix mattress and get two free pillows. But it's just for a limited time. And you can use the link down below to check out the details. But we are so grateful for Helix. They have been really awesome sponsors and supporters of our channel for a very long time. And we wholeheartedly endorse it and recommend it to you because we love our Helix mattress and have been getting a great night's sleep on it for two and a half years now. Going back to the idea of not sleeping well and waking up with a headache or backache or just rolling around or getting really hot is something that I don't desire for anyone. That is why we share Helix with you. It's interesting looking back how it was such a slow fade. We loved our mattress in the beginning. We just got it off Craigslist. We were so, we had no money. But isn't it funny how we didn't even realize that it had broken down. We were not getting a good night's sleep and we just were chalking it up to old age, working hard and that kind of thing. Old age, older age. Yeah, we were in our, I think we were in our early thirties then. And we also love that Helix makes it easy and they take the stress out of selecting a mattress. So you just go online and you take their sleep quiz. It's super easy. So you answer questions like, what sleep position do you normally sleep in? And so for you, Tom? What Dawn wants me to sleep in. Side or back? Yes. What firmness do you prefer? Firmer, but not the firmest. But not rock hard. Yes. And do you ever wake up with back pain? I used to. Used to. And so we were matched with the Helix Dusk Luxe. And it's conveniently shipped to your door, free shipping in the US. It comes rolled up in a box. And so then Tom did the honors of bringing it into our room and unrolling it. And if it makes you nervous that you didn't go into a showroom and awkwardly lay on it in front of a salesperson, no worries because you get 100 nights to test it out. So you get their 100 night sleep trial. And then beyond that, you also get a 10 year warranty. And I'm guessing you've been thinking about upgrading your mattress. So now really is the perfect time during their President's Day sale, where you can get 25% off your purchase and get two free pillows as well. But it's just for a limited time. So check out the details down below. You can click on the link down there or go to helixsleep.com backslash minimal mom. And then you'll be getting a really great night's sleep too. Okay, so I have another cleaning question for you. So I'm going to... Yes you may. So I'm going to talk about this more, kind of like what our cleaning routine is now. I've also shared that we have a cleaning lady now as a housekeeper. I don't know what the proper term is. She's awesome. But even when we're getting ready for her to come, hasn't it felt like it's just very easy now to pull our house together? No, it is. Everyone has their spots. We all go after it and we're back to square one. She comes does all the deep cleaning and then we're good to go for a few weeks again. Yeah. And I think, are you sometimes surprised maybe that our house can still look pretty messy? Like when it's been lived in and we haven't picked up, sometimes when we go to do this, it looks messy and a little intimidating. I'm a slow learner. And so it's been a long enough time that now I just know, like we can pick this up in no time. If I'm doing it all by myself, it's going to take a while. If you're doing it all by yourself, it's going to take a while. But if we all grab our little areas... Yeah, no problem. It doesn't take long. All right. So I just wanted to get another person's opinion on this. Oh, I thought you just wanted this on record for the next time I get it. I'm going to play it back to you. Like, it's okay. You said it wasn't that bad. Cause you're probably still the one that probably gets, well, you've said this before, like you feel the stress of your environment more, I think, than some of us. And so you're very in tune to how clutter makes you feel. And so sometimes I think... I'm the feeler in the relationship, if you were curious. Or if you couldn't, you probably assume that. It's true. But you're, I feel like... Dawn's the cold one with no heart. I feel like you sense it first and therefore sometimes you kind of feel like, oh, this is so much, like how did it get this way again? I do, for sure. For sure. But then we do our, we each do our part and it comes back together really quickly. And it's not, would you also say, because we've done this so many times with the kids, we keep them in their same areas. We don't rotate tasks. Do you feel like that has worked well? It has. I think we should be rotating the kids, which would make more work for you and I, but I think it would develop more well-rounded children. So my thought is, like, I know some families that do like a year rotation. I really like that they each do the same area day in and day out right now, because they can do it very quickly and easily. So my thought, and we've probably been at this same rotation for maybe nine months to a year. Oh, I bet it's been well over a year. So my thought is that maybe we could start now to think about rotating, but let it be for a while. I don't know that I want to risk that rotating for a year though, because it's like, oh, if we put one kid in a job, that's really important. It's true. These jobs actually fit everyone pretty well right now. I know, but we want them to be well-rounded. I know. So, all right, we're going to have to think about that. We'll keep talking about that. I thought this was a cleaning video, not a parenting video. Oh, it's all intertwined. Like there's no such thing as like, yeah, it's good. All right. Well, thank you for your input. I appreciate it. And we're going to keep talking. And keep cleaning. And also there's lots of cleaning going on in this video, so you can definitely use it as body doubling. And I hope you clean alongside me while we're visiting. Okay, so back to the layers of a clean house. So I think we're on the same page that ideally when we go to clean, that we're not doing all of these at the same time. That we're having a system for these, so that cleaning really can just be cleaning. So what's been helpful for me is to break down, well, how often should these things happen? Because again, I didn't naturally grow up with that programmed into me, right? Again, that's fine. My mom is the coolest, okay? But it just wasn't programmed in and that's fine because I'm an adult and I can learn these things now. Okay, so let's talk about how often should these happen? So with decluttering, ideally, well, I think what happens is we do a big purge initially. We just have to, we all have to go through our house, we have to get rid of big amounts of stuff and get our house to a point where it is easier to maintain and to clean and to keep tidy. And that is very much, we use the onion method. We go layer by layer. We think like, oh, I've gone so far, I've gotten rid of so much, only to find that tidying and cleaning still feels kind of hard. So we probably need to go a little bit further. Your house should not feel hard. I'm going to say it again. Your house should not feel hard. None of us want to spend any more time or energy than necessary maintaining a home. I think there's some beauty in the repetition of the tasks we do in our home every day. So I'm not saying we shouldn't have to do any of it, but I think it can be enjoyable. Your house shouldn't feel hard. And so if your house still feels hard, and as we talk about these, if you're like, no, that's hard, that's still very hard, then we continue to go back to the decluttering and we declutter further. But ideally we do kind of a big purge of decluttering, and then we can declutter seasonally, occasionally. Again, I don't have a set routine for decluttering, but I just kind of always have my antennas out of like, ooh, that area is not functioning well, I bet it needs to be decluttered a little bit further. But it's occasionally. It's not all of the time. Now, I'm always aware, with kids stuff especially, I'm like, they don't need that, they are not playing with that, let it go. So I have an awareness of it, but really intentionally is seasonally. Okay. Then we talk about tidying. So I talk about tidying like picking up, putting stuff away, put the pillows back on the couch, pick up stuff in the kitchen, put it away, toys get picked up, bedrooms get picked up. So that is both daily and weekly. So we tidy our main living spaces every day. And I'll talk more about how we get the kids involved, what that looks like. We tidy our main living spaces every day. And then other areas like the laundry room or even our master bedroom, that's more of a weekly thing. It's more of a, I walk in and I'm like, ooh, this just needs to be picked up, right? Mostly the laundry room stays pretty put together. But every once in a while I walk in and there's stuff on the floor and there's stuff out of place. And so then I tidy it up. So daily and weekly. But the daily habit of tidying our main living spaces has been a game changer. And again, if that feels hard, we probably need to declutter a little bit further. We'll keep talking about that as we go too. All right. And then cleaning. Again, I think we have many cleaning tasks that we do daily. Like the dishes, obviously for most of us, we want to do the dishes every day, wipe down the flat surfaces like the counters. Other things like sweep every day. Other things like changing linens or vacuuming, mopping, that we don't do every day. That will be more of a weekly thing. So a lot of the cleaning takes place daily and weekly. And then deep cleaning where we are cleaning the toilets, scrubbing the shower, washing windows, dusting off fans. I don't know. We probably have different ideas. All have different ideas like what's cleaning and what's deep cleaning. But for me, that happens weekly or monthly. And I'll talk more about do we have a routine and how do we systemize that as we keep going forward. But this has been really helpful for me to see what things have to get done daily and then other things that can wait a little bit longer. What kind of cadence do we have to these things? This was really helpful to me. And probably the biggest thing that if any area of my house is still feeling hard, then I need to declutter more. So let's go back through these again now and talk about how do we develop this habit and how do we get there? Because many of us have failed in this, right? I mean, I was such a loser when it came to cleaning. Many of us have failed in this area. So now let's go back through it and talk about how do you make it so your house isn't hard and we actually really see progress in these areas. Okay, so decluttering. Honestly, this is what has made my house so that I can stay on top of cleaning, that it's not hard and it's enjoyable. Decluttering is potentially the most important piece of the puzzle here. And again, I just want to, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but if your house still feels hard, if there's any areas that are not working, then you probably need to declutter further. I have been blown away by how far I have had to go with decluttering to get my house to function well. And also I have been blown away that I don't miss any of the stuff. We don't miss it. The kids don't miss it. I don't miss it. Tom doesn't miss it. You could not pay me to take all of that stuff back. You probably could, but it would have to be a very large and significant amount. I don't want that stuff back. I now, because I am so far down the path and I can look back, I'm like, oh my goodness, that stuff was such a burden. It was such a waste of my time. Why would I want to spend my precious time and energy managing all of that dumb stuff? It did not matter. It was not significant. At the time it felt like it was, but now I feel like I have clearer vision about it. And what a waste of time all of that stuff was, especially, especially if you are feeling stressed and anxious, if you feel anxiety and it's getting in the way of how you parent and how you feel and how you have relationships and how you run your house, then I really want to encourage you to keep going further with decluttering. We know the science is there. The link between clutter and stress and anxiety, not only for you, but for your other family members too, it's a really big deal. And bringing our physical environment into order helps up here too. It really, really does. Now, it's not always easy, right? I also want to be careful not to oversimplify it. So let's talk about how can we declutter faster? So a few things that are really helpful. One, we got to stick together, right? So body doubling is profound. Body doubling is when we work together. Some of us can body double with YouTube videos. Like you can put on a Clean With Me video like this and you're cleaning and you're working and this works for you. Others of us might have to involve friends or family, people in our own life, our physical life that are willing to come over and to help you. And what's interesting about body doubling, it's literally just having another person in the room. They could be helping you, but they could be working on their taxes. It's literally just having the accountability of someone else there, someone else doing something, having that date and time on the calendar of when you're going to do this. It is huge. And I love, it's becoming more popular. The science is there to back it up now. There's so much evidence for supporting it as a really powerful technique to move past feelings of having no motivation, feeling discouraged, feeling like maybe you're not even capable of doing the things you need to do in your house. It is profound. We also have some ways we can help you with that virtually, like through my mentorship program or the Take Your House Back course that will be coming up again in April. So there's different levels of support. You have to know yourself, but even like, you could hire a professional organizer. There's people that organize also declutter, right? But understand any investment that you make to get your house decluttered and simplified, it is going to pay back in spades. Is that the term? I don't know what that means, but it is gonna, the payback, the reward for your investment is going to be so huge that you will also, I believe, look back and be like, wow, I'm so glad I did that because I could declutter faster then. I could make progress faster and get to a point in my home sooner where I can keep up on the cleaning and tidying. And it feels so good. I feel so good about myself now, as in regards to our home and parenting. And if we want to have people over. I did not realize how I felt like such a loser in this regard. And it's kind of cool how then that confidence spills over into other areas of your life. Because my purpose is not to clean my house. I don't mind it. I kind of enjoy it now. I enjoy the repetition, but that's ultimately not what I'm here for. I have other things that I want to do. And having our house in order, being able to keep it up, has made me feel not only like a better mom and spouse and those things, but I have more confidence in the other things that I want to pursue as well. So that has been awesome. And just the gift that keeps on giving. And so of course I really want that for you too. Okay. So decluttering, body doubling is a huge tactic. Also, five minutes matters. Setting the timer for five minutes. It's so fun. Whenever I get to meet you in person, there's one of three things that almost always is the first thing out of your mouth. And it's one, the idea of inventory changed everything. Two, the silent to-do list blows my mind. I shared it with my spouse. It has made such a big difference. And then three is five minutes matters. When you feel unmotivated, when you're like, I couldn't give a crap about decluttering my house right now, if you will set the timer for five minutes and just work on one small area for five minutes, it is incredible what will happen. And so five minutes matters, set your timer for five minutes. That is another huge and very important tactic when you're decluttering your house. Okay, next how do we get into the habit of picking up our house every day? And how do we get family involved? Right? Darn it. I've tried, Dawn, I've tried. I know. How do we get family involved? Okay. Creating new habits kind of sucks, right? Like it's just like, ugh. Like I know so many days, you'll watch this video and you're like, yes, I'm going to do it. That makes sense. Yes, count me in. Like that's so important, right? And then it's the next day and we're just like, whatever. Like it's just, it's going to be there tomorrow. I'm just going to have to do it again tomorrow. Right? Like I so distinctly remember those feelings. And so again, I get it. Now some of you that understand cleaning is just cleaning and the benefits of it, you're probably like, why wouldn't you pick up every day? Like it's just so logical. Well, I'm just going to talk to my friends here for a minute where we're like, it's not always logical. I've recently been getting into thriller books again, like murder mysteries and that. There's actually some cool Christian authors now that do, I never knew, that do these cold cases and stuff too, which I like. They're a little less intense and that's good for me when I'm reading before bed. But if I could choose anything to do on any given day, it is to go sit in my chair in the sunshine with a caffeine-free Diet Coke and read a mystery. Like, I just love it. It's just, it has been so enjoyable. It gives my brain a break. It just, like reading fiction, we know it relieves stress and all these things. Like six minutes of reading fiction can reduce your stress levels by up to 90%. It's even more effective than meditation and going for a walk. Blows my mind, but it works. Anyways. So on any given day, if I have to choose between just going and sitting in the sunshine in my chair and reading a book or coming and picking up my house for the umpteenth time, I don't want to, right? I want to pick the book. Okay. So how then do we develop this habit? Well, five minutes. We set the timer for five minutes and we can also incorporate our family into this. And we say, guys, we're trying something new and I'm going to set the timer for five minutes and just for five minutes, we're all going to pick up. And in the beginning, I liked to call this like party cleaning. So when our kids were younger or you're still working on developing the habit, we would all go to one space and we would all just work on the same space, whether it was the living room or kitchen. And I was just the air traffic controller. I was the director. I got nothing done except yell at kids, right? Like, go do this, take this to your room, go put this away. I said to bring it all the way out to the garbage can. Why did you put it by the door? No, you can't go to the bathroom. It's just five minutes. You can go to the bathroom after the timer goes off. And so in the beginning, it feels like what a huge waste of time. Everyone's crabby, everyone's grumbling and hardly anything got done. But the key is that when the timer goes off, you're done. They know it's just for five minutes and then you practice it again the next day. And then you practice it again the next day. And I also like to tie this to something else. So when we're creating a new habit, if we can tie it to something that we're just already doing each day. So when I would go in the kitchen to make dinner for the night, and this is still what we do, like I'm not always the one cooking, but when it's dinner time, or switching gears to making dinner and that kind of part of the night, then that is the time when everybody goes and picks up their spaces. We'll sometimes do it other times throughout the day too, if it's just the house is getting a little chaotic. But mostly we have tied it to that habit. Dinner time is pickup time. It's check the laundry. Where's it at in the cycle? Each kid going to their area. So in the beginning we did party cleaning and we would all work on a space together so I could direct and give instruction and keep everybody on task. But now after we've done that for quite a few years, now each child has their own area. So we have four kids, they are nine through 14. So our oldest, Adeline, she's 14. Her zone is the kitchen. She has the most work, but she also gets the most privileges. And so it works out. Maggie is 12 and she's in charge of laundry. She does everybody's laundry. I keep some of my stuff, like I have a bin in the laundry room that is for dark colors, stuff that doesn't go in the dryer. So she consults me when she's ready to run one of those loads and we make sure it gets on the drying rack and doesn't go through the dryer. We've had some mishaps, it happens, it's fine. But she is in charge of laundry start to finish. The only thing is everybody has to get their laundry to the laundry room. She doesn't have to go around and collect laundry. Everyone brings their laundry there and then she takes it from there and then gets it back to everyone's rooms. She puts it on their bed. They're in charge of putting it away. Corbin is 11. He just turned 11 and he is in charge of the entryway, the living room, and then the area by their desks, just the floor. So he picks up the entryway, puts everything away, and then the living room and their desk area. And then Gage is nine and he's in charge of our two bathrooms. So he picks everything up, puts it away, wipes down the vanities. And so it's a pretty good division of labor. And it's related to the amount of privileges they have, the amount of running we do, the things we pay for. And so right now this feels really good and it's been working well. I don't like a rotating chore chart. I don't do chore charts. My brain does not work that way. I do not like managing them. I print them off. I put it on the side of the fridge. We do it for one day. Then I forget about it. Don't enforce it. I feel like a loser. And it's just like they're reminding me of like, ooh, another system you tried that failed. So if chore charts work for you and your kids, especially if you have kids that are wired a little bit differently, awesome. Do that. Keep doing that. If they don't, it's fine. You don't have to do a chore chart. It's totally fine. And if rotating tasks has not worked well for you, try having your kids do the same ones for an extended period of time. Like Tom said, I think we will at some point rotate, but honestly, I have no desire to rotate right now because it is working so well. So we tidy up daily the main living spaces, so pretty much our main floor. And then other areas like bedrooms, laundry room, that doesn't necessarily happen every day. It's more on an as-needed basis, which is probably about weekly. But because we have decluttered so much, the inventory is so low, it's not hard. Like it's just not hard. And so that has made a huge difference as well in getting your kids involved. I know many parents, I mean, this was me in the past, I would look at the kids, like the family room and all the toys were out everywhere and it was so much. And they were little and I'd be like, okay, we have to pick up now. And it was just like, everyone was so overwhelmed. I was overwhelmed, right? If you feel overwhelmed by a space, definitely your kids do. And they don't say that. They don't come up to you and they're like, wow, mom, it's a lot of inventory. I'm feeling overwhelmed. No, what do they do? They grumble, they're crabby, they don't get along with their siblings. Everything's hard. They just want to go on a screen and check out, like we do, right? So we can't blame them for it. If you feel overwhelmed, they feel overwhelmed. They just don't know how to communicate that to you. So again, we keep going back to decluttering. Where'd my decluttering post-it go? If this is still feeling hard and not working, and if you can't tidy up in five to 10 minutes, the main living spaces, we have to declutter more. You have to just keep going back to decluttering. So if it feels hard, keep decluttering. Okay. So that's how we get our family involved and that's how we create this habit of picking up every day and keeping our house tidy so that when it's time to clean, we're just cleaning. All right, so let's talk about cleaning routines, cleaning ladies, housekeepers, and cleaning products. Okay, which one are you going to talk about first? Probably the housekeeper, right? Okay. So it has probably, I don't know. Linda, how long has it been that you've been coming to our house? Maybe a year? Not quite. Anyways, it doesn't matter. So Linda comes every two weeks for two hours and it is awesome. It is just, it has been so cool. Now, can we all afford that? No. We only just got to a season where that was practical for us, right? I work full-time, we both work full-time. And I thought, you know, even though there's six people in our house and we should be able to do all this all the time, it might be time to bring in some outside help. So that's how we got here. I know I don't have to apologize for it or justify it. But anyways, I do sometimes still feel conflicted. I love Linda. But I'm just like, come on, there are six of us in this house. Like we should be able to just do this. But here has, here's what I realized why it's so powerful is because I have never been able to stick with a cleaning routine or checklist. I've never been motivated by that. But anytime people were coming over, we did it all. Like we got it all pulled together. And even before Linda started coming, if I knew we were having people coming over, we'd get it all done. We'd do the deep cleaning and the cleaning, everything would be picked up. It didn't, it wasn't overly hard. And I really liked those deadlines because on a day in, day out basis, I don't get my house company ready. We don't go that far with cleaning. And so what I found is that when Linda, when we know she's coming every two weeks, our house is company ready every two weeks. And that just makes everything easier. You know, when we talk about deep cleaning, when you deep clean frequently, it's not hard. When you clean frequently, it's not hard. I can't believe how much easier the cleaning is now that it gets done so consistently. And so she provided that structure and accountability and consistency. And I am so grateful for that. And I'd like to think our house isn't that hard to clean when she comes. But it's because it's more just the deadline than her actually coming and doing the deep cleaning. Now also, because I said at the beginning that the average, and then we will talk about cleaning routines and cleaning products. We'll just put those there for right now. Let's talk about though, the time. Because I said at the beginning that the average American woman spends 2.4 to 2.7 hours a day on cleaning and household tasks. And then I've said, I think I spend 30 to 40 minutes, maybe max. And so I did see a comment that was like, well, yeah, but you have a cleaning lady, right? So let's do some math quick. If Linda comes for two hours every two weeks, that is 120 minutes over 14 days. So 120, I can do that. I think I can do this in my head. I just don't want to be wrong. Right? So 120 divided by 14 equals 8.57. So eight and a half minutes a day, that Linda is taking off of our plate, which is awesome. Right? But again, if I'm saying 30 to 40 minutes, even if you add eight and a half minutes, so even if at the most I'm spending 48 and a half minutes a day, that's still nowhere near 2.4 hours to 2.7. And I am going to track it more. I do want to actually track it to see, if you live in a minimalist home that is so highly simplified and you're involving your family regularly, how much time am I actually spending? So I am going to commit to tracking it even more precisely. So again, I'm so grateful that she could come mostly for the accountability and I don't like cleaning the shower. She does a great job with that. It would not get done nearly as consistently. But I don't think it's making or breaking this whole system is what I'm getting at. But it could be, I don't know. I don't know. Okay, so let's talk about cleaning routine. I kind of touched on this a little bit. I just think we're all wired differently. And I've mentioned this a little bit, but I've been thinking that similar to how Cass from Clutterbug has different organizing styles, I think we should have different cleaning styles. Some of us do really well with a checklist and a routine, and you can kind of find the right one that works for you, whether it's Flylady or an adaptation of Flylady, Clean Mama. Oh man, there's so many. But you can find a system that works or that you can adapt to work for you. You really like that structure. You like checking things off. And that works really well for you. And if that is you, keep doing that. That is super cool. And I admire that about you. If not, also okay. And I admire that about you too, right? I have never been able to stick to a cleaning checklist or routine or anything like that. Like I said, I found Flylady early on. I have adapted some of her principles. I think it's super cool to have all the dishes done at the end of the night and have the sink clean. Getting dressed down to my shoes. I like what Dana talks about of sweeping the floor and vacuuming every day because you have to pick up the floor. And we know clutter on the floor evokes fear in our brain. So I think that's a great habit to get into. And so if you have never been someone to stick to a full out routine, I think we can have a few things that we commit to every day, like doing the dishes or running the dishwasher, cleaning the floors, wiping down the counters that will change everything. And you don't have to have a sophisticated checklist. So I like to think of myself as an intuitive cleaner. That's what I would call my category. Our category is intuitive as needed cleaning. Our house is still so much cleaner than it ever was in the past because it's so highly decluttered and we tidy up every day. And therefore the cleaning is a lot easier and I kind of enjoy it now. But on every day, we don't necessarily run the dishwasher every day. I don't do everything perfectly, but mostly it's pretty easy to stick to just by having a few benchmarks that we try to hit every day. And if it doesn't happen on any given day, I'm not too hard on myself. There are still times where I choose to go sit in my chair with my book and my caffeine-free Diet Coke over cleaning. And I'm like, the dishes can wait. It's been a long day. It'll be fine. And I'm totally okay with that. Because also like Tom and I were talking about, if the house gets kind of messy, I don't feel so stressed out and overwhelmed by it. So I have a different filter now or a different way I look at things when they're messy. It doesn't feel hard or overwhelming. I know I'll just gather the troops, we'll all hit our areas and it'll be pulled back together in a matter of minutes. And that is a really cool feeling. That gives me a lot of peace of mind and makes it so I don't feel stressed or anxious about different areas of our home because I know it can be pulled back together so quickly. But again, that came from low inventory, not from cleaning routines or checklists. So know yourself and what type of person you are. I would love your comments down below. I think it's fairly 50-50. I don't know for sure. But do you love a good cleaning routine and checklist? Or are you like, no, I'm more of an intuitive cleaner? Isn't that like a nice word for it? All right. And then cleaning products. I love, I'm already preparing to do another cleaning product test video that I do usually in April's, in the months of April. And so I'm gathering up some new things. But the rest of the year, I do not try new cleaning products. I find what works and I stick with it. Because when we're constantly trying new things, it takes bandwidth, it clutters up the cabinets. I'm very quick. Like if I try something new and it doesn't work, I move it back out. I donate it, I offer it to someone else to use. I'm not keeping that stuff in our home. So I find what works for us for our season of life, what I like the smell of, what I like using, what makes things feel easier, and I just stick with it. So even our shower head had been getting, our water softener was not working. And so it got built up with lime and whatnot. And so for me, what works the best is vinegar and Dawn dish soap. So I just put some in a pie plate and put it in there to soak, and then it's pretty easy to clean. And that's also my shower cleaner of choice if I am the one to clean the shower. Which just so you know, every once in a while, she's not able to come every two weeks or whatever. So I do the cleaning. Like I'm not against it. Again, it's more the accountability. But if I am going to clean the shower, especially if it has gotten some stuff built up on it, the Dawn and vinegar solution works really well. And yeah, I probably should have had gloves on while I was doing this. I like to be able to use my fingernails though to scrape at it, right? So then that doesn't always work if you have gloves on. And also, no, the vinegar smell can be a little strong. So you want to make sure the area is ventilated. And if that would bother you, then don't use this method. You know, but other than that, I've found that it's more the consistency of cleaning that makes it so that you don't need harsh chemicals and miracle products. Like I don't have it, I can't think of anywhere in my house where I'm like, I need a miracle product. Like I need something that's going to cut through all of that and whatnot, because we do it frequently. Now, again, kind of like with decluttering, in the beginning, if you're getting your house back to square one, you might need some miracle products or harsher cleaners. I don't know what those are. But you might, to get back to square one. But I think for all of us, if we can get to a point where we're keeping up on the cleaning and deep cleaning, then we don't need a lot of really harsh products. We can get by with vinegar and baking soda, multi-purpose cleaners. And we don't have to keep a lot of cleaners. So declutter your cleaners. If you're not using them, if you don't like how it smells, if you don't, if it hasn't worked well, just let it go. There's not something that's going to magically change where you're like, ooh, today, today, I want to use that cleaner that I really don't like the smell of. Like that's not going to come. Just let it go. Cut your losses. It's fine. We've all been sold things that don't work. I've maybe sold you a thing or two that didn't work for you. Don't get me started on the steam shot. But it happens. It just happens. It's trial and error. We don't know when we bring a cleaning product in if it's going to work or not. It's fine. It's totally fine. You have permission to let those go. Declutter your cleaning products, keep them very simple. And I think that also makes cleaning more enjoyable and more likely to happen more frequently. And then lastly, let's talk about deep cleaning. So again, this is where I do it more of an intuitive way, right? As needed. But I kind of enjoy it now. So I was in the laundry room just this week and I noticed the windowsills had gotten kind of black and there was some dead flies and whatever. But I was like, ooh, and the screen was kind of dirty. And I'm like, let's clean this. I don't know, that's fun. That's not something I would do on a regular basis. Some people probably do. But I'm aware now, I look around, I'm like, oh yeah, that probably... But it's kind of fun. Doing the showerhead, I'm like, ooh, let's see how clean we can get it. Because I'm not decluttering, I'm not tidying, those things are done. So then to do the deep cleaning often, it feels really good. And like I was talking about with regular cleaning, it's not hard because we do it on a regular basis. Well, I or Linda do it on a regular basis now. But mostly it's not hard. And sometimes when I still come across something that is kind of hard, like maybe I need to clean the oven and I'm like, ooh, that got real bad. I don't mind maybe doing a little research, figuring out what's the best way to tackle it. Maybe it's something I don't normally do on a regular basis. So I'm like, oh, okay, let's problem solve this and figure out the best way to go about this. And again, this is from someone who never enjoyed cleaning, never was able to stay up on my house. And now I'm like, oh, it's a fun problem to solve. So again, I can't emphasize enough the power of getting your house decluttered so that you can tidy on a regular basis, so that the cleaning, the regular day-to-day cleaning is easier and just kind of happens now, so that the deep cleaning, when we get to it, isn't that hard. Or if it is kind of hard, I have the capacity and the bandwidth for it because I haven't had to spend all that energy on the other layers of the clean house. And so it's just been, it's been really cool for me to see how something that was so hard for me and that I just felt really bad about in the past and just didn't feel like I could figure out how now it doesn't feel hard. It feels really pretty easy. Our house is small also. I probably should have started out with that. Like our house is only like, I don't know, 1,300 square feet. And so there's that too. Like our house is just not that big, but it just does not feel hard anymore. And I'm really grateful for that. So your house shouldn't feel hard. And if it is feeling hard, keep working to declutter and simplify. You're not going to miss this stuff. I probably should have mentioned that in the decluttering too. Like sometimes we have to borrow other people's confidence in this area. But I just truly believe that you're not going to miss any of this stuff. And again, when it comes to cleaners, I have a couple of videos where I talk about my favorite cleaners and things I use around our house. So I'll link to those down below. But really, I mean, it's pretty basic. There's really not a lot to it. I do like the pink stuff a lot. So that is something that has made the cut. And then the Dawn and Vinegar concoction for cleaning showers and that kind of stuff. Those are probably a couple of my go-tos beyond that. I just have multipurpose cleaners and I like the foaming glass cleaner. So I don't know, it's not fancy or sophisticated, but I'll link to a couple of those videos down below as well. Alright, so overall, if your house feels hard to clean, if cleaning is not just cleaning, then keep decluttering further. It still kind of is surprising to me how highly simplifying and decluttering our house has made cleaning easier. I think we don't, like we know it makes a difference, but I don't think you understand how big of a difference this makes, this piece of the puzzle. Like I said, our house, it's just easy. It's like so simple. And so again, when some question me about like really only 30 to 40 minutes a day on your house, remember, our house is small, it's highly decluttered, and I make sure all the members of our household are pulling their weight too. And that makes a gigantic difference. So keep decluttering, keep involving others. And I think the cleaning piece starts to fall into place. I would love to hear your tips, tactics. Do you use a checklist? Do you not? If you do, I'd like to share that down below. We learn so much from each other and I'm so grateful for your experience and expertise as well. And also has decluttering made a difference in your house when it comes to cleaning? And like I said, I'll link to some of my other cleaning videos and some of my, I'll put some of my favorite cleaning products in the description here, but and then those other videos too. And remember, body doubling. So if you need cleaning or decluttering inspiration, then playing videos in the background, they don't have to be mine, playing videos in the background can be really helpful too. I love you. I hope you have a really good day and I look forward to seeing you again soon. Bye.