Can you clean your house in 19 minutes?

absolutely! if you consider a one foot square section of my kitchen counter top to be my home! because thats how long it takes me to clean just that one area :(
I cannot even clean myself in that short time! I'm so scattered that I forget what the heck I'm doing and where I'm going!

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There is no way I could do this. I only wish I could. I am the "happy wanderer". I will go to hang something on the clothes line to dry, think, I should burn garbage before I do that. Go to gather up paper garbage, see another thing to wash, see that I have mail online, read article (like right now!!), fold blanket on couch, put clean laundry away, while picking pockets before washing, end up picking up bedroom, get hungry on way back to burn garbage, eat a short something for lunch. Fold clean laundry, go to the bathroom, end up cleaning that too after getting paper garbage to burn. Start supper, set table, sit down for a minute, read another article......Hey, I haven't burned the garbage yet....oh, I can do that tomorrow. Just a small peek into my life!!!!

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I think the author of the article lives in a 1-bedroom 1-bathroom tiny apartment. Let's see, with our house, to her 19 minutes add the following:

Breakfast room: add 4.5 minutes a day (wiping down table and chairs after toddlers eating, wet swiffer floor)--it's next to the kitchen, but there's no way to do both in 4.5 minutes
Bedrooms: Add another 6.5 minutes for each kids bedroom (total of 13)
Bathroom--we have 3.5. Only 2.5 are used regularly, but let's say that adds another 4 minutes to the route (2 per bathroom)
We have a family room, living/dining room, and rec room. The author accounts for 1 of them, so add another 12 minutes for the other two.

Total: Author's 19 minutes + my 33.5 minutes = 52.5 minutes a day.

Yep, If I cleaned about an hour a day my house would be pretty clean. But who on earth would do the laundry and the cooking and the kid's bedtime routines and the errands and...

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We don't live in a one bedroom one bath place, but 20 minutes a day does keep us looking pretty good.

I usually spend a few hours on a weekend day cleaning the whole house: changing sheets, scrub toilets, mop, etc. Starting with everything clean makes it a bit easier to stay on top of things during the week. We kind of pick up as we go along - my daughter is 2, so she can "help" us now. It really isn't that difficult now, but I am not sure we can keep this going with more than one kiddo!

I grew up in a clean house and have always liked a clean house. I feel much more closed in and grumpy when our house looks like hell, so it is worth the extra effort for my mental health.

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OH my gosh, Joy, you just described me to a T!!!!

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TOTALLY! I am a member of the FlyLady group (flylady.net) and the program teaches you to clean in 15 minute segments, plus it's completely free. It is possible, you just have to have your routines in place and your house will basically clean itself. No my house is not spotless,but it is company ready with in 15 minutes. And no I do not live in a one room apartment, I have a four bedroom two bath home.

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I think there's a lot of folks like us Amanda. Only we can admit it, others can't.

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Joy, Amanda, if you're interested, there is a way to defeat your problem. But you have to commit to it.

As I see it, and it does help me (when I bother to do it - most of the time, I just don't care, which is another problem altogether!), the way to deal with this sort of absent-mindedness is to live with lists and schedules. Have a routine you follow, every week, every day. Instead of "I'm hanging up laundry, but I see something else to do, so I do a third thing", stick to one item at a time, and hang up your schedule on the wall where you can't help but see it. You know you have to burn garbage however often, so write it on the calendar - today, burn garbage at such and such a time. When you see it, do it - don't let it wait so you can forget about it.

It's harder, but it's also easier.

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I think this is impossible. In addition to what Kristi said above, note this line from the article: "Wipe down the sink after doing the dishes or loading the dishwasher (30 seconds)." You notice that "after doing the dishes"? I guess doing dishes doesn't count toward cleaning the house? Or how about "Pick up crumbs and dust bunnies with a handheld vacuum (one minute)." Right. Assuming you can do that in one minute, how about getting the vacuum and emptying its canister and putting it away when you're done with it? That's got to add another minute at least, right? I find the original article pretty annoying.

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Uly, thanks for the suggestion but I'm 49 years old and highly doubt I'll be able to change now. I have always "picked *this* up while I've been on my *way* to do that". ALWAYS. Now it's just the hubby and me but "back in the day" I had a hard time. My husband calls it "looking for my checkbook". I would go to pay bills and do 20 things "other" than finding my checkbook. It's a joke between us now. It's just the way I am. My house is now always picked up and clean but when my boys were small and there were lego's and matchbox cars all over the place....well that was a different story. The only thing is I don't lose things anymore. My glasses are always in the same place as well as my keys. I used to lose everything. I can laugh now and I'm sure it sounds much worse than it is. It's just me.

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