The Quick 1-Hour House Clean

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best housekeeper - not by a long shot. But I do try. We  haven't had a cleaner in the new flat and I thought I'd save myself the cash and do it myself. Hey, I'm willing to try anything.

The flat's not that big, but it's still quite a lot of work. So when I saw this article in Woman's Day Magazine about quick tips and how to clean your house in an hour, I thought, 'This is for me!' The article makes perfect sense and looks simple. I also figured that most of the people reading the magazine in the US have houses at least twice the size of this flat. If they could clean in an hour, then I could do it too.

It separates the house into zones and has time limits:

1. Bedrooms: 10 minutes per bedroom
2. Bathrooms: approx 9 minutes
3. Kitchen: 12 minutes
4: Living room/lounge: 15 minutes

If you do the math for this place that means: 46 minutes to clean the house - then tack on 5 to hoover the hall, 5 to tidy the dressing room/walk in closet). According to this article I should have a clean(ish) house in 56 minutes.

I timed myself in each room and it went like this:

1. Bedrooms: 9 mins for master, 15 for kids
2. Bathroom: 15 minutes
3. Kitchen: 22 minutes
4: Lounge: 24 minutes
5. Hall hoover: 7 minutes
6. Closet hoover/tidy: 6 minutes

 Total: 96 minutes. Either my housekeeping skills need honing, or I need to hire the woman who wrote the article. We all know the answer to that. The problem, I think, is that I notice little things along the way, get distracted and zero-focused on getting that job done (like toothbrushing the bathroom sink fixtures within inches of their lives - they are gleaming now, though) rather than the whole picture.

Whatever the case, I have to say it worked. I'm going to give it another whirl tomorrow to see if I can get the time down. I will keep at it until I get it down to a science. But for now, the house gleams with pristine cleanliness. So nice!