How to Have a Clean House in One Hour

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Spending my time cleaning is not something I love, however, having a clean house is like a balm to my overwhelmed brain. For that reason, knowing how to have a clean house in one hour is something that I’ve strived for!

I have three young children who live to the fullest in our small-ish home. Mud is something that is dragged in daily and I’m very used to picking up toys.

Over the years of being a mom, I’ve learned better how to clean up fast. I do want to keep my home fairly tidy and maintained, but I don’t want (nor do I have the time) to spend hours every week doing it.

If you’re in the same boat then keep reading for how to get your house clean in one hour…

Your Guide to Achieving a Clean House in One Hour

As someone who can get overwhelmed when a task has a lot of elements, I appreciate breaking the process down in a step-by-step manner.

I’m sharing 4 tips that serve as a preface to the actual task of cleaning your house and then the step-by-step process of getting it done.

Get Organized

Getting your house in order begins with making sure you have your supplies in order. There’s nothing more frustrating than wanting to do a job only to find you can’t locate the necessary tools.

Create a cleaning caddy and store it in a designated place.

Essential items can include:

Rags or cleaning wipes
General-purpose spray
Bleach
Brushes (I also like to keep an old toothbrush handy for hard-to-reach-places)
Gloves
Toilet-bowel cleaner (I used Bar Keeper’s Friend)
Mop & Bucket (this one is my favorite)
Vacuum (this is the one I have)

I keep my cleaning supplies in a couple of storage cubes that are very easy to pick up and take to wherever I’m cleaning.

Prevention Saves Time

Cleaning your house fast isn’t going to happen if you don’t do it consistently. Prevention saves time.

By cleaning your house on a weekly basis, you’ll find that it is much easier to keep on top of.

This is actually a lesson that I’m forever drumming home to my children. I encourage them to clean up their toys daily.

When they do it daily it means they’re cleaning up a much smaller mess than if they leave all their toys to pile up and become really unorganized.

The same can be said for your home. Little clean-ups done often make for a much easier job overall.

Set Aside Time & Delegate

There are some things that you can multitask while cleaning but cooking dinner while trying to clean your bathroom isn’t one of them.

Overall, unless you’re multitasking cleaning jobs themselves, you’re going to end up distracted and not getting your house clean quickly or efficiently.

I find that I can easily get my home clean in an hour when I set aside time to do it. However, it has to be focused time on cleaning.

Another thing that saves time is delegating some of the cleaning to those who also live in your home. My children pitch in when asked and absolutely help to make the task go faster.

Do a Little Every Day

As I mentioned above, doing a little every day really will help to reduce the workload overall. Keeping on top of the dishes and general tidying of your home every day will make a deeper clean more achievable on a weekly basis.

Things that we as a family do daily are:

Dishes (never-ending)
Laundry (also, never-ending)
Vacuuming (I only started doing this daily when I got my glorious cordless vacuum)
Wiping down kitchen and dining surfaces
Picking up toys

Generally speaking, it’s fairly simple to do these things daily and it means that once a week all I’m really left to do is clean the bathroom and do a deeper clean of the floors and living area.

Your Step-By-Step Cleaning Plan

rubber cleaning glove for getting a clean house in one hour

So, with all that said, let’s talk about the action plan of how to get the job done. This is how I do it in my home and it works really well.

I love to do this on a Friday so that I have the weekend to just chill and enjoy a clean home.

#1 Start a Load of Laundry

Everyone has a different laundry routine. I run laundry daily but I only clean towels once per week. I like to do that when I begin my cleaning routine.

Whatever you do in your home it’s a great time to pop on a load and then when you’re finished cleaning you can hand it out to dry or toss it in the dryer.

#2 Do a General Pick Up

You cannot clean your home well if there’s stuff all over everything. Hopefully, you’ve taken my tip to heart about cleaning up toys, etc, on a daily basis so that you don’t have too much to do here.

What I do find helpful is to enlist my children in this part of the process. I also like to use baskets to toss things in and then distribute the items back where they belong instead of constantly going back and forth between rooms.

#3 Work from the Top Down

Next, you want to work from the top down. Don’t do your floors first. You will regret it!

Start with something like dusting and wiping down surfaces. Always go from the top down so that you catch the falling dirt along the way and don’t end up having to clean things twice.

#4 Stay Focused

Try not to hop from one cleaning task to another. It can be super easy to get distracted when you come across other tasks that need attending to but you’ll end up being inefficient and spending much more time cleaning than you’d like to.

Try to remember that you’re doing a general “maintenance” clean, not a deep clean.

#5 Stick to One Area at a Time

Going from the bathroom to the kitchen and then a bedroom is going to make you feel as though you’re achieving nothing.

Stick to one area at a time and focus on getting it completed. This will give you a sense of accomplishment and help keep up your momentum.

#6 Finish With the Floors

Always finish up with your floors. There’s nothing more satisfying than having clear and clean floors after cleaning up your home.

I like to vacuum the entire house and then run the mop over hardwood areas.

I actually tend to wipe down my bathroom floors on my hands and knees with a rag as it’s a small space. However, a mop definitely does the job as well.