How Using a Timer Helps Keep the House Clean

One of the main reasons that many moms dread cleaning the house is because it is so time-consuming.  It often seems that there just are not enough hours in the day to get the house as clean as we want it, and that can be very discouraging.  How do we overcome this obstacle?

Giving ourselves permission to work for a specified amount of time can help.  We may not be able to clean the entire house in an hour or two, but we can make a significant amount of progress.  And if we commit to spending a certain amount of time on housecleaning each day, our houses could be in the shape we want them in before we know it.

How Can I Use a Timer?

A technique touted by many experts is to set a timer for a short amount of time, usually 15 minutes.  We then concentrate on one room for that amount of time, doing the task that we feel needs the most urgent attention first.  When the timer goes off, the time for cleaning that room is up.  Then we move on to the next room and set the timer for the same amount of time.

This approach keeps us from getting stuck on one room for too long.  It forces us to work on every room a little bit each day without spending enough time on cleaning to get burned out.  We may not get one room deep cleaned very quickly at this rate, but we can keep chipping away on each room each day until they are all really clean.

If you want to tackle larger tasks and get the whole family in on it, you could assign each person a task and set the timer for an hour or hour and a half.   Then each family member can work on his or her respective task for that amount of time.  When it's all said and done, the house should be much cleaner than when you started.

How Does Using a Timer Help?

When you set a time limit on something, it tends to put you in gear to work more quickly.  That means that you can accomplish more in a short time than you would if you had no time limits.  You may not realize it consciously, but your subconscious will be telling you to hurry and get as much as possible done in the time allotted.

Using a timer also lets us know that there is an end in sight.  This further motivates us to do the best job we can, because we know that it won't last forever.  And when we're setting the timer for a short time for each room, it also lets us know that we'll at least get something done to every part of the house by the time we're done.