How to Clean Your Home Super Fast so You Can Rest on Sunday

So what’s stopping you from relaxing on Sunday? Could it be the avalanche of house chores about to sweep down and knock you off your feet?

If you’re used to finishing up laundry on Sunday and preparing lunches and clothes for the week ahead, then you might think it’s impossible to take a whole day off.

But it can be done. I promise. And soon it WILL be done – in your home.

Since we all get the same 24 hours in a day, we have to be more efficient with our time and our tasks. Luckily, that’s easy. By rearranging our schedule, rethinking when and how we do our basic home tasks like cleaning and meal preparation, we’ll get back the extra time we wasted on haphazardly scrubbing and baking without a plan.

Preparation for the Lord’s Day falls into two categories: home cleaning and meal preparation. Most of your Sunday prep will focus on prettying up your place and making food to spoil your family and guests. In this post, I’ll focus on a quick cleaning routine that you can get done and get back to having fun on your weekend.

Cleaning is not my favorite activity, but it’s one of the most important things I do. When the house is cluttered with stray papers, clumps of clothes, chip crumbs and disheveled pillows, I can’t relax. My eyes bounce from thing to thing, and all I can think about is how I should get up and straighten this mess. And I’m not a naturally neat person (just ask my parents), but visual clutter is mind clutter. Do away with clutter so you can relax!

Learn the art of speed cleaning

Speed cleaning doesn’t mean you’re running around your house with sweat dripping off your face and puffing loudly. It’s about performing your cleaning tasks in the order that makes the most sense and takes the least time.

Books have been written about speed cleaning and they’re worth reading.

Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell (available as an e-book)

Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

But here’s a quick review of speed cleaning to get you started:

• Gather your supplies and carry them with you. Grab a multi-surface cleaner (store bought or home made), rag, duster (if you use one), scraping tool (I got a cheap paint scraper from the hardware store), and trash bags. Put your tools in an apron with pockets or in a large bin that you carry or has wheels to roll from room to room.
• Go through the following schedule in each room, but don’t sweep/vacuum or mop yet.
• Pick up trash and clear surfaces. Put objects back in their place if they belong in the room or put them in a bin to return to other rooms later.
• In bedrooms, strip linens, if necessary, or simply make up the bed. Throw dirty laundry into basket(s) and take to laundry room.
• Spot clean windows or wipe down completely if they’re really dirty (snotty nose prints, etc.). Clean, natural light filtering through glistening windows will make your house look cleaner immediately.
• Squirt multi-surface cleaner on counters, sink tops, toilets, showers, and tub. Dust surfaces (start at higher surfaces and work your way down so you don’t scrape dirt and dust onto something you already cleaned) and wipe down or polish as needed, including the surfaces that were soaking. It’s okay to scrape dirt and debris onto the floor because you’ll be sweeping/vacuuming later.
• Use scraper (and multi-surface spray, if necessary) to remove tough goo from floors or counter tops. Blot up liquid if you’re using it on wood floors.

Special notes for the kitchen:

Your kitchen is probably the messiest room in the house on any given day. But isn’t a sparkling kitchen a treat to the eyes? Ahhhhhh…but I hate cleaning the kitchen. So just get it over with.

1. Bring all dishes and pots and pans to the sink area.
2. Spray counter tops and stove tops with multi-surface cleaner and let sit to loosen
3. Rinse dishes and load them into the dishwasher (unless you need to unload it first).
4. Fill the sink with warm soapy water and soak pots/pans or dishes with stuck-on food.
5. Clear counters and put everything away. If there’s an appliance you only use once a week or so, consider putting it away nearby. Less clutter to look at means your kitchen appears cleaner.
6. Wash pots and pans and put remaining dishes in the dishwasher, or hand wash if you don’t have a dishwasher. Dry and put away immediately.
7. Wipe down counters and stove top.
8. Wipe out your sink.
9. Scrape goo off floors like you did in the other rooms

Alright, back to speed cleaning:

• Take trash from your speed cleaning outside to your trash cans.
• Grab the basket full of random items and return them to their rightful places throughout your house.
• Once you’ve speed cleaned your rooms, start vacuuming/sweeping and move from room to room. Then go back and mop if needed.

This routine takes between 1-2 hours depending on the size of your house. You’ll save time if family members care for their own bedrooms and/or you have a cleaning buddy to work alongside.

Alright, speed cleaning is one way of getting your home polished up for Sunday. But if you just can’t stand to commit a few hours of prime weekend time to cleaning, then do a little each day.

This works well on the overwhelming colossus of laundry. Every morning, put on a load of laundry. Dry it when you get home from work (or sometime during the day if you’re at home) and have a folding party in front of the tv. It’s only one load so it won’t take long to finish.

Final Tidying Routine

On Saturday evening, after the cooking is finished (we’ll get to that in my next post), straighten up the public areas by putting everything back in its place if it belongs in that room, or throwing it in a basket to return to other rooms later. Recruit family members to help. Even young children can put away a few toys. Then vacuum or sweep and mop if needed. Clean your kitchen. I wait until I’ve finished all meal preparation before I do this final straightening since cooking, at least my cooking, tends to be messy.

An important step: Decide when it’s good enough, not perfect. Life happens and your house may not be as pristine as you want it to look for Sunday. And that’s okay. Look around and consider if you and your family and guests could relax in this space. If the answer is yes, then you’re done. If not, then work on the public areas of your home (living room, dining room, bathroom) until they’re presentable. Leave personal spaces like bedrooms for another time. Remember, the goal is for you to be able to relax and enjoy the Lord’s Day. Perfect is pointless is it robs you of peace and joy.

Housework and I were rivals for years, eying each other suspiciously and never turning our backs on each other. While I don’t exactly love it, chores and I drew up a peace accord. And what’s the basis of our treaty? Efficient routines. A routine gives me a plan and I don’t have to bumble around the house randomly cleaning and tidying and getting little done. Try this routine in small doses during the week or in one session on a Saturday and see if it makes sense for your family. Then come back to this post and tell me how it went!