by Karen Wilmot

Created on: March 07, 2009   Last Updated: March 08, 2009

With the dog eat dog world today, most of us don't have a moment to ourselves let alone to keep our home clean. We are on the go constantly flitting here and there until we fall into bed at night. My sister turned me onto www.flylady.com when she decided to stay home with the kids. She flies everyday and her house is immaculate. I tried this method for awhile but whenever someone called to do something fun, I flew out the door. So that didn't work for me. I also tried cleaning every Saturday morning. The entire house got cleaned once a week. Then I realized my only day off, where I could sleep in, read a book, go for a run was being consumed with cleaning and laundry. This was absolutely no fun. I have developed a plan that is currently working for me. It's my 15 Minutes Per Day Plan; a spin off of the fly lady system and the whole house clean system. This plan works because everyone has 15 minutes to spare each day.

So everyday I spend 15 minutes cleaning one room of the house. I take all the supplies to that room and go at it. My theory is to work top down because most people look eye level so my house always appears clean to the outsider. For instance, today was the bathroom day. I set the supplies needed in the bathroom, set the timer on the stove and in 15 minutes the entire bathroom is cleaned except the floor. Now the caveat is on the weekends I do all floors. Saturday I wash the bathroom, kitchen and front hallway. Sunday I vacuum the family room, den and bedroom. This works for me because my house is small so Saturday and Sunday I add another 15 minutes of cleaning to accommodate these extra tasks. I don't mind it because it still is only 30 minutes of my day on the weekends.

Now laundry is another beast. I have two baskets in the bedroom, whites and colors. We sort as we put things in the laundry, when the basket is full it is one load. I usually take this down in the morning and start the load. By the time I'm finished with my shower, it's ready to move to the dryer. Luckily my husband works from home and he is in charge of bringing the laundry up and folding it. This doesn't seem to be as overwhelming for me as cleaning the house so I don't fret about it too much.

My 15 Minutes Per Day Plan has been working now for two months. Now don't get discouraged if the first time through you are barely able to get the basics done in a room. As you eliminate dust, it gets easier to do a once over and keep your house sparkling. Now you can eliminate that cleaning lady and have $80 per week to spend on yourself. It's a win/win situation.

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