4 Ways to Spring Clean Faster, According to Redditors

On a recent Sunday night, somebody somewhere plopped onto the couch, exhausted after a weekend packed with chores and cleaning. The thought, ‘There has to be a better way,’ crossed their mind, so they turned to the place online where everyone feels comfortable being 100% honest: Reddit.

The r/CleaningTips subreddit is a magical place for people in exactly that position. Users share some of their best tactics for getting their house sparkling clean—or at least getting their laundry done in a timely manner. And with spring cleaning coming up, we pulled out four of the best tips from Redditors for getting it done faster. Then we asked experts to weigh in on these methods—here’s what they had to say.

Every Time You Enter a Room, Pick Up or Clean Three Things

A longtime reader of the subreddit recently shared their favorite piece of wisdom from the group: “One of the best tips I ever read here was that in order to keep down the weight of huge cleaning tasks, every time you enter a room, pick up or clean three things,” they write. “This way, your home is in a constant state of maintenance. It eventually becomes habitual and I have definitely seen a difference when it comes time to focus on larger cleaning tasks.”

As with most pieces of advice, this can work great for some, and not so well for others. “This can be a good tip for people with ADHD who feel more satisfied with multitasking while doing a major task,” explains decluttering expert Monica Fay. “Picking up stuff along the way to their main task can help them stay focused due to the extra movement.” She adds that this can also be a good tip for getting the clutter down in a single room you’re trying to tidy up.

However, Fay warns that putting yourself (and your home) in a constant state of maintenance can feel never-ending or defeating for some people. “I would not recommend it for the whole house every day,” she adds. “It can be overwhelming to enter every room and have to disrupt your thinking or your task to pick up items and then go put them away.”

Get Smaller Loads of Laundry Done Throughout the Week

One Redditor swears by doing several small loads of laundry during the week, rather than one large one. “I do a small load of towels and a small load of [clothes] during the work week, then the big stuff while I clean on the weekend,” they write.

Breaking down chores into more manageable bites is indeed a successful strategy, according to Danica Carson, cofounder of The Uncluttered Life. “When you try to do things all at once, it tends to not get finished—this is true of most tidying, cleaning, and organizing tasks,” she explains. “I’m sure everyone can relate to the big pile of folded clothes that sits in the corner but never gets put away.” It’s so much more manageable to put away 5 things instead of 50.

Set a Timer for 20 Minutes Every Day and Clean as Much as You Can Before the Clock Stops

Another Redditor uses a countdown to get things done, explaining they set a timer for 20 minutes every day. They proceed to “speed through” their home, putting things where they need to be, wiping things down, sweeping up messes, and other tidying tasks.

“If you don’t get it all done, you can either continue if you’re enjoying getting tasks done, or you can make a note to do it tomorrow during your 20 minutes,” they write. “Nothing is life threatening; it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get to it.”

It’s a solid strategy—the Pomodoro Technique is proof of that—but Fay takes it a step further. Instead of jamming in as much work as possible, use your chunk of time as a personal data point.

“When we use a timer, we can see how long it takes us to actually do a task. Then, we are not setting up unrealistic expectations the next time we clean because we know what the time commitment will actually be,” Fay says. “It saves us from burnout, biting off more than we can chew, and feeling defeated when we can’t finish a task to completion.”

Break Things Down Into Categories, Not Rooms

Another way to categorize your cleaning? Attempting one floor (or room) per day. “I do one floor Tuesday, one floor Wednesday, and one floor Thursday,” writes a Redditor. “And I do laundry on Mondays.”

The idea behind this tip is good in theory but not in practice, says Carson. “The underlying concept is right. You want to break things up into smaller chunks so that it isn’t overwhelming or impossible,” she notes. But tackling one room per day may not be realistic for most people.

Instead, she recommends people do things by category rather than room or floor. That could include closets, toys, appliances, decor, pet supplies—anything that applies to your home and life. 

“The reason I like doing things by category rather than room or floor is because one category may be spread out all over the house. Unless you can take stock of everything you have from that category, you won’t really be able to tidy or organize them in a useful way,” she says. “We actually developed Declutter Deck (an organizing guide) specifically to help people get organized in this way. We really believe in it.”