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People with perpetually clean homes share 5-minute for  'instantly cleaner' living spaces

Small tasks, big wins.

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People with clean homes share their best 5-minute cleaning hacks.

Some people are gifted with the ability to keep their home clean and organized at all times. For others, maintaining a clean home can be a constant battle.

To help those in the latter group, people with perpetually clean homes are sharing their best cleaning hacks. Specifically, they offered up their favorite five-minute cleaning tips that are easy and quick to complete.

With these 17 quick cleaning tips, your home will feel infinitely cleaner—and you won't dread getting after it. From the bedroom to living room to kitchen, these are the best five-minute cleaning tips.

cleaning, clean home, clean house, cleaning tips, cleaning hacks mary poppins cleaning GIF Giphy

"For me, doing a full reset on all the towels at once just makes me feel so accomplished! Trying to develop better routines for small tasks that can be done quickly." - Neat_Impact4865

"Emptying every trash can in the house and throwing away any boxes or packaging that might be hanging around 😬. Cleaning off the dining table (clutter tends to gather on the table in our house). Quickly vacuuming high traffic areas." - hikeaddict

"This 100%! Getting the trash and empty boxes out. I would add throwing a load of towels in the washer to get a step ahead. Sweeping the kitchen floor is a good one, too." - Goge97

- YouTube www.youtube.com

"Doing the dishes." - Cortneykathleen

"Buy a carpet rake [for pet hair]. I am telling you, what a difference! I have a vacuum that sucks the most of any vacuum I have ever had but when I rake that carpet before I vacuum, huge difference!" - pyxus1

"Making beds cleans half the room space..." - eclipsed2112

"Quick clean of bathroom (I only use one): vacuum the hair up, wipe down the counters, scrub the toilet bowl, wipe down the toilet, clean and wipe down sink. * wipe down with spray cleaner. I usually use tea tree/water/dawn solution. Bleach tbc in toilet." - No-Tradition3054

clean up, clean home, clean house, cleaning, cleaning gif Chasing Tom And Jerry GIF by HBO Max Giphy

"In the bedroom: making the bed and cleaning off The Chair ™️. You may be lucky or unlucky enough to have one, but it’s that chair that always accumulates all of the 'worn for a few hours' or 'tried on but ultimately decided not to wear' clothes in your closet, lol." - rachel_anna

"I bought a separate 'not dirty' hamper where I throw clothes I wear to my sedentary email spreadsheet office job. Every other week or so, I bring it all out and put it on hangers and back into the rotation." - yous_a_b*tch

"Rule of 3! Dishes, clothes, trash. Taking care of one of those sections in 5-10 minutes- Tasmanian devil style makes a huge difference." - YourSmallIntestine

"I love pouring boiling water down all the drains." - Striking_Pay_6961

@anna_louisa_at_home

Book release day!! 🎉 So excited that my book is now officially out in the world! ‘The 5 Minute Clean Routine’ is packed full of cleaning tips and tricks to make cleaning quicker, easier and less overwhelming. It also shares example cleaning routines and guides you to creating your own customised daily, weekly and monthly routines for your own home that you can use again and again to keep on top of it all! It’s available now from Amazon, Waterstones, Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda and WHSmith! 🥰 And my latest interview with NetMums can be found linked in bio where I talk all about how I developed my new approach to the housework ‘The 5 Minute Clean Routine’ after becoming a mummy 🥰 . #cleaningtips #cleaningmotivation #instaclean #cleaningaccount #cleantok #cleantok101 #cleantokuk

"Clear and wipe down all the counters/mirrors in the kitchen or bathroom is a huge one. Make the bed. Draw the curtains and open the windows to get UV and airflow going through the house." - aspiringgentlefriend

"Making my bed in the morning. Going to bed with a sink free of dishes. Putting clothes in the bin, putting away clean laundry immediately. Vacuuming. Cleaning out my fridge every week. If I buy something new I get rid of something old. Every six months I go through and purge anything I didn’t wear or notice existed. Or when I’m putting away my clothes, pulling out the clothes for the season coming up. I have ADHD and am going the non medicated route after trying them for three years. The biggest thing that helps me is doing things when I see it vs putting it off for later. If I can’t, I make lists in my life planner. I’d highly suggest the Erin Condren planners for anyone, but ADHD folks especially." - lowridda

"Keep the dishwasher changed. I put the clean, wet dishes on the rack I use to dry the pans I wash by hand so everyone can put the dirty ones in it and out of sight. The other day I began keeping the Swiffer nearby so I can touch up the little drips and spots. I won't have to do a two bucket deep mop anytime soon." - Such-Mountain-6316

dishwasher, dishwasher cleaning, cleaning, cleaning tips, cleaning hacks Load Dishwasher GIF by beko Giphy

"Organizing the Tupperware cabinet so you're not scared every time you open it! I did it today and couldn't believe how little time it took." - MuttButt301

"Polishing the stainless steel kitchen appliances. Suddenly, bam, kitchen looks fab." - awcurlz

"For me, it's putting little things like hair products and hand creams--or chargers, remote controls and tons of other little things--back where they belong. Every few days I go through and gather up all these items and tidy them away. They wind up all over, again, eventually but just for that bit of time, I feel accomplished. I do want to add that I think it's harder when you live alone. Like if someone's around and you can ask them to hand you the whatever, use it, and then have them put it back, that's the whole thing sorted. Alone, it's just different." - cherry-care-bear

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Woman makes a show out of timing how long it actually takes to do tasks she puts off doing

She's being hailed the "more relatable, Marie Kondo" for how she inspires people to tackle their own put off tasks.

@christinewrutzen/TikTok

Not all heroes wear capes.

We can all be guilty of convincing ourselves that certain tasks will take wayyyyyyy longer than they actually do. Those mountainous piles of clothes that need to be folded (or is it washed? who can tell anymore), the fridge that desperately needs old condiments thrown out, removing whatever entity is behind that couch…

No matter what chore we’re procrastinating on, odds are we are making it way more herculean than it actually is. And now, thanks to one brave—and very entertaining—soul, we have definitive proof.

In her super-viral TikTok series titled “How Long Does It Actually Take,” fellow procrastinator Christi Newrutzen dons a pair of sunglasses, comfy clothes, and a newscaster-worthy microphone as she times herself doing dull tasks she’s put off…some upwards of a couple of years.

It’s really the perfect combo of charming deadpan delivery, relatability, and eye-opening discoveries that make these videos so impactful. In the clip below, Newrutzen puts away two loads of laundry, which she had been putting off for 11 days.

Armed with her laptop (because she always has to watch something while doing laundry) Newrutzen managed to do it all in just 28 minutes.

@christinewrutzen

I dont know if it looks like it but it was in fact 2 loads of laundry 😂 and I always have to be watching something while I put away laundry otherwise it's like a death sentence 🥲 #cleantok #laundry #homeimprovement #clothes #adhd #executivedysfunction #organization

In another video, Newrutzen finally schedules a dentist appointment. After three years of avoiding it, the whole thing only took nine minutes.

@christinewrutzen

i dont know why this took me soooooooo long to do, but MAN do I feel so much better now, please don't judge me, this was hard 🥲 #procrastination #dentist #appointment #cleantok #organization #adhd #executivedysfunction #homeimprovement

Newrutzen also handles bigger tasks, like organizing the garage. This did end up taking a little over an hour. But considering the shelves have apparently “never not looked like this,” it’s still safe to assume this was undeniably less taxing than she assumed it would be.

@christinewrutzen

This one took me out, I was really not feeling it by the end 😩 ill have to take out all that stuff to the dumpster later 😅 #cleantok #cleaning #organizing #garage #procrastination

Newrutzen’s longest task to date seems to be repainting a chest of drawers she bought discounted in hopes of refurbishing. It was a project she started two years ago, and hadn’t touched since. This technically took her 23 hours, including waiting for paint to dry and whatnot. But the actual time spent working on said project was an hour and four minutes.

@christinewrutzen

Feels so good to have this finished omg 😩😮‍💨 #procrastination #homerenovation #spraypaint #homeproject #checklist

If this is inspiring you to finally conquer your own ever ending to-do list, you’re not alone. So many people shared how Newrutzen’s videos gave them the gumption to tackle their chores. Lo and behold, they made the same discoveries she did!

“I timed how long it took me to match the freaking socks last night,” one viewer wrote. “Because of you, I found out it only takes me 15 minutes!! I swore it was an hour long deal.”

“I’ve been staring at a mess in my hallway for about a week now trying to get myself to clean it up and because of your video I did it this morning and it took a total of 42 seconds,” another shared. “42 seconds!!!!!!”

Others just chimed in to praise Newrutzen for her contribution.

“You are the new, more relatable, Marie Kondo,” one person gushed.

“You're gently and comically reminding us that the giant, foreboding thing in the corner that we've been dreading for months is not THAT bad if we just do it ✨ TYSM,” said another.

productivity, marie kondo, getting things done, to do list, chores, procrastination An assortment of stick notes on a car steering wheelImage via Canva

Newrutzen told Upworthy that the response to her series has equally inspired her to do more.

"It feels incredible to know my videos are having this kind of impact on people and also I am finally getting stuff done that I've needed to do for years," she said, adding that she continues surprising herself with how quickly she gets certain tasks done. Unloading the dishes, for example, took around 5 minutes. "Dishes are literally the bane of my existence but seeing it through that perspective has helped me a lot!"

Next time you find yourself putting off that thing (you know the one), remind yourself that it likely won’t take nearly as long as your brain tells you it will. Maybe even take a page from Newrutzen’s book and time yourself doing it to get that hard data. Because, even though perfection is impossible, having something so minuscule take over valuable brain space is just plain stressful…more stressful than actually doing the thing.

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A former hoarder gives life-changing hacks on how to declutter your world

"I was literally drowning in clutter."

Photo by Samet Kurtkus on Unsplash

A hoarder's home.

Sometimes, it simply starts with one pile. Some receipts, pay stubs, and bills. Then another pile forms—a shirt you meant to hang up, some workout gear. The piles begin to multiply, and before you know it, they've erupted like tiny volcanoes spewing lava (and junk) around your home. If you don’t even know where to begin in terms of clean-up, you're not alone.

cleaning, clutter, piles, hoarding, hoarderCleaning Hoarding GIF by 60 Second DocsGiphy

Mai Zimmy, on the TikTok page Mom Life & Cleaning, knows this feeling all too well. With over 400,000 followers and 9.1 million likes, she's living proof that an inability to organize is more common than one might think. In one post, she confesses that she was once a hoarder while showing screenshots of her cluttered house in 2020. Her voiceover exclaims, "I was literally drowning in clutter" as the camera pans over a junk-filled bathtub she dubs the "trash tub."

Now, just a few years later, she has helpful tips on how to remedy the situation. She mentions, right off the bat, that she learned the fundamental methods from "Queen" Marie Kondo. Questions like "Does it spark joy? Have you used/worked with it in the last year? Remove duplicates" and more, made famous by Kondo, help her begin. This leads to the truthful realization, "You can't clean clutter."

The first step, she says, is to "Learn to let go." Per Kondo, she shows how to put things into categories and work through them one step at a time.

@maizimmy

Ok. Maybe I was 1% of the problem 😆😅 people ask me all the time how I got my house in order when it was SO FAR GONE. The decluttering and cleaning schedule was HUGE. But even more than that was how my life has changed and just gotten easier over time. The babies aren’t helpless babies forever. It gets easier there for sure one they are in grade school. Plus, the obvious elephant in the room 😅 being a divorced mom in MY situation is about 100 times easier than what I was going through as a “married single mom”. I by no means want to promote divorce, but I do want to promote healthy marriages. No marriage counselor would have ever said my marriage was healthy and that is abundantly clear with how stress free life feels after leaving. #momlife #motherhood #cleantok #cleaningmotivation #cleanwithme #declutter @Procter & Gamble @Clorox

Step two is to "Implement a cleaning schedule." The idea is for that decluttering becomes an actual habit, etched into your mind. She urges people to "find cleaning schedules that work for you." She writes over a cleaning video, "I personally aim to do a nightly reset of the kitchen and living room before bed because these are the most-used parts of my home." She adds, "Then I have my weekly 1.5-hour reset and the occasional 'panic clean' before people come over lol."

Zimmy tells us that the third step is the most important to remember: "Give yourself some grace." She confesses, "When my home was at its worst, I was a 'married single mom' of three kids, two and under." She further relays that she had a full-time job, only to come home "to the second shift of taking care of everything for everyone." She then, adorably, throws some clothes into drawers, writing she still believes in the #NoFoldMethod.

She stresses the idea that "sometimes we're just in the thick of it. Things won't be so crazy forever, and to make the effort to do what you can in the free moments you have." She jokes, "As kids grow and life sorts itself out, you'll realize you were never the problem. Everyone else was." (She then notes in her TikTok description, "Okay, maybe I was ONE percent of the problem.")

Many in the comments seemed to really connect to her use of the phrase "married single mom." Zimmy also writes, "I by no means want to promote divorce, but I do want to promote healthy marriages. No marriage counselor would have ever said my marriage was healthy, and that is abundantly clear with how stress-free life feels after leaving."

In Zimmy's vulnerability, she gets to the root of what was or wasn’t working for her without vilifying anyone. Decluttering is so much more than tidying up, and many therapists explain what it can do to lift depression and anxiety. In her piece "The Many Mental Benefits of Decluttering" for Psychology Today, Diane Roberts Stoler, Ed.D. writes, "Excessive clutter often leads to feelings of shame, hopelessness, and guilt. The feelings can spiral, making it difficult to find the motivation to address the clutter. If someone is already suffering from depression, a cluttered home can worsen that depression. It is often a cycle. The more depressed you get, the harder it is to clean and organize."

Big and small changes, with a game plan and grace for yourself, can help break the shame spiral and get your living space actually "livable" again.

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Mom dissects one of the little "piles" around her house and her rant is so relatable

All parents will recognize the mental exhaustion brought on by these innocuous piles of junk.

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Piles of junk are driving one mom bonkers.

Running a household, especially with little kids running around, involves a lot of stuff. The kids have stuff, they bring stuff home from school, the grandparents give you stuff, other parents pass along stuff they don't need anymore. And of course, you've got your own stuff! That's to say nothing of the daily mail, which is a good 90% junk.

Where does it all go? Well, it either gets put away in the proper place, thrown away, or donated. But that doesn't always happen right away. First, the junk has to build and accumulate to the point where it annoys you and you're motivated to do something about it.

A mom is going viral for perfectly explaining the bane of her existence: All the "little piles" of junk.


Piles are usually at least 50% junk mail. Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

The natural form of junk is piles. As it accumulates, the piles will begin to form all over your house. The piles especially like the kitchen counter and the stairs.

"Here's what the single hardest thing for me is about being a mom," mom and Instagrammer Bekah Martinez begins in a video. "There's these little piles that accumulate. Mini piles. And I’m the only one who acknowledges these piles. These piles require so much mental energy all the time. Because there’s so many little decisions attached to every little item.”

In the video, she approaches a piano in her living room. Of course, because she's a mom and the piano's top offers a flat surface, there is a pile of random stuff on top. For our entertainment, she dissects and explains each individual item.

There's:

  • A lightbulb
  • A pacifier clip
  • A Shrinky Dink parrot
  • A small black plastic piece that broke off of something
  • A Sharpie

Martinez explains that she can't just throw all the stuff away, or even put it away! The lightbulb is a rechargeable lightbulb with a charger that needs to be tracked down. Her son has aged out of the pacifier clip and throwing it away seems wasteful but donating it is another chore to do. The Shrinky Dink was a gift and it will feel bad to throw it away but no one really wants it. That mysterious little black plastic thing might be needed at some point if she can ever figure out what it's from.

"No one else in this family at this point in our lives is going to do anything with these little piles," she says, getting more and more hilariously worked up, as if the piles have broken her very spirit. Watch the relatable and entertaining reel here:

Parents everywhere — especially moms — felt so seen by Martinez's rant.

Parents and non-parents alike know all about the piles. Parents just have the added bonus of their kids finding things in the street, collecting worthless plastic Happy Meal toys, and bringing six-dozen pieces of artwork home from school every week. It all goes into the piles.

Commenters had a lot to say about it.

"I have two full draws of 'little piles' that I didn't have the mental energy for"

"[Piles cause] 90% of my overstimulation"

"This is single-handedly the most relatable reel I've ever seen"

"Death by a thousand little piles"

"I've been a parent for 12 years and this is the best video I've ever seen which explains it"


simpsons, junk, clutter, house cleaning tips, organization tipsJunk drawer, anyone?Giphy

Some people had productive tips for dealing with all the junk:

"Get a basket and throw every little pile in it. If you don’t go to the basket to look for something within a month, you don’t need it so throw it away or donate!"

"I'm a professional organizer! ... Create 3 baskets that live in an area that you can ignored for a while. 1. Needs home (think the light bulb) 2. Donate (think the pacifier clip) 3. Memories (think the shrinky dink) ... Then, once a week, or at a cadence of your choice, revisit the baskets and take a solid 20min-hour creating a more permanent home or getting rid of those items!"

Others were in favor of getting revenge on all the people in the house that don't help clean up:

"I like putting the little piles on the stairs so I can watch the people, to whom they belong, walk by them on the stairs on their way to bed."

The greater point of Martinez's rant, besides the fact that the piles are annoying, was that it too often falls on one person in the house (ahem, you can probably guess who) to deal with them. The piles are invisible to everyone else, she claims, including her partner. It seems silly to complain about a light bulb and a Sharpie, but she's right: Dealing with the piles is far too big a mental load for one person to take on.

Some people get so overwhelmed by it all that they create "doom piles," which are especially common in people with ADHD. It's like a giant super pile, where you take all the junk and put it together in one place. It makes things look more tidy outside of that one area, but it creates a major headache for future-you. Experts say the best way to attack the piles is to do it in small chunks so you don't get overwhelmed, and ideally offer yourself a small reward for your efforts. A great way to approach it is to work on separating the piles into trash, put away, and donate for 10 minutes before you watch TV at night!

Oh, and partners who supposedly "don't notice the piles" (you know who you are), let's get off the couch and into the game. Go team!

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