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| Don’t Jump Into Spring Cleaning. Take It Slow. | Don’t Jump Into Spring Cleaning. Take It Slow. |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| I don’t enjoy doing household chores. More than that, I don’t enjoy completing menial tasks in general, or doing one thing for more than 30 minutes, or pushing myself past the point of minor inconvenience. That said, like most people, I do enjoy a clean and comfortable home — or at least the type of home I can invite friends over without wincing as they step over clutter and shoe mud in the hallway. When you live in a small London apartment, as I do, one forgotten plate or hastily flung coat can make the whole place feel chaotic. | I don’t enjoy doing household chores. More than that, I don’t enjoy completing menial tasks in general, or doing one thing for more than 30 minutes, or pushing myself past the point of minor inconvenience. That said, like most people, I do enjoy a clean and comfortable home — or at least the type of home I can invite friends over without wincing as they step over clutter and shoe mud in the hallway. When you live in a small London apartment, as I do, one forgotten plate or hastily flung coat can make the whole place feel chaotic. |
| These facts might appear irreconcilable. You can’t sink into a bubble bath without running the water first. But when it comes to household chores specifically, there may be one solution that combines productivity with an anti-productivity spirit. Some describe it breaking a task into manageable chunks. I like to call it slow cleaning — the act of cleaning a little bit, every day, or even just sometimes, whenever you feel able. | These facts might appear irreconcilable. You can’t sink into a bubble bath without running the water first. But when it comes to household chores specifically, there may be one solution that combines productivity with an anti-productivity spirit. Some describe it breaking a task into manageable chunks. I like to call it slow cleaning — the act of cleaning a little bit, every day, or even just sometimes, whenever you feel able. |
| Slow cleaning can best be defined as an anti-spring clean. Instead of doing an intense and time-consuming seasonal clean, which you might avoid until the mess feels unmanageable, you divide the labor into miniature, almost unnoticeable tasks that can be done often. For example, you might vacuum the stairs before meeting friends, fold the laundry before watching a movie, or clean the bathroom floor while dinner’s in the oven. | Slow cleaning can best be defined as an anti-spring clean. Instead of doing an intense and time-consuming seasonal clean, which you might avoid until the mess feels unmanageable, you divide the labor into miniature, almost unnoticeable tasks that can be done often. For example, you might vacuum the stairs before meeting friends, fold the laundry before watching a movie, or clean the bathroom floor while dinner’s in the oven. |
| As time passes, the tasks add up, until you have a clean house without feeling as though you’ve done, well, anything at all. (And yes, even the knottier, deep clean tasks can be tackled with this approach. Need to do a full degrease of the oven? Try it one morning while listening to a podcast — just that, absolutely nothing else. Don’t even load the dishwasher.) | As time passes, the tasks add up, until you have a clean house without feeling as though you’ve done, well, anything at all. (And yes, even the knottier, deep clean tasks can be tackled with this approach. Need to do a full degrease of the oven? Try it one morning while listening to a podcast — just that, absolutely nothing else. Don’t even load the dishwasher.) |
| I am by no means the first to float this particular concept. Housework and productivity experts alike have long endorsed the idea that, in order to get anything done, it needs to feel both manageable and actionable. | |
| But most productivity techniques (the Pomodoro technique, the 52/17 rule, the two-minute rule) tend to focus on exactly how prolific of a taskmaster you can be, with the energy and time that you have. I like to think of slow cleaning as more of an anti-productivity, pro-pleasure practice. Instead of stressing over what needs to be done, it’s more about focusing on what you can or want to do — within reason. The world isn’t going to implode if you don’t disinfect every single surface in your home, or if you’d rather read a good book than organize your drawers today. You can vacuum later, if there’s time. |