15 Minute Cleaning Tasks When You Have No Time

We don’t always have a lot of time to devote to cleaning our house but if you have just 15 minutes you can knock out one of these cleaning tasks. Plus grab a free cleaning checklist!

Our homes often suffer when we get busy. While daily cleaning habits are the best way to keep your home clean there are other tasks that you need to take care outside of those tasks.

Finding time for these tasks can be difficult, but finding 15 minutes is usually manageable. Having a list of things you can clean in 15 minutes is a great way to help you keep your home cleaner with very little effort.

If you work down the list of cleaning tasks you will find yourself needing to do a big deep clean less often and your home looking a lot better. If you do get behind try a power hour clean to help get yourself back on track.

And before you get started be sure to grab this cleaning checklist that you can fill out with the tasks you do feel like you can get done today or this week.

It’s a great simple checklist to keep copies of for those busy weeks when you need to get those tasks and to-do lists out of your brain!

Now for some really quick cleaning tasks that you can get done to feel productive even on those really busy days!

15 Minute Cleaning Tasks

• Vacuum your sofa. Throw the cushions off and vacuum under and then vacuum the rest of your sofa. If you don’t do this often you may be surprised about what you find.
• Clean your mattress. While your bedding is in the washer take a few minutes to clean your mattress. Unless you need to treat stains this won’t take  long at all.
• Clean doorknobs and light switches. Quickly go through the house with a natural disinfectant and wipe down all of the light switches and doorknobs. This is especially a good idea during cold and flu season.
• Deep clean your garbage disposal. Kitchen smelling a bit funky? Your garbage disposal may be the reason, even a good deep clean won’t take you long at all.
• Quick pick up. Set your timer and grab a laundry basket. Go through every room and get all of the items that don’t belong and put them away. If there are still items in your basket and you are out of time, leave it but get back to it as soon as you can.
• Start a load of laundry. Grab some laundry and start the load. This won’t take you long at all and is a great task when you are headed out the door. When you get back you have clean clothes ready to hang on the line or throw in the dryer.
• Clean out your junk drawer. We all have one and it can get crazy. Take everything out, throw out the trash, and remove the items that don’t belong.
• Clean the microwave. Microwave a bowl of water with a bit of lemon juice for a couple of minutes. When it’s down wipe it clean. It will smell fresh and should be pretty easy to clean from the steam.
• Change your A/C filter. Keeping your filter clean is important to keep your A/C running properly and the air in your home clean. This should only take a minute so take the rest of the time to clean the air intake, it gets pretty dusty!
• Vacuum a room. Running the vacuum in a room should take very little time and is a great quick task when you are short on time.
• Fill a bag. Grab a grocery sack and set a time for 15 minutes. Go through you house quickly and fill the bag with items you can donate.
• Go through your paper pile. Most of us have a pile of papers we need to file or do something with. Go through it and file what needs filed and deal with the rest.
• Ditch expired food from the fridge. Go through your fridge and check all the dates, if anything is old throw it out.
• Clean your medicine cabinet. Safely dispose of anything that is expired and make a list of things you need to replace.
• Clean the front door. If you have a glass front door, or backdoor, take a few minutes to clean it. You may have time to do both a front and back door.

Now that you’ve done a cleaning task or two, let’s make dinner really quick! Check out my quick dinner ideas for those really busy nights.

Unfortunately some cleaning tasks will take you more than 15 minutes but keeping up with this list will help you knock out a big chunk of your list.

Have more time and need motivation? Check out my friend Cheyenne’s cleaning podcast where you do cleaning routines but they are set to 1950s true crime episodes!

More Cleaning Resources

Ready for some more cleaning motivation and help? Check out these cleaning resources here on Retro Housewife Goes Green.

• A Real 1950s Cleaning Routine
• A Guide to Crisis Cleaning
• Comprehensive List of Cleaning Schedules

And to get some motivation from other homemakers be sure to join the FREE Retro Housewife Goes Green Community!