How To Clean Your Whole House in One Day

Cleaning every inch of your home in one day would be an incredible feat, but it’s probably too much to undertake. It might help to reframe your goal: Instead of aiming to clean your whole house in one day, decide you’re going to devote an entire day to spring cleaning. The former goal sets you up to fall short, while the latter goal allows you to measure by effort instead of impact. Rather than committing and maybe failing to check every chore off your list, you should spend time focusing on the most important tasks, and leaving the rest for another day. It’s a more thoughtful and attainable route to take. So if you can’t do it all in one day, how do you choose? What goes into whittling down a giant list of intimidating house chores into a manageable affair that still delivers a big impact? Here are some ways for doing just that:

1. Choose whole-house cleaning tasks for the biggest effect.

Go through the spring cleaning checklist above and choose tasks that involve more than one room or item in the house. For instance, washing the pillows and bedding of all members of your household leaves everyone with refreshed bedding. While the task may not produce a visible outcome, knowing that everyone has bedding that’s as clean as, can feel really good.

Other whole-house tasks you could select include cleaning all the doors or tackling all the windows. Doing these rarely done chores mean that you’ll “touch” every room in the house with that spring cleaning magic and it will show.

2. Select chores that you procrastinate.

Cleaning tasks that you dread probably don’t get done very often. However, if you are determined to accomplish these with your spring cleaning momentum, not only will they get done and be clean, but you’ll be relieved of the guilt that comes from knowing it’s something you really should do and then putting it off.

These dreaded, procrastinated chores will be different for everyone, but they could be deep cleaning the shower, cleaning the windows, or finally getting that oven clean. Choose your own adventure and be really, really proud of yourself when you get to the finish line.

3. Pick the tasks you want to do.

No, this doesn’t mean to forget the whole thing because you really don’t feel like doing any spring cleaning! The sentiment underlying this method of selecting what you’ll spend your spring cleaning day doing is that certain things on the list will pop out at you as things you’ve been wanting or meaning to do but haven’t been able to get to. Maybe it’s sorting through closets and cleaning your refrigerator. Do these.

4. Make choices based on time.

Some of the items on the spring cleaning list require time that may or not be hands-on time. For example, washing everyone’s bedding and cleaning all the mattresses doesn’t take that much hands-on time, but it does require waiting for wash and dry cycles to finish. This is a great task to undertake while you’re cleaning other things because you’ll be around to switch loads as soon as they’re ready and you can use the in-between time to check other tasks off your list.

5. Put labor-intensive items at the top of your list.

If you’re having a hard time choosing what you’ll do and what you’ll skip, try putting the most labor-intensive tasks (I’m looking at you again, window-cleaning) at the top of the list. This way, the chores that require the most out of you are getting done on a day you’ve dedicated to cleaning and you won’t feel as much like you’re missing out on something fun.

Sample Plan for Spring Cleaning in a Day

If you need a jumping-off point to plan your day of spring cleaning, this checklist for the morning, afternoon, and evening will get you on the right track.

Morning routine

• Strip the bedding from all the beds, including duvet covers, and gather all the bedding. Sort like with like and begin laundering sheets, blankets, pillows, and comforters.

• Refresh mattresses while the bedding is away from the beds.

• Empty every garbage can and recycling bin and bring them outside. Hose them down, scrub scuffs with a Magic Eraser, and get the gunk out of crevices. Leave them to dry in the sun.

• Slather the interior of the oven with a baking soda paste.

• Change bedding wash and dry cycles as needed.

• Scrub your oven interior.

• Remove vinegar bags and scrub showers and tubs and clean the bathroom.

Afternoon Routine

• Spot clean upholstery and rugs.

• Dust every area you’ve decided to tackle today and start at the top. This could include bookshelves, the tops of cabinets, light fixtures, light bulbs, furniture, door frames, picture frames, etc. The idea is that you’re taking your duster and using it on every inch of dust down to the baseboards.

• Polish wooden furniture. Just like you focused on using one tool while you dusted, focus on one product here: wood polish. Hit every wooden item in your home.

• Wipe down cabinet doors. 

Using an all-purpose cleaner and rag is fine for other materials.

• Clean doors. You’ve already dusted the frames. Now take a damp microfiber cloth and a Lysol disinfectant, to clean and disinfect the doors including knobs.

• Continue changing bedding loads as needed. If you finish your loads, take down your curtains and begin washing those.

• Clean your windows. Takedown screens or use a lint roller on them, clean window tracks, and shine those windows.

• Clean the rest of the glass in your home. You’ve already dusted picture frames. Now take it to the next level and hit the glass with a lint-free cloth and glass cleaner.

Evening Routine

• Replace bedding.

• Hang curtains if you were able to wash them.

• Return garbage cans to their rooms.

• Vacuum under furniture and under rugs.

• Vacuum the floors throughout the house now that the dust you stirred up from dusting has had time to settle.

• Clean your phone.

• Choose one small area to declutter. You don’t need the sunshine to help you see what to declutter (like you would with spot cleaning your armchairs, for instance), and ending with a decluttering session sets you up for a very visual win and, with any luck, the urge to do more when you can.

• Make a list of tasks you wish you’d been able to do and make a plan for finishing them up during your regular cleaning routine.

• Enjoy your spring-cleaned house!