The 20 minute rule in cleaning is a very popular time management method of cleaning, where you set a timer and then clean intensely for just 20 minutes a day.
Once the timer goes off, you immediately stop cleaning.
Using the 20 minute rule in cleaning, helps you prioritize your daily maintenance and momentum over deep cleaning.
Committing to 20 minutes of cleaning, prevents you from procrastination, which occurs when you think that a mess will take hours to clean up.
The 20 minute rule in cleaning also provides you with focus over perfection and you work on high impact zones, like wiping down kitchen counters or tidying the living room, without you worrying about baseboards or deep scrubbing.
And by tackling just a little bit of cleaning each day, you prevent your house from building up into an exhausting, weekend long chore to clean up.
Many professional organizers also recommend using the 20 minutes you have at the end of the day as a "closing shift".
You can focus on one specific area of cleaning, like the bathroom or even do a quick, multi step sweep.
For example, you could clear the sink, tidy clutter and wipe surfaces.
Tackle, cleaning the dirty dishes or load the dishwasher.
And then put stray items back where they belong.
And then give dirty tables and counters a quick wipe to clean them.
There's also variations of the 20 minute rule in cleaning, which include the 20 second rule and the 20/10 rule.
The 20 second rule in cleaning, is usually used alongside of the main 20 minute rule for decluttering, and it dictates that if you can find a new home for an item in 20 seconds or less, you must do it immediately, instead of making a pile.
And the 20/10 rule is a variation that alternates 20 minutes of active cleaning with 10 minutes of relaxation of rest, helping to train the brain to associate cleaning with quick, tangible rewards.