We just finished the 30-day-10-minute tidying challenge. Now it’s time to build on it with some essentials.

Each room has a top task

As I discovered, and maybe you did too, 10 minutes is perfect for the basics: doing the dishes, emptying the sink, taking out the trash. But there are still some essential household tasks that need to get done, like cleaning the toilet. Unfortunately.

So, my next challenge is to continue building on the 10-minute tidying with 5 minutes of more targeted cleaning.

What is target cleaning?

It’s devoting time to those areas that need more attention, either because they are big tasks (like decluttering or organizing) or just take more time than usual (like deep cleaning).

Building habits slowly

Since we are building habits, it’s essential not to pour on too much. We just finished 30 days of 10-minute cleaning. Now to build on that. New habits are like plants. 30 days is enough to get established and start growing, but it’s still a sapling. It’s better to go gently. You’re more likely to be successful and have a lifelong habit if you proceed cautiously.

So I’m going to start with 5-minute target cleaning for 30 days, then go for 10.

Start with top tasks

With our 5 minutes, I want to make sure I’m getting to those essential tasks we all need to do on a weekly basis. Things like:

Cleaning the toilet
Changing the bed sheets
Cleaning the shower

Make a target-cleaning blueprint

Make a list of all tasks for each room, or use mine. I want you to have a blueprint of all the things that need to get done eventually, either monthly, annually, or just once. That way, if your top tasks take less than 5 minutes, you can pick something else on your list.
We will also use this list next month when we move up to 10 minutes of target cleaning. For example:
- Kitchen: Countertops, fridge, stove top, floor, organize cupboards
- Bathroom: Toilet, shower, sink, shelves, floor
- Living room: Keep sofa clear, wipe down surfaces, launder pillows and blankets
- Bedroom: Closet, night stand, change sheets, wipe down surfaces, floor
- Office: Declutter, declutter, declutter, organize, organize, organize
- Garage: Declutter, declutter, declutter, organize, organize, organize
Choose your weekly top tasks. These are things that need to be cleaned every week to maintain a healthy house. For example:
- Kitchen: Stove top
- Bathroom: Toilet
- Bathroom: Shower
- Bedroom: Sheets
- Bedroom: Laundry
Assign a day to each top task (optional). I’m going to see how I do with assigning a day to each task. You can give it a try, or just commit to getting them done during the week. I have 5 top tasks. For example:
- Monday: Kitchen - stove top
- Tuesday: Bathroom - toilet
- Wednesday: Bathroom - clean shower
- Thursday: Bedroom - sheets
- Sunday: Bedroom - laundry

Building a habit on top of a habit

For the next 30 days I’m going to keep doing my 10-minute tidying followed by my 5-minute target cleaning.

What to do for 10-minute tidying?

Now that we’ve built a 10-minute tidying habit, I want to be clear what the goals are for the 10-minute tidying:

Dishes: Putting them into the dishwasher, putting them away
Sink: Emptying and cleaning it
Trash, recycling, compost: Disposing of it

This way, once these tasks are done, if I do it in less than 10 minutes, I can take the extra time and go straight to target cleaning.

Join and follow along

Like with the 10-minute tidying challenge, I’ll be posting to our Facebook group, Tidy by Habit: Untidy by Nature, daily on what I accomplished and how it’s going. Everyone is welcome to join and post your daily tasks as well. It keeps me motivated to post to you all. I hope you find the same.

Happy tidying!

Habit-building 105: Targeting top tasks