I Tried the “Bare Minimum” Method to Keep My Home Clean, and Got Surprising Results
With the holiday season in full swing, it can be difficult to give your home a deep clean. In my own apartment it’s been difficult to stay on top of things, and piles are starting to grow. To hopefully calm the mess, I tried the bare minimum method.
What Is the Bare Minimum Method?
The bare minimum method, described by Audrey Barton (@organizedchaos4bus) on Instagram, is a strategy in which you create a list of four basic tasks every day that will help keep your house clean. Here are the four tasks.
Visual clutter. Clear away all visual clutter and wipe down your counters and tables.
Basket method. Keep a basket out and put in everything left out throughout the week. At the end of the week, put away everything in the basket.
Dishes. Do the dishes, even if that just means loading the dishwasher.
Laundry. Do one load of laundry.
Once you’ve done all that throughout the week, a deeper clean on the weekend should be easier.
How I Tried the Bare Minimum Method
In Barton’s video, you can see that her home is already clean when she discusses this method. Mine was not. The first day of trying this method felt like I was doing a deep clean. It took 40 minutes to get through everything — and that was after having to delay the whole process a week because I was too mentally and physically exhausted from life to start.
I learned on the first day that the bare minimum process is best to do if you’re starting with a relatively tidy house; otherwise you might not have the time to do it. It also helped me to set a reminder in my phone to do my tasks every night (otherwise I’d forget). My basket that first day stayed empty, because I was just putting all the visual clutter away immediately.
The next day went much more smoothly. The whole process only took about 20 minutes. I’d already cleared the clutter and put things away the day before, so there wasn’t much to do there. One thing went into the basket — a reusable bag I’d been meaning to put away for a while. Laundry time was allocated to things my dog had been sick on that day, so our personal hamper didn’t get any cleaner. On this day, I tried starting a load of laundry first, then doing the other tasks on the list. By the time I finished everything else, the laundry was close to switching into the dryer time.
On the third day, I finally put away the laundry I’d done the last two days. Because I was doing this method after work every day, I was tired — so all the laundry ended up in a pile on the dining room table. I was happy to see that the clutter around the house was still held at bay; it didn’t take too long to clear the counters and tables. Every toy I tried to put away, my dog would immediately take out and spread across the house. I recommend getting a basket for any pet toys that they can’t reach into too easily.
By day four, I had stopped doing the bare minimum method. By this point all my counters and tables were clear, a load of laundry was done, and the basket of stuff was put away (I still hadn’t amassed much). It only took a few minutes, but I was able to sit in the calming space of a cleaner home afterward. Our housekeeper will come over the weekend to do a deep clean.
My Final Thoughts
I noticed a few important things during my trial time of this method. First, it did, in fact, help keep the house cleaner and I was able to get through laundry faster. That was great. But I did start to get frustrated with the whole process.
My husband and I split chores in our home: I do the laundry, and he does the dishes. I didn’t do the dishes for him throughout the week, because I didn’t want to offset the chore balance. He didn’t do the dishes every day, but in his defense I didn’t ask him to, and we normally end up leaving some out anyway.
That being said, I began to get annoyed that I was doing all the tidying, like the workload was falling more on my shoulders. My best advice, if you do this method, is to get buy-in from everyone in your home and have everyone chip in with the cleaning.
Further Reading
I Just Discovered the Smartest Way to Store Paper Towels in Your Kitchen (It’s a Game-Changer!)
Everything You’ve Ever Wanted To Know About Article’s DTC Furniture
We Asked 8 Pro Travelers What They Never Pack in Their Carry-On, and Here’s What They Said
