What if a spotless kitchen every single day only cost you 5 minutes? Not five minutes of frantic counter wiping, but a system that lets you skip the dreaded big cleaning day altogether. That is the promise from the home systems coach behind Minimalist Home, and her method is easier to copy than you might think.
She calls it zone cleaning, and in this lesson she focuses on zone one: the kitchen and the living room, the two rooms that get used the most and show mess the fastest. Her rule is simple. Every day you do your normal daily reset, and then you pick just one small extra task, such as a single shelf of the fridge.
She walks through how to do each of those extra jobs properly, because she says some of her followers have told her they never learned how.
The Daily Reset
For the kitchen, a reset means all the dishes are in the dishwasher, everything is off the counters, and the counters are wiped. It also means cleaning the sink. She sprinkles in baking soda, adds a little dish soap, and scrubs with a brush, since she likes having something abrasive. Then she runs the vacuum around the floor, though she says you can sweep instead.
In the living room, the reset means dealing with whatever has wandered in. Laundry from the dryer gets tossed on a chair, and sometimes one family member pulls out another person’s clothes while they are at work or school. Folded items go away, as do books, reading glasses and dishes. This is the space where the family gathers and lives, she says, and that is totally fine, but it needs to be cleared by the end of the day.
One Small Task a Day in the Kitchen
For the fridge she suggests one level a day. With about 31 days in a month, there is no pressure. She pulled out the avocados she wanted to use up, found things that did not need to stay, wiped the shelf with a quick cloth, and put back only what belongs. Moving items around as you go makes tomorrow’s shelf easier. After several days of the main fridge, you can move on to a single shelf in the door, and she says you could do two if you feel like it.
The freezer works the same way, with one trick. Anything you spray in there tends to freeze, so she uses a hot cloth, with hot water from her on-demand kettle. Appliance fronts get a wipe from top to bottom, one appliance a day if needed, with extra attention to the handles because they are the highest touch spots. She says the dishwasher sides and inside edges can get really gross, so wipe those too.
The stove depends on what you own. With gas, you can lift the burner plates and caps and scrub the little catch bowls underneath, which is a job for a couple of times a month or weekly. She gives hers a spray, a wipe and a buff, and uses a brush in the crevices. If you have a glass top, be careful not to scratch it and check which cleaners are safe. The same goes for stainless steel.
The Bigger Jobs
The range hood filters can get really gross fast. She takes them out and soaks them in the sink, sometimes with a dishwasher tab, for a couple of hours, then wipes them and runs them through the dishwasher if the manufacturer allows it. She wipes the hood itself with a grease-cutting dish soap and wears rubber gloves because it is hard on hands. She suggests working this one into the monthly routine.
The oven is for a day when you have more time, such as the weekend. Put paper towel or newspaper down in the yard, take out the racks, spray oven cleaner and let it sit, then wipe. She notes oven cleaner works well but is very toxic, so use gloves and probably a mask. A baking soda paste is a non-toxic option. On a short day, she says, just wiping the outside and the handle still counts, and the manual will tell you how to clean the door glass.
Kettles and coffee makers collect scale. She runs vinegar through hers, scrubs, and rinses several times, and says you can also buy a descaler. For the toaster, unplug it, wipe it with a little soap, empty the crumb tray into the sink and gently shake out the rest. Toasters tend to break, so be gentle, and let it dry before using it again.
Backsplash, Cabinets, Trash and Pantry
The backsplash is a quick spray-and-wipe job that she does while the kids get ready for school, with a brush for the grooves and care around any silicone. For cabinet fronts you can do just the uppers, and she pulls up a chair because she is short. Always hit the handles. For trash, recycling and food waste containers, she takes out the smelly bag, sprays, lets it sit, and wipes. She puts paper towel in the bottom of the food waste bin to catch moisture, and cleans the bucket every week or two.
The pantry goes one shelf at a time. She says it gives you the chance to find expired items, and she recently hauled a basket onto the island and cleared out old crackers, chips and nuts that no one would eat.
The Living Room Rotation
For dusting, she does a dry cloth first and then a wet one, and uses a duster for the eaves and corners. Do high spots one day and furniture the next, or just one piece of furniture a day. Baseboards get a little soap on a cloth wrapped around a finger, knee pads for comfort, and a second wipe. She wipes the light switches too. She cleans floors by hand about once a week, using a bucket with a little soap, or a mop if you prefer.
Her wrap-up is the point of the whole system: none of these jobs takes more than a few minutes, and spreading them out gives you a thoroughly clean kitchen and living room that never feels like an event. She adds that the full method, which also covers zones two and three for the rest of the home, has its own lesson on her channel.
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