The Swedish Cleaning Strategy To Get Your Kitchen In Spring-Clean Shape

If you have a hectic house and a busy schedule, you know how difficult it can be to carve out time to reset, put everything back in its place, and tidy up your home — especially in your kitchen. But the good news is that you don't need to dedicate a ton of time — or burden just yourself — to keep your kitchen looking spotless and get ahead on your spring cleaning. 

Instead, try implementing the Swedish Städdag cleaning method. Meaning "cleaning day" in Swedish, this approach gets the entire household involved in the cleaning process and blocks off a short block of time in which everyone — kids, parents, and roommates alike — can clean a designated area or space. By blocking out time to clean in your schedule, you eliminate the pressure to push it off to a later date. Plus, since everyone in your house feels accountable for cleaning during this period, everyone will feel obligated to keep their space a little neater during the week so that when Städdag rolls around, there's less work to be done. 

Implementing this cleaning routine is relatively easy. First, pick a time during which everyone in your house has a moment; it might be after everyone has finished eating dinner, after a special weekend breakfast, or before bed. Assign age- and ability-appropriate tasks for everyone in your home and begin. You don't have to go to the level of deep-cleaning every nook and cranny; your main focus is going to be to cut down on the little things — cleaning the sink, resetting the dishwasher, and putting away errant clutter — to make deep-cleaning easier later on. Consider the simple cleaning tasks you should be doing every day and the spots in your kitchen (and home) that see the most use. Focus your attention there, and spend any extra time tidying up commonly forgotten areas.

If you often procrastinate cleaning, you may want to intertwine the Pomodoro cleaning method with Städdag; allocate 25 minutes of time and build breaks into it. This will keep you focused and give you a "reward" break — perhaps that's a fine time for watching TikTok cleaning videos, like how to clean stained Tupperware with a paper towel.