People who do TOMM, what do you manage in your daily 15 mins?

[Stompythedinosaur]

I'm tempted to give it a go, but I'm not convinced that I can fit my daily jobs into anything like 15 mins, I'm wondering what other people fit in?

Right now the jobs I aim to do daily are: pick up toys and crap from living room floor, wash, dry and put away a load of clothes, empty and refill dishwasher, wipe kitchen surfaces, quick wipe of bathroom and do loo, hoover downstairs. So am I doing too much or should I be able to fit it into 15 mins?

Grateful for any hints!

I have a cleaner 2x a week. On the three week days she doesn't come, I spend 45 mins per day cleaning/tidying/sorting/re-locating other household members belongings to the appropriate place. I think we have a larger than average size house and both DH and the DC are quite lazy - partly because they know I'll sort it out eventually. I'm also not that focussed so will often get side tracked into something.

My 15 minutes
Our bed made (DS14 does his own)
Bathroom Sink and loo cleaned
One load of washing put on
Quick tidy of room/cUshions plumped
Kitchen surfaces wiped down

My half hour
Mondays: living room dusted, pictures dusted, suite hoovered, Windows cleaned, floors hoovered in room and kitchen diner.
Tuesdays: our bed changed one week, ds the next. 2 bedrooms and the study dusted including picture frames, Windows cleaned
Wednesday,: landing bookcases dusted, staircase dusted (bannisters & pictures) bathroom cleaned in full, bedrooms, bathroom & stairs hoovered
Thursday: kitchen cupboard fronts wiped down, splash backs wiped, fridge cleaned if it needs it, floors hoovered and washed, patio Windows and kitchen window cleaned, blinds dusted
Friday: whatever I think needs an extra clean eg inside kitchen cupboards, our sweeping the patio.

I get up at 6:45, washed & dressed, downstairs by 7, lunches packed , tidy the room, wipe down kitchen, load of washing in, do that days 30 minute job, dash back up stairs straighten the bed that dh will have thrown back to air, wipe down sink and loo. Leave the house at 8.10!

Slightly easier for me because my DS is older and so does his own thing in the morning. I do my jobs in the morning because I have a finite time to get things done before I have to leave for work.

TOMM has been a life saver for me, I work full time as does my husband but he has M.E. and doesn't have the energy to do much else. My house has never been so clean and if I have to miss a day for any reason I only go a week before it is done next time. Best of all my weekends are free.

I'm interested in the TOMM because it's pretty much what I've always tried to do, but the reality is that it takes so much longer than is suggested on various websites offering a quick ad easy solution to cleaning.

it takes longer than fifteen minutes to do a load of laundry if it's brought downstairs, loaded into machine, hung out on line, brought in, folded/ironed as necessary and put away. Even without ironing, it's not a two minute job.

Sweeping/vacuuming every floor downstairs doesn't take long but mopping them too can easily take fifteen minutes and we have a small house. I think that there must be an assumption that nobody leaves anything out of place. If my house was immaculate (never gonna happen), cleaning wouldn't take so long. But given it's not, it is a bit of a battle.

That said, I do think the answer is little and often and if you don't know where to start, a schedule is helpful.

Sorry won't let me edit!

My house is 3 bedrooms and in addition to the jobs above I shove my washing in the dryer, and fold and put away when done. DH / DS, sort out the dish washer. I tend you do ironing watching tv on a Sunday afternoon, takes me about half an hour add I do the bare minimum. One thing we all do is keep the house tidy, everything is always put away, a place for everything and everything in is place. The 45 minutes a day would be impossible if the house wasn't tidy. This is a big thing for TOMM and why Gemma suggests a tidying bootcamp before starting the method proper.

10 mins in the morning:

Put wet washing into the dryer (We load the night before with a timer so it's done by morning)

Wipe down kitchen counters and dining table after breakfast

Make beds (before I come downstairs for breakfast I open the bedroom windows to air and get rid of condensation)

Hoover kitchen, dining room and entryway

Wash breakfast dishes

5 mins at night while kids in the bath: wipe down toilets and sink and throw some bleach down if needed

The first time I did all this it definitely took me longer because everything was dirtier and needed proper scrubbing and our kitchen counters and table were so cluttered rather than the quick wipe I can do now. I also thought I was supposed to include actually putting in the load of laundry as well as drying, folding and putting away in the 15 mins which is impossible. So DH and I just do that in front of the TV at night, and put in another load before bed.

Can I ask what does the 15 minutes bathroom clean consist of? When I clean the toilet,u full a bucket of hot water and add bleach then clean with new Jcloth from pedestal up and in then squirt under the rim with bleach.do you all do this every day plus clean sink etc in the 15 mins? I'd never get it done as I have ensuite and downstairs loo as well 🤔🤔

Hearing other people's routines is very helpful, thank you.

It looks like I need to commit extra time if I'm going to try this routine.

I do a bit of bathroom at a time. So yesterday, I put cleaner down the loo, wiped down the sink and the outside of the loo with a cloth, cleaned the bathroom floor and scrubbed the loo in both the main bathroom and the cloakroom. Today, I cleaned the bath, cleaned the loo, wiped down the tiles on the wall,and wiped down the windowsill, and cleaned around the base of the loo where DS sometimes misses.

Skinful I literally spray toilet seat, pedestal and floor around the pedestal where my DS's sometimes miss with Flash and then wipe over with a cloth. Chuck a bit of bleach down. Throw cloth into washing machine which goes on every night. No scrubbing or hot water in the daily Level 1, because that gets done once a week on the entryway day (my entryway is non-existent so that has become my 30 mins in the bathrooms and dining room day). I see it as the equivalent as a swipe with a cleaning wipe from a packet just to keep on top of it, it's more prevention than cleaning!!

skinful by doing the loo and sink every day, it never gets filthy! In 15 minute clean I spray the sink with cleaner then I actually use a disinfectant wipe on the loo, lid, pedestal, then seat, then rim & bin the wipe(s). Quick scrub with brush then loo cleaner. By the time I've done that, cleaner has worked on sink so it gets a quick wipe round and rinse off. Job done.
It gets more of a scrub during half hour clean but to be honest our bathroom is just never that dirty. If I had to fill a bucket and scrub it down every day our bathroom would never get cleaned, I just do not have the time for that! We're all pretty healthy, don't get tummy problems so I'm guessing that what I'm doing is good enough. 😁

Do bootcamp first if you can and it's much easier. TOMM is great

I'm going to freshen up the house with a bootcamp again once the decorations come down.

Yorkshiremum and xia that sounds like a better idea. I just struggle with the wastage of antibacterial wipes but I suppose using new j cloth each time is equally as bad🤔

Use a dishcloth! And then wash it

I wouldn’t put a dish cloth that I had used to clean the toilet in the washing machine though with other clothes.

I don't do tomm.

I do;
Every morning washing on if needed (including sheets) empty bins and DH empty dishwasher. Takes 5-10 mins.
Washing is sorted and put away in evening whilst DH does bath time. Takes 5 mins.
Before bed dishwasher is always stacked, toys tidy as far as possible, no shoes/ dirty plates left lying in living room etc. Takes 5 mins.

Then:

Monday clean bathrooms (not floors)

Tuesday general tidy/organise where needed. E.g. maybe toy cupboard/ sort pile of mail/ tidy bits and bobs lying arround.

Wednesday clean kitchen (worktops/ doors etc. If this is quick maybe do mirrors arround house and some dusting (quickly with a feather duster).

Thursday. Clean all floors- hoover/ sweep and mop.

Friday. Any job that needs done again or any cleaning identified e.g. if windows need done/ bathrooms need a better clean, more in-depth tidy up needed.

DH does another hoover at weekend.

I don't have an untidy or very dirty house to start with (No mobile DC yet!) so this approach is enough but it by no means involves a deep clean and eagle eyes would be able to find dust etc.

Agree about using cloths not throwaway!
Have different colour for kitchen and bathroom. If you are not keem to wash with othet cloaths soak in bleach or disinfectant after use so you don't need to wash each time and then wash with door mats/mophead etc.

I LOVE TOMM

The longer you do it the less time it takes.

I hoover the whole house and do my bathroom every day which usually takes 20 minutes, then I do 15 minutes in the room of the day which is enough for me as I don’t have kids.

My husband does the washing.

If I don’t hoover my house looks horrendous.

Skinful to each their own but the washing machine and detergent really does get it all clean even if they're mixed at first. I don't separate my kids pants with skid marks or babygros with poo on the edges from the rest of the washing so no reason to separate a cloth that is covered in probably more cleaning chemicals than poo particles. And remember - you cleaned that loo yesterday so there's no more than 24 hours' worth of dirt on that cloth, plus a load of antibacterial and/or bleach! It's probably cleaner than most other stuff in your house... doorknobs...light switches...

But surely in this context putting a wash on is EITHER putting it in the machine, OR hanging it up/transferring to tumble OR folding and putting away - some of those steps would take 2 minutes, some 5-10.

True xio ,when you put it like that .

Bathroom as I get out the shower or just when I am in there at some point during the day.
Eldest son hoovers main areas daily
Middle son in charge of dishwasher
One load of washing a day put in first thing in morning, dried in drier when I come in and folded put away on the way to bed.
Family buy in has made the difference we had a few weeks of me threatening to bin stuff left at folks backsides. All boys sit down to pee!!! This is essential

My level 1 jobs take me 15 mins or less per day but I have a tiny house. I hoover the sitting room and up the stairs, make our bed (the kids make their own), stick bleach down the loo and wipe down the sink and bath, shove a load of laundry in and go back to switch it to dry a bit later (for DH to put away in the evening), wipe the kitchen surfaces and clean the floor quickly, and tidy as I go.

I haven’t done this one but it sounds quite like flylady and her big thing is lots of regular little jobs. Before I found that site, vacuuming meant doing what my mother did - pull out all the furniture, get into every corner etc and was a huge deal. So I often put it off. The fly lady method is to just “vacuum the middles” on a daily basis, so you can literally just run he vacuum on the places you actually walk. No need to move furniture or anything and while you will occasionally need to do a deeper dive into the corners or under the sofa, it is amazing the difference making vacuuming a quick daily job makes. Same thing with the bathroom, a daily quick wipe of a cloth or a cleaning wipe on the toilet takes one minute and means the toilet is always presentable as it only ever has 24 hours of dirt built up.

So I’d guess the 15 minute thing is to inspire you to do a “rush job” and get rid of the mindset that everything must be done 100%, like the poster above filling buckets etc for the bathroom. There is a time and a place for that, but most people’s houses, doing an imperfect job frequently is far more effective than a huge thorough clean far less frequently

Ok, thanks for all the advice. I'm going to give it a go. I think I'll be able to put a wash in, hoover and do something in the bathroom in my 15 mins (making beds is out as I leave very early for work and my cleaning time is in the evening). Then I'll do my half hour and fold/put away laundry at the end.

I like the idea of TOMM so I'll see how it goes.

Also everything is a lot more aggravation with no tumble drier. I struggle to put a wash on every day as have no room to hang it up, especially in the winter it's a huge pain.