How Long Does Cleaning *Actually* Take? A Chicagoan’s Guide to Beating Procrastination

Between work, commutes, and enjoying everything Chicago has to offer, finding time for a deep clean can feel impossible. But what if your dreaded chores took far less time than you thought? We’re putting a popular productivity theory to the test to help you reclaim your weekends.

The Secret to Faster Cleaning: Parkinson’s Law

Have you ever noticed that a task seems to expand to fill the time you give it? That’s Parkinson’s Law in action. If you block off your entire Saturday for apartment cleaning, it will magically take all day. But if you challenge yourself to finish in two hours? You’ll likely get it done just as well in that shorter timeframe.

Putting Theory into Practice: The 3 P’s

We tested this concept with real cleaning tasks to prove you can beat procrastination:

• Problem: We procrastinate tasks we think will take forever
• Principle: Parkinson’s Law – work expands to fill time available
• Promise: You can accomplish more in less time than you think

Real Cleaning Times That Will Shock You

Dusting an Entire Room

Using a Swiffer duster instead of wet-dusting every surface: 1 minute 40 seconds. Why put off something that takes less time than brewing coffee?

Sorting & Putting Away Laundry

A mountain of family laundry that “should” take 30 minutes? 12-15 minutes when you’re racing the clock. Sometimes you need fast cleaning services for your brain more than your home!

Cleaning the Bathroom

A full bathroom deep clean including mirrors, toilet, and glass shower: 8 minutes 21 seconds. Spray cleaner first, let it work while you tackle other surfaces, then wipe everything down.

Mopping Floors

An entire basement (living room, office, and gym) with a spray mop: 4 minutes. For heavily soiled floors, start with a traditional mop, then maintain with quick spray mopping.

Washing Windows

Multiple front and back windows: 11 minutes. Rinse, scrub, and squeegee – the sparkle is worth the brief effort.

When to Call in the Pros

While time-boxing works wonders for maintenance cleaning, some tasks genuinely benefit from professional expertise. If your fridge needs deep cleaning help (our test took nearly 12 minutes) or you’re facing a major whole-home reset, sometimes the best time-saving hack is booking professional home cleaning.

Chicago-Specific Cleaning Solutions

Living in our beautiful city means dealing with unique cleaning challenges – from winter slush track-in to summer pollen storms. As your local Chicago cleaning company, we understand what Chicago homes need to stay sparkling through every season.

Your Action Plan for a Cleaner Home

• Set a timer: Challenge yourself to beat the clock on one procrastinated task
• Use the right tools: Spray mops and extendable dusters cut cleaning time significantly
• Start high, work down: Dust falls downward, so clean from top to bottom
• Spray and walk away: Let cleaners work while you tackle another quick task

Remember: most cleaning tasks take far less time than your brain tells you. But when life gets too busy, knowing you have reliable cleaning services in Chicago means you never have to choose between a clean home and enjoying your limited free time.

I’m going to show you that if you give yourself a shorter amount of time and you try to like beat the clock, that’s exactly how long a task will take. It’s time for How Long Does It Actually Take with your host Cassandra Arson. Welcome to How Long Does It Actually Take? The game where we guess how long a chore takes and we try to do it as quickly as possible. Play along and win big prizes like a clean and tidy kitchen, spotless windows, and so much more. Who’s ready to play? How long does it actually take? This one’s going to be weird, but it’s going to be fun. Here are the rules to play. You need to pick one chore and then guess how long you think it’s going to take. And try to guess as short as possible. Like, every minute is one strike. So, you want to have the least amount of minutes possible to win, but you can’t go over your guess. So, don’t guess like five minutes and then if it takes you seven, you lose. Are you ready? We’re going to start with the dishes. I’m starting with the dishes. And truthfully, I have a lot. So, I’m going to empty the dishwasher and load it. And I have a couple pots and pans to wash. I would say this is probably like 15 or 20 minutes, but I want to win, man. So, I’m guessing I can do it in eight minutes. I’m going to start my stopwatch right now. Take a minute. I’m sorry. How long does it take? How long does it take? And time. 3 minutes and 14 seconds. Man, I thought 15 to 20 minutes and then I was like guessing it would be eight, but like when I’m hauling 3 minutes, that’s only three. It ain’t points. Did I beat you? It’s time for a bonus game with two random contestants from the audience, Mara and Emily. Mara and Emily, I’m going to ask you a question. If you know the answer, press your buzzer as quickly as possible. And if you get it right, you win an amazing prize. Are you ready? What’s the name of the law that states that tasks will always take the amount of time that you dedicate to them? Mara, Parkinson’s law. That is correct. Mara, you have won 30 days of me not making you be on a random YouTube video without telling you first. Better luck next time, Emily. Okay, so basically Parkinson law is that if you think something’s going to take 20 minutes and that’s how much time you give yourself, it will take 20 minutes. If you think something’s going to take forever, it’ll take forever. So today we are going to beat Parkinson’s law with actual proof. I’m going to show you that if you give yourself a shorter amount of time and you try to like beat the clock, that’s exactly how long a task will take. So we don’t have to procrastinate anymore. We have 10 chores that we’re going to do together and see how long it actually takes. And hopefully you can beat my time. Are you ready for round two? Let’s go. For this round, we are dusting. This is going to be my favorite because I know a shortcut to dusting, which is using a Swiffer duster. If I was to get a spray or a rag and actually wet dust, this is probably be like 10 to 15 minutes for one room. But with a Swiffer duster, I’m going to challenge myself to just 2 minutes because guess what? You don’t have to move stuff because how is the dust getting underneath? It’s not. Maha, let’s go. 2 minutes down. Do the legs. Don’t forget the legs. Don’t forget the legs. Try to start high. What am I doing? Start high. Oh, there’s calls. That’s a good call, baby. Don’t get your legs. Don’t get your tickle. Tickle them. Hello. Crevices and the crevice is pumpkin. Sh. Stop it. Right. Tickle tickle tickle. Okay. I forgot the timer’s going. Your face. 1 minute 40 seconds. Dust. I got carried away. Dusting was such a huge win. Why are we putting off something that literally takes a minute and 40 seconds? Like this is the trick. If something like you’re putting off doing, the trick is to shrink the amount of time that you give yourself to do the task. This is called time boxing and it actually will shrink the amount of time it takes to do the task. That’s what Parkinson’s law is all about. The video today is to prove this to you with the three Ps. The first P is the problem, which is procrastination most of the time, like we just don’t want to do the thing. The principle is the Parkinson’s law, which means we are actually going to take as long as we give ourselves. So if you say it’s going to take all day Saturday to clean your house, it will literally take all day Saturday. But if you tell yourself you can do it in 2 hours, that’s all it’s going to take. And the third P is promise. This is my promise to you. I’m going to show you with proof throughout this video that if you shrink the amount of time that you have to do a task, you can still get it done just as efficiently in that smaller amount of time. You got to bring a P though too, which is participation. Like actually try this. Do the thing. body double along with me while we move from space to space. So, let’s go. In this round, we are actually putting Parkinson’s law to the test. I have so much laundry. I have been procrastinating and I’ve been busy with fire calls and this is like my whole family’s that has to be sorted and put away and it’s crazy pants. They’ll put their own away, but I have to sort. My point is, I only have 17 minutes until my live starts, which only gives me 16 minutes to put away this laundry. Usually, I would say literally a half an hour, but let’s see if we can do it in 16 minutes. Let’s go. Making a Joe pile, making a Nabby pile, making a Milo pile. It’s inside out. be able to get some socks paired. Let’s have real talk for a second. I’m only at 7 minutes and I’ve sorted everybody’s clothes. Not only that, I like have a few minutes now to match socks. I legit thought this would be at least a half an hour. I I mean, I know it’s not that long, but again, my brain hates it so much that it exaggerates the amount of time. And this is normal. So, Parkinson’s Loth, I give myself a shorter amount of time, and like magic, I don’t need as much time. Life-changingly crazy. Just going to dedicate a few seconds to socks and then let’s see where we are. It’s like my own personal hell. So, I’m not 9 minutes. I’m going to give myself two more minutes of sock matching. Slow is fast and fast is slow. That’s not the word. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. You could just wear mismatched socks, but I just can’t. 12 minutes and 49 seconds. Now, I didn’t put away Joe’s. I didn’t put away my kids. They’re going to put away their own. I’m going to quickly put away the towels, which will probably be like 1 minute. All mine is away. Everything’s sorted. I even paired some socks. Winning at life. I’m going to say 15 minutes once I do these other things, but I’m still under and I’m shocked at how fast this went. You got to give this a try. Set your timer. Let’s go. In this round, we are cleaning out the fridge. I haven’t done it in a really long time. And to be real, I probably should wipe out all the trays, like the bottom drawers and every shelf. I would usually say this would be like an hour, I guess. Like, this is why I procrastinated. But I think I can do this in 10 minutes. Are you ready? Let’s start the stopwatch. How long will it take? How long does it take? Oh my god. I said 10 minutes there. I’m so going to be over. There’s no way I’m going to lose this round. Go. Go. Pass. Go. Rand of butter. That’s fine. That’s fine. That’s fine. Okay. No. Just wipe it. This chili is older. Find out of shape. Got to work out. You got this. You got this. Do not lose today. Hand tight. I have lost this round. It is in fact longer than 10 minutes to clean a fridge. It took me 12 minutes, like 11:46. So, I am a big fat loser. How did you do? I’m curious. Let me know in the comments below. It’s mopping time. I’m going to mop this entire basement that hasn’t been mopped in weeks, perhaps months. And I’m going to use my handy dandy spray mop. If your floors are like really, really dirty, use a mop and bucket first. But then a spray mop is going to literally save you hours and hours and hours when you’re mopping. So, let’s see. The entire basement, which means the living room, the offices, and the gym, I think, is going to take 9 minutes. 9 minutes. That could be optimistic. Nothing is conquered. Go fast, cats. Go fast. Now I’m going to have to walk in way. ADHD is real. Get a workout. Okay. Am I Am I good? And what? Read it and wait. Read it and wait. That’s actually I mean, I didn’t do the greatest mopping job, but I got all the goo. Four minutes to mop the entire basement. Wait, you do you I’m out of breath. Emily, in this round, we’re cleaning the bathroom. This is a pretty big, Jumongous bathroom. So, you know, I’m going to show you. I’m going to clean like mirrors and toilets and the glass shower, which is the bane of my existence. I’m going to say that this bathroom will take me 12 minutes to deep clean. Let’s see. Let’s go. Start with spray and walk away, which is like all the gross stuff. You spray it, you let it do its thing and it gross. Then you just walk away and it eats the soap scum and the gross stuff so you can carry on with stuff. Don’t mix bleach with ammonia. You’ll die. Don’t neglect the dusting of your bathroom needs to be done. So clean. So clean. Where’s my I’m done. 8 minutes and 21 seconds. In this round, we’re washing windows, which is usually like a huge crazy job, and I procrastinate it, but it’s fall and the windows are filthy. It has to be done. I’m just going to do the front windows. And I would usually think this would take like 45 minutes, but I’m going to try to do it in 17. That might be optimistic. All right, are you ready? Let’s go. And we start with a rinse. Scrubbing. Scrubbing. Oh, they’re so sparkly. Oh, he’s in a meeting. Joe’s apparently in a meeting. That’s Joe’s office window. So, I I paused it at five minutes. We had three windows in five minutes. Pretty amazing. We’re actually going to move around maybe to the back and do some of the back windows and see how many I can get done in 17 minutes. These are so dirty. Oh, yucky. Oh, yucky. cleanish. You want to know what’s crazy? I did all the windows that I could reach anyways and it was only 11 minutes. 11 minutes. I feel like Why do I put this off? Why do you put this off? Test the Parkinson’s law and try cleaning your windows. Today, in this round, we are doing meal prep. And we have Joe because this is actually his job in our house. Every week, he preps all of our lunches for our family of five for the week. How long do you think this will take? 20 minutes. I think 20 minutes. 20 minutes. Okay. On your mark, get set, go. What you doing, friend? helping. Oh, be so helpful. Jojo, go. I’m going. I’m going. Really not worried about this. It’s time. That’s fine. We’re done. You doing something else? No. 7 seconds remaining. I mean, we have to put the lids on, but that’s fine. You prepped the food. Okay. High five. Hard to see, but I don’t think you can say that on TV. This isn’t TV. It’s YouTube. I can say what I want. Woo! Good job, Joe. Look at you doubted me. This is a I did doubt you. This is a win in the cast column. It’s an entire fridge full of food. Thank you. Oh, so exciting. 20 minutes. 20 minutes. So much food. Win in life. High five again. Yes. In this round, we’re going to see how long it actually takes to change the sheets. And I’m including the duvet because cramming my duvet cover in here is a nightmare. I should change the sheets more often, but I don’t because uh I’m lazy and my brain says this takes a long time. I know it probably doesn’t. I’m going with six minutes. You ready? And go. How long does it actually take? How long does it actually take? How long does it actually take? Why is putting a pillow? Big giant pillow in a tiny head. Big giant pillow. Okay. Now, come on. Get you. Get it together. Okay. Do cover. Check. So many. So many. You guys are stupid. Why are you the worst thing? I don’t know who invented. Who was like, “Oh, let’s put a sheet on top of a blanket. A blanket in a blanket. It’s a blanket with a freaking case blanket. Blanket that has a house for it. Dumb. Who invented this?” And it’s always lovely. I’m out of breath. There’s been these thousand suits for no freaking reason. Somebody get on the floor. It won’t make any sense. And time. I am winded. 7 minutes and 45 seconds. I will say that took way longer than it should have. Just making beds like 3 minutes. That’s obnoxious. But it’s done. So that’s a win. Unless I said seven. Did I say seven? Oh god. If I said seven. I don’t remember what you said. Beep. Emily just checked. I said 6 minutes. ADHD time blindness is a re real thing apparently. What the failed? How gross is the inside of your car? Mine’s not too bad, actually, but I do procrastinate cleaning it out. There’s like juice and spilled things and coffee. How long do you think it’s going to take to clean out the inside of your car? Like clean it, wipe it. I would normally say 15 minutes, but again, we’re testing Parkinson’s law, so 7 minutes. No, five minutes. Let’s see. Start with trash. Start with trash. Why you got so much garbage in here? A little mini skateboard. Cuz of course there is way more trash than I thought. Looking pretty good. It’s clean. Almost. Eat it, girl. And time. Four minutes. Winning at life. That feels good. I feel like Why do I wait to do things like this? 4 minutes to clean the car. Congratulations on your big win today, which was accomplishing something that you’ve been procrastinating in way less time. Let me know in the comments below what you got done. And literally the moral of the story for this video is it takes less time than you think. Thanks for playing. How long does this actually take? Join us next time for your chance to win a clean and tidy home. Thank you guys so much. For those of you who have stayed to the end, you know what? One of my favorite things to do is it’s listening to like crime stories while people do regular things like get ready or put on their makeup. And so I thought it would be so fun, like I love true crime, to do a true crime video called clutter horror stories. I am sharing horrible things that I found in my own home and other people and with clients and some weird stuff from the internet. It’s going to be awesome. Just in time for Halloween. I would love to know your clutter horror stories, too. So, make sure you put them in the comments below. Please don’t make them like sad though and graphic with like dismemberment. Just like keep it light and fluffy. Keep it light and fluffy, friends. All right. I’m excited. You’re excited.