Search

The 14 day tidy home challenge – get your home clean & clutter free in a fortnight

If your house needs some serious cleaning and organising the 14 Day Tidy Home Challenge will give you inspiration to tackle the mess. You only do a small task every day, and eventually it adds up to a whole home refresh after the fortnight is up. Here's the challenge, day-by-day...

Some items have been gifted

After an eager start in January with a KonMari wardrobe clear-out, my plans to get my home in order kind of fell by the wayside as the month sped by. So I decided to get my life together in February instead – I mean, it doesn’t have to be the new year to begin a challenge, does it?

Photo of a tin being put into a recycling bin

My house needs some serious cleaning and organising so I’ve turned to the 14 Days to a Tidy Home Challenge to give me inspiration to tackle the mess. I particularly liked the idea of the challenge because you only have to do a small task every day, and eventually it’ll add up to a whole home refresh after the fortnight is up. I may come across a bit geeky, but that seems rather exciting to me! Here’s the challenge, day by day:

14 DAY TIDY HOME CHALLENGE

Day 1: Bins and recycling: sort through all the bins in your house and get your recycling separated. 
Day 2: Wipe down your kitchen units and steam the cooker tops. 
Day 3: Empty and clean out the fridge freezer and the kitchen cupboards. 
Day 4: Vacuum Day: Focus on the floors, give all the rooms in your house a good vacuum. 
Day 5: Vacuum Day: Move the furniture and hoover those hard to reach areas of your home. 
Day 6: Clean the windows – inside and out! 
Day 7: Wash the curtains and wipe down the blinds. 
Day 8: Take everything off the sideboards and shelves, and get dusting! 
Day 9: Get your bedding, blankets and cushions washed – after all everyone loves fresh bedding! 
Day 10: Wardrobes: Clear out any old clothing, reorganise and wipe down your wardrobes. 
Day 11: Remove wrinkles from clothing, curtains and upholstery. 
Day 12: Wash out your shower, shower screen and/or bath. 
Day 13: Let’s mop: antibacterial your floors and wipe down the tiles. 
Day 14: Finally take a trip to the tip: Declutter your home from unwanted clothes, items or food and take it to the tip, food bank or local charity shop. 

photo of a steam cleaner cleaning a window

Day 1 was a great way to start the challenge, because I’ve just got my first proper recycling bin! We don’t really have much space for a bin in our kitchen, let alone a recycling bin, so our recyclables just stack up on the worktop until one of us is going outside and can move them to the blue wheelie bin. Talk about mess and clutter!

Photo of an empty plastic milk bottle being put into a recycling bin

I decided it was time to remedy this and choose a recycling bin from Vonhous that’s made to fit inside a kitchen cabinet. Where we’ve previously only had space for 22cm deep bin, we’ve now got a duo recycling and waste bin that fits the entire depth of the cupboard at 48cm. It can be pulled out on a runner to make it easy to empty and we’ve even been able to attach the existing cupboard door to the front of pull-out bin, to conceal it inside the cupboard. I feel like I’ve got a proper fitted kitchen now! Bins = sorted!

Photo of handheld steam cleaner scrubbing a hob with steam.

On both Days 2 and 3 I had the chance to try out the handheld steamer that VonHous had gifted to me as part of this challenge. It only takes a tiny amount of water to generate A LOT of sanitising steam with this unit (currently on offer at under £20). I used the compressed steam nozzle to blast crusted-on food and grease away from my hob and it came up looking like new. It was quite gross to realise just how much mess was clinging to the gas rings, ick! I also used the wiper attachment to sanitise the kitchen cupboards after emptying out all the spices, tins and jars we’ve accumulated on day 3 of the challenge. It surprised me just how many things were out of date and taking up valuable cupboard space!

photo of handheld vacuum sucking up spilled flour off a yellow rug

To be completely honest, I combined both vacuum days and rather than a general whole-house vacuum, followed by a moving-furniture vacuum, I did all the downstairs rooms on day 4 and the entire upstairs on day 5. Moving the sofa was an eye-opener – eww! Even though we’d cleaned under there when we took the Christmas tree less than a month ago, it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned for years. And that’s not the worst of it…

Photo of a handheld vacuum sucking up fluffy from under a sofa

In fact, it was the staircase that was the worst part of the vacuuming process. We still haven’t decorated our hallway so we tend to neglect the space and don’t really vacuum the wooden stairs often. With two very fluffy cats in the house, you can imagine just how much fur accumulates on the stairs after a week or so. But I just find it really difficult to vacuum the stairs with our heavy cylinder vacuum, so I avoid it at all costs. You can probably imagine how excited I therefore was to get a handheld vacuum from VonHaus so that I could clean the stairs properly. Now I can whizz over the stairs in minutes, danger-free! It’s also been really useful for cleaning the car, as it’s rechargeable and easy to manoeuvre into all the upholstery.

Photo of a window with smudges on the glass

Day 6 was a good one because I’ve just had the outside of the windows cleaned for the first time since I moved in (2 years, eek!) by a local window cleaner. So one half of the job is already done! I tackled the inside of the windows using the squeegee attachment on the handheld steam cleaner and now they’re sparkling! I noticed the cutest thing – along the living room window at ‘cat head’ height was a line of little dots where my cats have sat on the windowsill looking out at the garden and smudged their noses on the glass. Cute – but also rather messy!

Photo of a handheld steam cleaner being used to clean a window

So that’s where I’m at right now and I’m going to carry on the cleaning and tidying until the end of the 14 day challenge. I’ll be sure to let you know how I get on at the end! Will you join me? Let me know in the comments below if you plan to take part too 🙂

Some items in this blog post have been gifted to me and the pink links indicate a gifted product, affiliate link or information source. All thoughts and opinions in this post are based on my own experience and I am not responsible for your experience 🙂

Share your comments, tips and ideas...

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Share this article:

Cassie is a freelance writer with a Masters degree in Lifestyle Promotion Studies and is trained in Personal Money Management. She loves to ‘get the look for less’ so regularly shares thrifty-living advice, DIY interior design ideas and low-cost recipes on her blog.

Take care and stay safe...

 

Please take care, stay safe and use common sense when following the advice, projects, recipes or ideas from Cassiefairy.com.

Your use of any information or materials on this website is entirely at your own risk – so please stay safe!

New to the blog?

Popular posts

More about Cassie

Latest posts

Take care and stay safe...

Please take care, stay safe and use common sense when following the advice, projects, recipes or ideas from Cassiefairy.com.

Your use of any information or materials on this website is entirely at your own risk – so please stay safe!

CHECK OUT THE fREE

Resources Library

Download free money-saving
checklists, budget planners + ebooks to inspire & motivate you!

+ Top Thrifty Tips Newsletter

A round-up of money-saving
articles & seasonal tips

GDPR Cookie Consent with Real Cookie Banner