Keeping my house clean shouldn't be so hard. There are only three of us and I do work from home so you would think I'd do a better job keeping our home spotless. Right?

The reality is though that cleaning always falls to the bottom of my to-do list. When there's work to be done, posts to be written, a project to photograph... I tell myself I can get to the cleaning 'tomorrow'.

Do you do the same?

But I've found a trick that helps me get the house cleaned up in no time. Like, literally, in five minute spurts.

See the messy living room above? Chloe decided to build a fort the other day and naturally she had to bring all her stuffed toys into that fort. They're sitting on the armchair waiting to be brought back up to her room. There is Lego on and under the coffee table, throw pillows that need to be zhushed, and a stack of books and magazines I've been meaning to read piled up on the dresser.

When I feel I just can't take the mess anymore, I step away from my work and set the alarm on my phone for 5 minutes. Then I run like around like a mad woman cleaning up. Loose papers get tossed in the recycling. Toys go downstairs. Toys go upstairs. Magazines get put away. Clothes get hung back in the closet. And when the alarm goes off, I go back to work.

I find all it takes is 5 minutes to tackle any one room in the house. I do this clean up 3 to 4 times a week, and before you know it, the house doesn't look like a neglected dusty mess anymore.

How do you keep a clean house? When I was younger, we'd save all our chores for the weekend. It would take all morning! I find this way a bit more manageable.