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These German Cleaning Methods are Genius

Minimalist Home

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These simple cleaning tips & cleaning routine creates a calmer home environment. Learn how to manage daily tasks from kitchen care to bedroom resets.

Managing a home does not require complex systems or endless scrubbing. By focusing on essential tasks like kitchen maintenance, bathroom upkeep, and effective ventilation, you can maintain a tidy home without the overwhelm. These habits, including proper laundry care and bedroom organization, keep the space functioning well for everyone living there.

Using my fave minimalist cleaning approaches help you spend less time maintaining your space and more time enjoying it. It is about consistency rather than perfection. Whether you are tackling a sink reset or just opening a window for fresh air, small actions compound into a more peaceful daily life. This home organization style prioritizes function and flow, making it easier to return to a settled state even after a busy day, which is why I stick to this cleaning routine.

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0:00 Uncovering the German Approach to Home Cleaning
1:06 The German Philosophy on Kitchen Maintenance
3:47 The Four-Product Minimalist Arsenal
7:14 The German Secret to Fresh Bedding
15:09 The Grueling History of the Great Wash

#minimalism #minimalisthome #tidyhouse

20 Comments

@Nithrade 6 hours ago (edited)

German here. All was very accurate, as far as I can tell. I do have some to add:

- Don't be idle when you have a minute of free time while cooking, but clean up everything you used for preparing the food and what you don't need anymore. This makes cleaning up after dinner a walk in the park.

- Hang your clothes rather wet and orderly on the drying rack and all shirts and stuff on hangers. -> No ironing necessary. Love this.

- Use reusable/washable cleaning rags, not paper towels.

All those things were taught to me by an older woman that still used a Wäschestampfer in the bathtub for bulkier washing. There was more, but I didn't adopt it. Hope someone found this useful.

@cdnmtbchick 4 hours ago

I grew up with a German mother. I don't make my bed first thing and it drives my husband crazy, but I am a hot sleeper and I want to air out the bed. Thank you for confirming my practice.

@ellenh278 7 hours ago

I live in St. Louis, Missouri. We have many German Americans and the neighborhoods they lived in were so tidy they spawned the term scrubby dutch. They routinely literally scrubbed their porches, front steps and sidewalks. Hands and knees scrubbing the walkways. You KNOW the kitchen floors were spotless. My dad's parents came from Germany and immigrated to one of these neighborhoods, so he grew up with these expectations. And I grew up with opening the windows several times a day. I was scolded by many a roomate and my husband during extreme weather for what it might do to the heating/cooling bill. But I just can't stand stale air. I understand why hospital windows don't open, but I think it would be nice for patients to get fresh air daily.

@ruthhinnenkamp6754 4 hours ago

I never make my bed right away. I always let it breathe after I get out - while I am eating breakfast!

@MargaretMcLaughlin-wf7tr 8 hours ago

I was taught to clean by Germans...and to this day, I scrub kitchen and bathroom floors with a deck scrubber and a floor cloth, pushing the cloth with the scrubber or using the brush directly for the sticky bits, and rinsing the cloth in the bucket as needed. It saves the knees.
And one of those cross-cultural cross-pollination moments: Years ago I shared laundry facilities with my downstairs neighbor, who had grown up in what was then East Germany. She was ironing her underwear. I started, and asked her what the (deleted) she was doing, and she stared back, and said, "You DON'T iron your underwear???" Subsequent research established that the practice of ironing underwear followed on from air-drying laundry inside in the wintertime, since one needs either high heat or sunlight to kill body lice, and they were a problem back in the day. Once we had that sorted she asked me why I was washing my sheets, since she knew I had washed them only a week ago.

@karimgomez6933 2 hours ago

Not German but I grew up doing those things. Clean stove while still hot. Like to put leftover in container and hand wash cooking pots immediately so can put them back on cooktop to dry and put them away. When making the bed, I take everything off. Only thing left is the mattress. Go take a shower, breakfast or whatever else for about 15-30 minutes then make the bed shaking sheets, bedspread, pillows. That is making the bed to me. Still “boiling “ tea towels in designated pot. Wash walls, back of pictures, window sills and vacuum window screens at least once a month. Open windows and doors not only good to ventilate the house but is good for people and pets, some sad energy 🤷🏼‍♀️Thanks for sharing.

@MaCookie7 7 hours ago

Your videos are so fun and informative. Thanks

@LadyDinadan 7 hours ago

Re: Waschtag: historically, it was normal in most Western culture to do 1 day as Wash Day. In Louisiana, there is a famous meal called red beans & rice, and it was traditionally made in Mondays because that was wash day. They'd take all the leftover meats and use them to season a pot of red beans simmering all day long, so they could focus on laundry.

In the Little House on the Prairie book series, she records her ma's laundry/chore routine. It was something like "Wash on Monday, Iron Tuesday..." which really hit home how much work laundry was, that it would take multiple days to do from start to finish.

@theresareed300 9 hours ago

Hello and good morning. Thank you for your sense of humor on a task that is not real humorous. Just found you on YouTube and I now have you locked in and I am subscribed.
PS I love your hair. I guess I have a little bit of hair envy.

Thank you and keep sharing, I’ll keep watching

@cheki22 2 hours ago

.... Love your channel!!! ....I smiled a lot and laughed in this episode!!! 😄 ... your pronunciation was mostly correct but always cute 😄 ....cheers from Germany 👋💕

@pamhopkins8339 1 hour ago

I'm still getting over your video about sponges😅 I have switched to cloth! I like the feel of them and am glad I made the change!

@quartkneek3670 1 hour ago

Almost all of these things are common to England and many other countries of Europe. Airing out rooms was common from a time before microbes were known/understood, when humors and vapors could ruin your health so one should open the window to let them dissipate. Older American homes built before A/C were designed around this principle and included transom windows above doors and ten+ foot tall ceilings so heat could rise up and away from people. Drying laundry in the living room or by the fire is also common in the UK as is scrubbing doorsteps or stone floored cottages.

@yelenayeli9529 4 hours ago (edited)

I’m from The Netherlands and it seems we do a lot the same as our neighbours, the Germans😊
As for luften, in The Netherlands there is often ventilation openings in the windows. I also don’t like stale air, so I ventilate a lot, mostly with the windows a bit open. All day and some in the night.
In the morning I open the duvet and lay it in a very neat way. All day the bed can ventilate and it looks good enough.
I dry my wash mostly in the attic where I have lines and a drying reck. I love it to hang the wet laundry. It makes me Zen😊

@caraslifeonthefarm 1 hour ago

Germans are SO clean, they eat raw minced pork! My BFF is a middle-aged German man. He's the best! Great video.

@jennyjenkins877 5 hours ago

Dish soap is such a great cleaner. I learned from my mom that spray cleaner isn't even necessary when you wipe away messes with your soapy dish cloth before they become spaghetti sauce cement. I do feel like a disinfectant is needed so I put a spray top on some 70% isopropyl/rubbing alcohol and use that on the bathroom mirror, counter, toilet, high touch areas, and some kitchen spills like egg or meat juice on the counter. I just use baking soda for abrasion and CLR instead of vinegar for hard water spots because it produces much more tolerable fumes. But that's it... I don't even buy toilet bowl cleaner anymore!

@monikadoe 6 hours ago

I love German cleaning tools -- the best brooms, scrub brushes, etc., are by Redecker. Their copper cloths clean pots and other surfaces without scratching, and their little table top sweeper and dust pan are so useful to keeping our dining table clean.

@LadyDinadan 8 hours ago

I'm glad you have Barkeeper's Friend as your "something abrasive" but it is actually a very strong cleaner containing oxalic acid and should not be used on any stone surfaces. Something like baking soda is a milder abrasive.

@ZooKeeper83 3 hours ago

❤I have a basket on each level of the house for cleaning supplies. I’ve been known to hand out rags & cleaners to family members to use up cleaners I bought on clearance but won’t ever buy again.

@s.h.741 4 hours ago

Weekly? Daily! The kitchen must be clean, down to the sink and the floor, before I go to bed. I was more relaxed when I was younger, but now I have turned into the German Hausfrau I used to laugh about.

When my grandmother married, c. 100 years ago, her mother gave her as a wedding present a wonderful book called 1000 Tips for the Perfect Housewife, and she gave it to me when I got married. The tips are mostly outdated (no need for the best method to clean a chamberpot or wash Brussels lace), but the spirit is the same: a place for everything, and everything back to its place. Waste not, want not. And cleanliness is godliness!

@LadyDinadan 8 hours ago

Re: moisture managment: it's nice, but not as essential in North America because we have central heat and AC which dehumidifies the air. However it's still good to let fresh air in :)