Overwhelmed by cleaning? Our speed cleaning routine and checklist will show you how you can have a clean house in just minutes a day!
There are lots of reasons a clean house is important to me, but the biggest is probably simply that my brain works better when my house is clean. Over the years I’ve had lots of people ask how I keep things tidy most of the time. So–at the risk of having you all think I am completely crazy–I thought today I’d share my little “speed cleaning” routine. I probably spend, on average, about 45 minutes to an hour each morning making my house sparkle. This means I spend about 5-7 hours a week cleaning. That is still a significant amount of time!
However, to me it is well worth spending 5-7 hours a week cleaning in order to have a house that is pretty darn neat & tidy most of the time. The trick is staying on top of it.
I am a list kind-of girl, so I actually have a daily checklist that I use each day. It is located on my “control center” wall where I have a dry-erase monthly calendar and where there is also a spot for a weekly meal plan and important phone numbers. Since it is all in one place, I can easily check the calendar for any pressing activities or appointments. This helps me prioritize my cleaning activities and to cut things out or add things as necessary.
My “Control Center:”
I don’t use a wide variety of cleaning supplies, and I have never been that picky about brands. I used to use a lot of commercial products, including the disposable wipes, but I have slowly transitioned to using mainly homemade green cleaning products. They are cheaper, they smell better, and require me to keep far fewer bottles of stuff lying around! The two commercial items I do use frequently are my Swiffer Wet Jet and my Swiffer dusters. What a great invention! It makes mopping so much faster & easier.
Here is my speed cleaning system:
General Guidelines:
- Start at one end of the house. (I start in our Master Bedroom and work my way through the living room and kitchen to the girls’ room and bathroom.)
- Cleaning is much easier when everything has a home. Work on creating organized storage for all of the things that end up being scattered around the house, like papers, mail, shoes, & toys.
- Use a large laundry basket to collect items such as toys or clothing that need to be returned to a different room. If you have multiple offenders, use multiple baskets. After you have finished tidying every room, take 5 minutes to put away the collected items.
- Save sweeping/mopping and vacuuming until the end, then do it all at once. We have mostly hard surface floors, so I use an industrial dry mop to wipe the floors each day. It takes only a couple minutes to run it over all the floors and then shake it off outside. About once a week, I do a really thorough sweep and then use a Swiffer WetJet to mop. I vacuum the rugs about 3 times a week.
- Likewise, save the glass cleaning for the end as well. Once the house is completely clean, I will grab my windex and rag and run around doing spot checks on the glass doors and windows. I wipe the bathroom mirrors as well as the fixtures and sink.
- Keep daily shower cleaner in the bath/shower and spray down after each use.
- Store your toilet brush in a container of bleach; replace the bleach once a week.
Bedroom(s) (5-10 minutes each, depending on how much to pick up):
- Always make the bed. Even if there are other things laying around, the room will look much, much cleaner.
- Quickly pick up any clothes, toys, or dishes that are lying around.
- Use a duster or dry rag to quickly dust all surfaces, including the headboard and footboard.
Bathroom(s) (5 minutes each):
- Squirt toilet bowl cleaner around the rim; let sit.
- Use disinfectant wipes or a wet rag and disinfectant spray to quickly wipe down the sinks, tub, and shower.
- Use toilet brush to quickly scrub toilet, rim, and seat.
- Use disinfectant wipes or a wet rag and disinfectant spray to wipe down toilet seat & surrounding floor.
Living Room/Dining/Home Office Areas (10-15 minutes):
- Quickly pick up any shoes, dishes, toys, or other items laying around. (Put them in basket to put away later.)
- Use duster to quickly dust all surfaces.
- Use damp cloth to wipe down furniture (if leather), table(s), and dining chairs.
- Tidy desk area and make sure all paperwork & mail is filed & sorted in its proper spots.
Kitchen (10-15 minutes, depending on how many dishes):
- Quickly pick up any items that don’t belong in kitchen and place them in basket(s). Gather any dirty dishes and put them next to sink.
- Quickly unload (if necessary) then load diswasher.
- Hand wash dishes/pots/pans as needed
- Spray all counters with disinfectant spray, then use soapy water and wet sponge to wipe them all down.
- Wipe down stovetop.
- Dry and put away any hand-washed dishes, then drain and rinse sink–the secret to a truly clean-looking kitchen is clutter-free counters and a nice clean sink.
Finishing Up:
- Use a dry mop to clean hard floors. Spot clean with a sponge if necessary.
- Vacuum rugs/carpet.
- Clean glass surfaces & mirrors as needed with glass cleaner and a lint-free rag. Don’t forget to spray & wipe the bathroom fixtures for extra shine!
- Put away items collected in baskets while cleaning.
It may take a little getting used to, but once you are in the habit of speed cleaning each morning, you will be done in no time and free to enjoy a clean house for the rest of the day!
Happy cleaning!
PIN FOR LATER:
View Comments
The webcam is usually attached or built into the computer, which will limit its movement,
but you can create an interesting short film with only a
few subjects. Chat rooms, being powered by web applications, couldn’t support video chatting.
Physical attraction needs to become a reality, not just through the
webcam.
If you are considering purchasing a hidden nanny cam, take the time
to do a little research and determine the best one for
you. You might be early system may be check out with your chat with
room stands out as the at the start web-site they are offered
to help you. Noisy for the parents but hours of educational fun for the
child.
Thank you for sharing. I am going to try this with my kids by giving them each part of the list, so we can do it even faster together.
I have GOT to to this...for my health. I have had foot and knee surgery. I need a SAFE /clean /clutter free place. I can fall down, literally, if I do not get on track with this!
I agree that the homemade cleaning products are great. If you clean quite regularly they work out to be more economical and something they are not as harsh as the commercial products.
Your cleaning list is really helpful! The truth is that sometimes I forget certain nooks in the house, while cleaning and when I notice that I had forgotten these spots I am too exhausted to bring all the cleaners again! Thanks a lot for this article!
More than anything, I cant believe all the negative people commenting on here. It really does shock me. This is one blog. One view on how to quickly clean her house. Her house. It will work very well for a lot of people. It might not work for others. It is a guideline. So adjust where you need to or don't do it all. That choice is yours but please, please stop negatively commenting on other peoples blogs. Spend that time more wisely ... like thinking of other ways to keep your place clean since you disagree with this one. ;)
Great article, Ready Maids Cleaning Services in Dubai have a Special Services for you, you can visit our site : http://readymaids.ae
Love your tips. So you have the same routine everyday? How often do you vacuum rugs, and do you put the bleach in the container that holds the brush and why is that beneficial?
Ensure that you inform them that you'll want it on a sure day so that it is
possible for you to to get all that trash into the dumpster simply earlier than it piles up.
Ideally, you'll want to hire a dumpster if there
may be an excessive amount of for the native garbage truck to
choose up and sufficient for numerous journeys to the native dump.