Cleaning your home. If you get home from work or wake up early on the weekend with a smile on your face anticipating it, this post is definitely not for you. But if you’re like most of us, read on. We’ve put together five of our most effective strategies to take the chore out of cleaning.
Tidy as you go: The longer you wait, the bigger your cleanup will be, so don’t procrastinate. Get in the habit of cleaning as you go. Give your bathroom sink a quick rinse with soap and a sponge every night, after you wash your face and brush your teeth. Squeegee your shower tiles and curtain or glass door after you shower. Load the dishwasher after every meal instead of piling dishes in the sink. You may find doing these things an inconvenience at first, but it only takes a few seconds and once you get in the habit, it’ll save you from major cleaning later on.
Smartphone scheduling: Tidying as you go doesn’t work for everything of course. You probably don’t want to vacuum or clean your windows every day, and you’re still going to have to scour the kitchen and bathroom periodically. That’s okay. For big cleaning projects, schedule them on your smartphone. For instance, a half hour every Tuesday (or whenever), to run your vacuum, sweep and mop your floors. Or an hour every four months to wash your windows.
Divide and conquer: Sometimes what fills us with dread the most is the size of the cleaning task at hand. But who says you have to do it all at once? Choose a room like your bathroom and tackle that. If you feel inspired, tackle another one. If you don’t tackle the next room in a couple of days.
Streamline: Let’s face it, many of us hoard more knick-knacks than we need and the more we have, the more dusting and straightening out there is. Every time you clean a room, resolve to fill a box or trash bag with items you no longer use, then drop them off at your local community donation center.
Don’t do it alone: If you live with a spouse and/or children, everyone has a responsibility to keep your place clean. Make sure they do! If you live by yourself, assemble a cleaning club, three to five likeminded friends and have everyone tackle someone’s home once a month.
Some other useful housecleaning tips:
- Take off your shoes when you come home it’ll keep your floors cleaner longer
- Rather than piling them up, hang and fold clothes as soon as you take them off
- Wipe down surfaces and put away your cooking utensils while you’re cooking
- Use a portable vacuum to clean up crumbs on your sofa or hair on your bathroom floor while dinner is in the oven
How do you get motivated to clean your home? Please share your own tips and strategies in the Shop Talk Blog community forum!
Did you know: Cleaning is exercising
Cleaning isn’t just great for your home, it’s pretty good for your health too. Tidying up for 30 minutes, vacuuming for an hour, or washing your windows burns about 100 calories. (Source)
Thanks for the tips all were very sensible.
Interesting
Cleaning made easy
Yes all I do is clean and know how to clean
Tips for cleaning are always good.
No matter the size or type of laundry I do, I always dry on the lowest setting. Unless you’re overloading the dryer so the air doesn’t circulate, EVERYTHING comes out dry as it should. Saves a bunch on my electric bill. Now will someone call Patty Maid to come clean the rest of my house??? LOL!
Looking forward to try suggestions that I ve never tried I m sure I will like them I m sure I will enjoy all of them and they will be just what I need
I am anxious to try this I ve never tried this before
thanks when I get washer an dryer it will be awesome
I am going to try this. It may help
Music helps too.
I’m going to try some of this.
i get my stuff together in the morning,by putting on a fast song on the record player and run a 45 record o 78. it is great because you clean to the music, i do the record of when i was 15 and it sounds like todays music. thanks barbara gleason
Subject: Motivation to clean your home
Plan a party.
(Knowing family & friends will be at your home at a certain time and date is a good clean house end goal motivation.)
Know a professional will judge how well you keep your home.
Hire a house cleaner for a deep clean. (There’s a whole list of things they don’t do, so you’ll need to complete the declutter stuff before they come to your home. Get your stuff in order so they can do all those nooks and crannies you can’t reach.)
Have a goal.
Post a list of things to accomplish today on fridge. Too many? Downsize the list to 3 things to do each day. Or break a larger project into smaller steps.
Hold yourself accountable for projects.
Take before and after pictures
Join a support group.
Blog and learn how others do it. Maybe you really need to learn a better method. Or someone’s ideas will trigger an “Ah Ha” moment in you.
Reward Yourself.
By streamlining the everyday cleaning process you’ll have more time to enjoy yourself, family, friends and/or volunteer opportunities.
Stay safe and strong
Have a happy Life
Thank you for the advice……I’m retired and there are days when I don’t want to clean. So cleaning as you go is very helpful!
I have a coffee in the morning before I start cleaning house. And another 2 hours later. Love love coffee.
In our house, for the most part, if I don’t do it, it won’t get done, not to say that my husband doesn’t support the household, burn the papers, fix things that need it, and occasionally scrape dishes, load/unload the dishwasher, etc. Therefore, I feel that either I do it now, or I do it later, and try to keep up with things all the time, better a few minutes frequently, than a half hour, when I’d rather be doing something else.
Don’t let the wash pile up! Do 2 to 3 loads every week. Put a load in at night in the washing machine; in the morning before work or errands put load in dryer; when you come home in the afternoon or early evening take out of dryer and fold and put away. Do this 2 or 3 times a week and the loads are smaller, easier to handle and routinely get the clean clothes back in the closet and drawers without a lot of fuss and time.
I have a cleaning schedule to do 1 room each night and every “MONDAY” is for the “room” that I missed last week because of an event or something came up to catch up on that room. Then I vacuum, mop floors & clean counter each night.
I like this idea thank you