Nobody likes to clean their house – well, maybe one or two strange souls do – but most of us view house cleaning as a necessary evil. Fortunately, you can reduce the amount of time you spend cleaning each week with a little planning and forethought.
First, find a good solid apron, vest or similar piece of clothing so that you can keep all of your cleaning tools on your body while cleaning. This reduces the amount of time you spend tracking items down and keeps you “in the groove”. Keep your tools in the same spot on the apron so you are able to reach for a tool without looking or stopping to think where it is. Each tool or cleaner change will go just a bit faster and these small time savings adds up over the course of entire house cleaning. Plus, it allows you to mentally stay focused on the task at hand which will increase your cleaning effectiveness.
Related to this is keeping all of your cleaning supplies in one place when you are not using them. Spending ten minutes looking for the Windex before you actually begin to clean is not fun.
Second, clean from top to bottom. Dust and dirt falls to lower levels as you clean and wipe surfaces. If you don’t start at the top, you will simply be re-cleaning surfaces as the higher level debris falls onto them.
Third, only clean dirty surfaces. This seems obvious but how much time do you spend wiping down candle stick holders or similar items in an infrequently used room? Of course they need to be cleaned from periodically but from week to week there is very little change in their level of cleanliness. Focus your time on surfaces that are used frequently. In general, this means that vertical surfaces need less attention than horizontal ones.
Fourth, use the right product for the job. Switch tools if the cleaner or tool you are using isn’t getting the job done. Sure you might be able to “force” an under powered cleaner to do the job by rubbing harder and longer but this defeats the purpose of cleaning systematically since you are trying to work smarter and in a shorter period of time.
In fact, by having the apron, you encourage yourself to change tools or cleaners. Often people don’t want to switch cleaners since it would require effort to stop and journey across the house, find the needed product and walk back. If the needed cleaner is on your hip you won’t hesitate to switch and save time by staying on task and by shortening the task’s time by using the proper tool.
Finally, get in a routine. Always follow the same path when cleaning so that you develop habits and spend less time thinking about how to clean and more time “doing”.
Of course, you can always call in the pros at a cleaning service too! They can free up all of your cleaning time and do an excellent job as well. Following these simple tips can help you free up more of your time for pleasurable pursuits. And everybody likes that!