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Smart Ways to Clean

and To Get it Done Fast

by Maria Gracia Join our newsletter to be notified when the newest Organizing Article is available. Cleaning is one of the last things many of us want to do after a long day. Between working full-time and managing a family, it’s easy to see why maintaining a household gets placed on the back burner. However, if you let your cleaning go tooooo long, your household situation will get out-of-control! Instead of spending a few minutes cleaning each day, deep cleaning and serious organizing time will be required...and who wants that? Not me! And probably not you! To find time for cleaning, work SMARTER…not harder. Below are some tips to help you find time for cleaning...and to get it done fast! 1. Do a little bit each day: This is the number one rule of cleaning…do a little each day. While organizing and cleaning each day may sound boring, it really only requires about 20 minutes. For instance, tossing in one load of laundry a day will cut down the amount of time you would spend if you save it all for the weekend. 2. Clean at the same time: Pick the same time in the day to complete your daily chores, like right after dinner. If you regularly do the same tasks at the same time, getting those tasks done will become automatic. Plus, if you get your entire family involved (15-20 minutes of cleaning a particular area for each person), the job will get done a whole lot faster, and you’ll cover way more ground. 3. Cut corners: Cheat if you have to! For instance, your bathroom floors don’t need to be washed every week. Instead, wash them well one week. On week two, do a quick job by taking a wet rag and wiping in the corners of the room, around the toilet, and around the edges of the bathtub and sink. Alternate each week. Another example, instead of vacuuming every room in your home every single week, just vacuum the high traffic areas weekly...and the low traffic areas every two or three weeks. 4. Multi-Task: Multi-tasking is doing two or more things at once. For instance, during TV commercial breaks alone (about 5 minutes), you can: transfer a load of clothes from the washer to the dryer, make a bed, dust a room, vacuum a room, or load the dishwasher. Here’s another example...while a computer program or file is downloading, you could: clear off the top of your desk,  check voicemail, or file 10 papers. 5. Hire a service: Yes, it costs money to hire a cleaning service, but the cost may be well worth it to your family if everyone lives a super-busy lifestyle. Check around in your area and ask your neighbors for referrals. To keep costs at a minimum, have the cleaning service come every two weeks...and you can do some very light cleaning in between their visits if necessary. Back to Organizing Articles Index