Quick-Clean Your Home One Step at a Time
June 16, 2006
There are some stress free ways to clean your home and organize it effectively with ease, in just a few minutes a day. The most important thing to remember is to take things at one step at a time, don’t overwhelm yourself. The quickest way to getting your home in tip top shape is to understand that you need to have LESS stuff in your home, in this case less is more!
Step 1
Declutter:Â Try decluttering each room of your home for 15 minutes per day, if you feel that you are making great progress in one room and don’t want to stop after 15 mininutes, keep going for another 15 minutes, the trick is not to overdo it. Try listening to some energetic music to get you motivated, if you don’t feel like cleaning.
Step 2
The next day wipe down flat surfaces, like counters, cabinets and TV screens, spot vacuum and clean anything that looks as though it needs urgent attention, tackle one room at a time. If you feel motivated enough, tackle a second but remember not to over do it or overwhelm yourself.
Step 3
After you have done the cleaning and decluttering, try spending 15 minutes in each room deeper cleaning, like vacuuming thoroughly, dusting and getting rid of cobwebs.
Room by room steps for getting your home clean and keeping it that way!
So the question is where to begin first? Well the best place to begin, contrary to most beliefs is NOT in the kitchen!
Begin in the laundry. Go through the whole house collecting any clothes that need washing and take them to the laundry. Don’t throw them in the laundry. Instead pile them up outside the laundry door into piles like lights, whites, colors, darks, and towels.
Clean out the laundry, getting rid of old boxes and containers. Clean the tops of the washer and drier and any shelves. Finish by sweeping the floor.
Now, you can begin the laundry, doing one load at a time. Wash, dry then fold and put away in closets or draws right away.
Now the living room: Make sure you declutter, throw out old magazines and newspapers, and put kids toys where they belong - in their bedrooms. The same goes for the big kids. Anything that doesn’t belong in that room, put in a pile and send it to where it goes. Wipe down furniture, and look around if there is anything that needs urgent attention, see to it. Otherwise move on to the next room.
The third room is - no not the kitchen yet! The master bedroom, once again de-clutter, and put things into piles that don’t belong or need to be thrown out. Clean surfaces like dresser tops and dust down places like the headboards, take the bedding and put it in the washer along with curtains, wipe down window sills and wash windows, begin to declutter your clothes. If you haven’t worn it for 3 months chances are you won’t! So throw it or donate it! Fold the remaining clothes and re-make the beds.
Finally it’s time to begin in the kitchen, put away any clean dishes that are either on the sink or in the dish washer, you will need this space for dirty dishes. Pick a countertop and begin de-cluttering it bit by bit, put papers in a pile to be sorted and things that don’t belong in the kitchen in another pile. Put dishes in the sink or dishwasher and continue cleaning the countertops until there is nothing left on them. Give all the counters a thorough and give a thorough scrubbing.
Put only the things that belong on the counter back onto the counter. Wash the dishes and dry them then put them away, then scrub down the sink so it looks clean and fresh. Wash windows and sills. Put any appliances that don’t need to be on the counter into the cupboards. Then, wipe down the faces of the cupboards, stove and fridge, don’t worry about the insides of these yet, sweep the floor and then mop.
The dining room can be an ideal place for papers to accumulate. Sort all papers and put them away where they belong. Then, dust or wipe all surfaces and wash light fixtures. Check for cobwebs, sweep floors then on to the next room.
Bathrooms can be tidied easily by decluttering and organizing all the top surfaces and wiping them down. The same with the toilet. Scrub toilet bowl with a good cleaning product. Use a cleaner to remove soap scum from the bath or shower, sweep floor and mop, finish off by washing windows and mirrors.
Begin decluttering the linen closets in the house, sort out what you want and throw away, or donate those you don’t need, fold the rest neatly into piles in the appropriate place.
The office can be a potential nightmare as that is where most papers end up. Start by decluttering and then sort papers and put them away, only do a little at a time as you may feel overwhelmed if you take on the task all in one hit, remember the 15 minute technique!
Once you have decluttered your home you can spend 15 minutes a day in each room doing maintenance and tackling other jobs like cleaning out the insides of stoves, fridges and cupboards and getting under beds etc, remember 15 minutes a day in each room every day, is all you need.
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