Speed Cleaning: 5 Tips For Fast Home Cleaning
I have always been very open about the fact that I am a perfectionist. I’m so Type-A that it isn’t even funny. Cleaning has been one of the areas in my life where my perfectionism really comes out. I used to spend hours and hours cleaning the house every week. The fact is though that I’m a very busy work at home mom now, and I don’t have the time for keeping the house spotless. Still the perfectionist in me goes a little batty seeing it getting messy and dirty. I had to find a balance. For over a year I have worked on finding a system that works, and it is working quite well for me right now. To help the rest of you busy moms out here are my best speed cleaning tips for keeping your home clean without wasting time.
Speed Cleaning Tips
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- Keep the messes to a minimum. If you work on picking up the clutter in your home every day than it not only will look better, but you’ll greatly reduce your cleaning time allowing you to speed through your cleaning tasks. Jason used to leave messes everywhere and I wasted a ton of time picking them up so I could find the desk, or the floor, so that I could clean it. Now that I don’t have those messes around my cleaning goes so much faster.
- Just worry about getting the surfaces that you can see. On the other hand I’ve learned not to pick up everything to vacuum or dust. If you pick it all up speed cleaning is an impossibility. I used to move every chair in the kitchen before I’d vacuum. I can’t imagine how long it would take me to clean if I tried to move the organized piles of Nick’s toys! I also no longer worry about dusting every chair leg or all of the baseboards. Getting the surfaces gives the illusion that everything is 100% clean even if you missed some spots.
- Some areas of your home should be cleaned every day. We have to face the fact that some areas of our homes get really dirty. I think the worst area in mine is in the kitchen. The floor fills up with crumbs and other things that get tracked in while the counters get covered in, well, everything. I’ve learned that if I sweep the floor and wipe the counters down every night that the messes don’t build up so bad and it takes far less time to clean them as a whole. Plus then they are always looking nice! I also wipe down part of the shower every day while I’m in it. Now I don’t have to waste a ton of time every week scrubbing off soap scum. What a relief that is.
- Keep control of the laundry. I don’t know what it is, but laundry can quickly get out of control which not only causes problems with missing clothes, but it causes messes as well. When you put the laundry off you end up with a big load, and that load often just sits around waiting to get put away. If you do about a load of laundry a day it’s easier to get it all put away when the load is done. Plus it’s nice to have the clothes you want clean and ready to go.
- Condense cleaning supplies. Speed cleaning can’t really happen if you’re spending a lot of time changing the cleaning products you’re using.. Now there are some things that do require different supplies (once a month my kitchen sink needs a good cleaning with scouring powder), but you’ll be a lot faster if you use just one thing. My new favorite cleaning supply is Windex. I grab some old rags and off I go. It cleans, shines, and disinfects.
More Speed Cleaning Tips
Would you like even more tips on speed cleaning that will help keep your home clean and organized without spending a ton of time on it? If so than check out these great blog posts!
- Clean Your Kitchen in 15 Minutes or Less
- Speed Clean Your Bedroom in 15 Minutes
- How to Organize & De-clutter Your Closet in One Minute a Day
- Speed Clean Your Bathroom in 15 Minutes
- How to De-Clutter Your Home in Just 15 Minutes
What are your best speed cleaning tips?
I like this concept of speed cleaning – as it’s the only type of cleaning I’m willing to do 🙂 Great tips.
I used to do such deep cleaning, and man is that time consuming. It really is a bit of an overkill to clean that much, but my with my OCD it took me a long time to truly realize that! :-p I’m glad you found the tips helpful.
Great tips of yours to make the cleaning time short and fast. Thank you for sharing even though I can’t really minimize the messes because of my kids, I will try the other tips that you include. By the way thank you also for the links to some of cleaning tips article.
i like the bathroom one. Good job.
Great tips! With three kids, my house QUICKLY gets away from me! I’m trying to be better about having the kids help clean up, but that can be a battle and a half. If we just kept up with it better like you suggest, it wouldn’t be so overwhelming.
Great tips! I let go of having a clean house a long time ago. Dust and smudges don’t bother me. Clutter on the other hand sends me over the edge! Thanks for sharing via Family Fun Friday.
Really great ideas here – the faster I can get things clean – the faster I can get back to things that are MUCH more enjoyable. 🙂
Great tips! My favorite cleaning strategy is to do just a little each day. I keep a little scrubber filled with a vinegar/dish soap mixture in my shower and clean off one part of the shower every day or so, and it never gets too out of control. Thanks for the ideas, I’ll be pinning this post!
These are great! These are perfect reminders for small spaces as well.
Thanks for sharing!
Cleaning house is the worst chore for me; and I don’t even have children to contend with! I do have pets though & I’m guessing they’re almost as messy (sometimes worse I’m sure).
I like your ideas a lot; I do my best to keep the counter-clutter to a minimum because that’s where everything seems to end up by the end of the day. Condensing supplies would probably make sense too; if I don’t use them, what good are they doing me sitting in the cupboard!
Thanks for some great tips here; stopping by from SITS Sharefest.
Laundry is my nemesis for sure. I love the idea of ‘bundling’ cleaners. We use vinegar/water for almost everything.
Thanks for linking up with The Thoughtful Spot!
Heaven knows I need all the speed cleaning tips I can get! Thank you!
I finally just gave up and asked for a house cleaner for my anniversary gift! But I think I just need a kickstart…then I’ll use your tips to keep it where it needs to be! Thanks.
These are great! I am a TERRIBLE house cleaner. Well. I’m awesome at cleaning but terrible at keeping things clean. Thanks for sharing!