How To Speed Clean Your Home Like A Pro
You can speed clean your home. What is speed cleaning you ask? I would describe speed cleaning as tidying up your home quickly while accomplishing basic cleaning chores. No deep cleaning and no scrubbing.
After owning a residential and commercial cleaning business for nearly 2o years, I enjoy sharing easy tips and tricks we learned though experience.
Table of Contents
- Tools for Speed Cleaning
- Eliminate Interruption’s
- Where to start
- Clutter
- Trash
- Floors are last
- Kitchen Speed Cleaning
- Bathroom Speed Cleaning
- More House Cleaning Tips
- Recap
- Handy Cleaning Tools for the Home
Tools for Speed Cleaning
A substantial key factor to speed cleaning is to make fewer steps during the process. We must cut out all of that dreadful walking back and forth through the house to grab the tools we need. Although the exercise is great, the waste of time is not.
Cleaning Tray with handle stocked with cleaning supplies
- Cleaning tray with a handle
- Cleaning tray stocked with; duster, dusting cloth and furniture polish, paper towels for cleaning mirrors, window cleaner and a trash bag for emptying trash cans
I like the Swiffer duster because it captures the dust rather than moving it around.
You will also need
- An empty laundry basket to toss clutter into
- Sit the trash bag outside of the door of the room you are working in to keep it out of your way. Toss any trash you collect from each room. Empty the dust pan into it after you sweep.
Eliminate Interruption’s
- No answering the phone
- No texting
- No TV
- No conversations (when they try to talk to you, give them a cleaning task ~wink)
- No stopping to change loads in the laundry (this is house cleaning, not laundry day)
- No social media
- in other words absolutely NO INTERRUPTIONS
Where to start
Start at the front door of your home and go room by room from there leaving a neat and tidy house behind you.
- Tackle each room beginning on one side and working your way around the room back to where you began.
- Remember to keep your Speed Cleaning Kit right next to you along the way.
- Always start at the top and work your way down and around the room.
Clutter
There are a couple of different things you can do to deal with clutter on speed cleaning day.
- Drag a laundry basket along with you and toss all clutter into the basket. THEN, require everyone to fetch their possessions and put them away before they are allowed to eat again. (that seems harsh, doesn’t it!)
- Sit the clutter filled laundry basket in the laundry room and close the door.
- There is no magic cure for clutter. Best practice is to not let it happen. Use the laundry basket tip to containerize it all on speed cleaning day. Put that trash bag to good use too!
- Make the beds. Unmade beds make a room look messy and cluttered
- Straighten sofa throw pillows for a neater room
- Toss all pet toys into a bin like this one for neat storage
Trash
Trash management will be necessary so keep a large trash bag sitting just outside the door of the room you are working in. You will carry it from one room to the next to empty small trash cans into.
Be sure to keep small bags with you to refill the small cans as you empty them.
Floors are last
We are Speed Cleaning, not deep cleaning so no mopping but you simply must sweep and vacuum. Do the floor last after you finish all other chores in each room.
Do the floors last in each room as you work your way through the house. Begin at the far end of the room and work your way out backwards.
Also see; How To Keep Your Dish Cloth Stink and Stain Free
Kitchen Speed Cleaning
Speed cleaning the kitchen doesn’t go quite as quickly as bedrooms or the living room. Make a habit of always emptying and reloading the dishwasher before going to bed to save time in the morning.
Keep these disposable counter wipes on hand for quickly wiping down the kitchen.
- Unload and reload the dishwasher
- Anything that doesn’t go in the dishwasher needs to be hand washed and stacked to dry next to the sink
- Clear the counters of clutter
- Wipe down the counters
- Take out the trash
- Sweep or vacuum the floor last
Bathroom Speed Cleaning
How to clean this messy bathroom counter quickly
Most of the toiletries on the counter go in the cabinet under the sink. Always keep things in small bins or baskets, like these for storage. Just sit them back under the counter and wipe the counter clean.
Remember, we are speed cleaning so no scrubbing of the tub or sink. That doesn’t mean we aren’t going to clean them quickly though.
- Put away any clutter quickly. it’s not the time to ‘clean-out’
- Toss dirty towels into the laundry hamper
- Clean the toothpaste splatter off the mirror but don’t slow down to clean the whole mirror
- Wipe down the counter and inside of the sink using those disposable counter wipes mentioned above.
- My quick way to clean inside of the toilet bowl is this: Remove the lid from the tank, flush and when the water gets low, pour in a small amount of bleach. Allow the tank to refill then flush again. The bleach water will run down inside of the bowl and do the work for you. Allow it to sit for a bit then flush again. This is speed cleaning folks, not deep cleaning. You still need to properly clean the toilet when you have more time. Use those disposable wipes to wipe down the outside of the toilet.
- We are not cleaning the shower or tub today because we are speed cleaning our house so we can go do something fun
- Empty the trash
- Sweep or vacuum the floor
More House Cleaning Tips
- 15 Minute Floor Cleaning Tips
- Printable Spring Cleaning Checklist
- 20 Clever Uses For Vacuum Attachments
- How To Take The Drudgery Out of Spring Cleaning
- Kitchen Detail Cleaning Checklist & 12 Things in the Kitchen You Can Put in the Dishwasher
- How To Prepare For The Cleaning Lady
- Best Bathroom Cleaning Products Used By This Cleaning Lady
Recap
- Make less steps by carrying your speed cleaning tray with you from room to room.
- No interruptions!
- Begin near your front door and work your way back to the front door going room by room
- Move methodically around the room from top to bottom. Keep your speed cleaning kit next to you
- Carry a laundry basket along the way to collect clutter
- Keep a large trash bag right outside of the door of each room
- Do not deep clean the kitchen or bathrooms. Use those handy disposable wipes for quick cleaning
- Do the floors last
- When you are done, you can take that trash bag out. Put the cleaning tray away and enjoy your nice clean house!
Handy Cleaning Tools for the Home
- Rubbermaid Extendable Scrubber (my fav tool for scrubbing showers!)
- Scrub Free Soap Scum Remover
- Washable, Microfiber Cleaning Cloths
- Spin Mop and Bucket
- Bona Hardwood Floor Care System
- Bissell Bagless Vacuum
This is brilliant, as I believe you are as well.
I have bookmarked, shared and will begin process. ASAP! TY! #brillblogposts
Hi Shirley. Two Chicks and a Mom featured your helpful post at Snickerdoodle Link Party today. Hope you can visit again!
Great tips for a fast clean! I’d love for you to share over at Let’s Party! https://themarkandjanshow.com/2018/02/13/lets-party-8/ … we look forward to seeing you there!
I like this idea! The floors are the worst in my house. Everything else I can keep up with except them. Sharing on FB #MM
Kim
Sounds like a great plan – lots of really good ideas. So what time would you like to stop by hahahahaha! I like the idea of the basket to toss all the clutter in. When my kids were home, I would get so frustrated I would literally toss everything on the floor in their rooms in a big trash bag and give them one week to sort through it and put stuff away or it was going straight to Goodwill lol.