Cleaning Doesn’t Have To Take All Day — Try These House Cleaning Shortcuts
You walk through your front door after a long day of endless meetings, children fighting with their siblings, and sprawling traffic jams.
Then you spot the muddy sneakers under the foyer table and the clothes hanging over the upstairs banister. You sigh and mumble about how you really need to clean this house. There are three days' worth of dishes in the sink, a load in the washer that needs to be washed for the third time because you keep forgetting about it, and layers of soap gunk on the bathroom sink.
But the idea of spending an entire day cleaning makes you break out into a cold sweat.
We’ve all been there — overworked, stressed, and overwhelmed. In this article, we’ll give you some practical tips on how to keep the most commonly used areas in your house clean with little effort.
Keep reading to explore the 80/20 method and 10 easy house cleaning shortcuts to prevent the overwhelm of keeping a clean home.
What Is the 80/20 Rule for House Cleaning?
The Pareto Principle, aka the 80/20 rule, explains that it should only take about 20% of cleaning effort to achieve 80% of a visually clean home — meaning that cleaning doesn’t have to take all day to yield great results. Small efforts focused on high-traveled areas can create a big impact and impression.
Using a reputable cleaning company like Tidy Up Portland! for your maintenance cleaning means you only need to focus on those high-impact areas between cleans.
10 House Cleaning Shortcuts That Leave Big Results
To keep up with those high-impact areas, there are a few cleaning essentials every home should have:
Multipurpose cleaner
Microfiber clothes
Broom and dust pan
Swiffer style wet/dry mops
#1: Make Your Bed Daily
Make your bed as soon as you get out of it. Not only is it a good habit to start your day with, it’s also something you can say you’ve accomplished in your day, even if it feels like you got nothing done. Making the bed often leads people to complete other cleaning tasks throughout their day because it can increase motivation to keep cleaning.
#2: Wipe Down Countertops Every Day
Clearing and wiping down your counters every night with an appropriate cleanser can keep your bathroom and kitchen healthy by eliminating sickness-causing germs. Walking into a clean kitchen or bathroom first thing in the morning is a good feeling. You’re not immediately looking at all the things littering your counter and telling yourself that you should have cleaned that by now — because you already have!
#3: Split Up Overwhelming or Time-Consuming Tasks
Some people find the idea of cleaning all the floors or tackling all the laundry steps at once to be incredibly overwhelming. If that’s the case, then break up those tasks into smaller chunks. If the idea of cleaning all the floors in one night seems too difficult, then vacuum the floors before bed and sweep/mop after you wake up.
It’s encouraged to break up the big tasks into smaller ones so they still get done instead of looming because they’re too overwhelming.
#4: Speed Clean Your Bathroom
Quick cleans are still effective in keeping the overall look of your bathroom clean.. Do a quick tidy of your sink area, and spray your sink, tub, and outside of the toilet. Let that sit while you do a fast clean of the toilet bowl with your favorite cleaner and brush. Then wipe down the sink, tub, and outside of the toilet. It’s quick and simple.
#5: “Close Down” Your Kitchen Every Night
Before bed, do a quick wipe down of the counters and deal with the dishes in the sink; either wash them or put them in the dishwasher — making sure to actually start the dishwasher. Many newer model dishwashers have a half-load setting designed for daily use. Sweeping, mopping, or vacuuming the floors after dinner can make a big difference in the overall cleanliness of the room by picking up any dropped food items, which can help prevent rodents and insects.
#6: Tidy Rooms Regularly
There’s always a sense of relief when you can see the floor of a room for the first time in a while, right? To keep that feeling and the room looking cleaner, you’ll need to deal with the clutter regularly. Put away toys, pick the clothes up off the floor, and put the shoes — preferably a complete pair — where they belong. Once you can see the floor, maintain it with a regular vacuum or sweep.
#7: Don’t Let Laundry Pile Up
If your laundry baskets are constantly overflowing with dirty laundry, or there are piles of clean laundry all over the place waiting to be folded, it might be time to consider the “One Load A Day” (OLAD) rule. This is a popular laundry method where you wash, dry, fold, and put away a single load a day. It’ll help to prevent the overflowing basket of dirty — and possibly smelly — laundry from taking over your bedroom.
If you find that this method doesn’t work for you, it’s important that you find a system that does.
#8: Lightly Clean Floors Often
Keeping the floors clean — particularly in places with a lot of foot traffic — will help prevent the day's dirt and debris from being tracked all over the house. It can be as simple as a quick vacuum, a Swiffer sweeper, or a wet mop. Picking up all the muck tracked in every night makes a huge difference in how your home looks and feels.
#9: Take Out the Trash Daily
The sight and stink of an overflowing trash can add to the grime of a dirty home. Don’t let your trash can get out of hand. Take it out every day, especially if it’s in plain sight. Don’t let it overflow, and if possible, find an out-of-the-way place for your trash bin to live — preferably somewhere out of sight and less likely to draw the attention of visitors.
#10: Perform an Evening Reset
Before heading to bed, do an evening reset every night. Similar to a kitchen close-down, spend a few minutes tidying the high-traffic and common areas in your home.
Put the pillows back on the couch
Push in the dining room chairs
Close any open cabinets
Make sure your counters and table tops are clear
Everything is in the right place
Put the toys away — kids, pets, and spouses
Fold the couch blankets
Turn off all the lights your family left on — again!
Tidy Up Portland! Offers Regular Maintenance Cleaning Services To Help You Stay on Top of a Clean Home
Tidy Up Portland! can help keep the cleaning stress at bay. We offer regular maintenance cleanings that handle the heavy cleaning work while you take care of the quick and easy stuff between visits.
We also offer a deep cleaning service to get your house spick and span, along with our Tidy Up package as an add-on to the maintenance package for busy and chaotic families always on the run.
