Whether you’re gearing up to tackle a deep spring cleaning, or you’re just ready to do some solid organizing and get your place in order once and for all, you’re definitely going to be happy to have some time-saving house cleaning tips.
Spring cleaning (and even sometimes simple daily cleaning) can feel overwhelming and you might not know where to start.
Take a deep breath and remember: whether you take it one room at a time or one item from each room at a time, you’ll get it all done eventually.
But there’s still something to be said for knowing how to clean a house fast and easy. We all want our time back and we all hate playing the “keep your house clean game” each week, so it’s time we got some solid, tried-and-true house cleaning secrets into our heads to make this process much less painful!
How To Clean A House Fast And Properly
Sure, you may run across some little bits that people call “home tips and tricks,” but not all of them are sound.
The way you clean your bathroom, for example, is not necessarily the same sort of way you’ll clean anywhere else in your house. Partly because of the surfaces present, partly because of how thorough the clean needs to be on a regular basis, and partly because not every room in your house is called a bathroom for a reason!
You also need to remember that it doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to professionally clean a bathroom, because so long as you do a fairly thorough job and do it often, you’ll be just fine!
So when it comes to getting your cleaning methods down and getting things done as quickly as humanly possible, here’s the biggest piece of advice I can give you: have a killer, thorough cleaning house checklist.
You don’t necessarily have to go scouring the internet for a list of professional housekeeping tips as if you’re about to start a business based on your cleaning skills, but you do need to have an easy way to keep track of everything that YOU want to be cleaned, how often, and maybe even a little note as to how to clean it if that’s useful.
Take that checklist and make it your own depending on your needs. All you have to then to know how to keep a house clean: schedule it. That’s really all that it takes as far as secrets to keeping a clean house!
How To Keep Your House Clean And Tidy
If you want to know how to clean house fast and easy, then you’ll want to build your checklist based on the house cleaning tips below.
I’ve got general tips, and the rest split up by room to make it even easier to find what you need!
Bedroom Cleaning Hacks Mattress Cleaning Hack
Found on Mom 4 Real
When you think of cleaning your master bedroom or any other bedroom in your house, most people never really think of the mattress.
Week after week, you wash the sheets to the beds in your home. But what about what’s under all of those mattress pads? Cleaning your mattress doesn’t need to be completed each week, but you need to at least add it to your spring cleaning schedule.
Even a simple, periodic hand-vacuuming does wonders, but giving it a coat of baking soda to sit and help absorb any odors first is an even better idea!
Wash Feather Pillows
Did you know that you can (and really should) be washing your pillows at least twice a year, if not more like every couple of months? Even feather pillows can be washed in the washing machine, just make sure there are only two at a time at most and that it’s well-balanced.
Use white vinegar or hydrogen peroxide to clean and disinfect them, by putting it straight into the bleach dispenser on your washer.
Free Yourself From Fido Smell
We love our dog, and he often sleeps in our room, but sometimes he just plain smells. He is a dog, after all!
A sprinkling of baking soda on his dog bed, left to sit and absorb smells for 15-30 minutes and vacuumed up, does wonders for freshening the whole room!
Set Up Daily Cleaning Systems
There are a few things we like to do to help keep our bedroom cleaner on the regular, so that a deep clean is much faster:
Keep a hamper in your room. Some people prefer just laundry sorters in the laundry room, but we like to make sure to keep dirty clothes off the floor so nothing piles up. Make the bed every morning. You don’t have to put all the throw pillows back on every day (so long as you’ve got a good spot to store them that isn’t the floor), but at least pulling the blankets up and smoothing them out is enough to help make the room seem so much Keep flat surfaces free of clutter. Make use of nightstand drawers to store any extra watches, phone charging cables, a small piggy bank (to avoid loose change on a dresser) so that the top stays clean. The more you let your dressers and nightstands become “drop zones,” the longer it will take to clean and declutter them later.
Bathroom Cleaning Tips Toilet Cleaning Hack
Found on Ask Anna
The bathroom is one of the most commonly used rooms in the home.
When house cleaning your toilet, you need to do more than just clean the bowl. Pop off the back clips to have access to the screws. Unscrew the toilet seat and soak the back of the toilet. Spray the entire toilet and make sure you use a small tool to get access to any small area that needs cleaning.
Make Storage Your Cleaning Best Friend
Store items in dedicated canisters or containers, rather than store packaging. It not only looks tidier but if you choose items with lids you’ll make cleaning so much faster!
If you have a linen closet or smaller storage or medicine cabinet in your bathroom, make good use of keeping as much INSIDE the cabinet as you can.
The less stuff you have on your vanity top, the less there is to move (and clean) come cleaning time!
Renew Grimy Grout
Use a mixture of 1 gallon of hot water + 3/4 cup bleach and scrub your grout with a stiff brush. Let it sit a little while and rinse well with water.
Keep Things Sanitary With Routine
There are two parts to this tip:
Make it a daily habit to give your bathroom counters, mirrors, and fixtures a quick wipe-down with at least a wet microfiber cloth (to keep bacteria and dust build-up at bay). Keep your bathroom cleaning routine consistent every time, working left to right and top to bottom (for example), starting with the shower and ending with the toilet bowl to avoid any risk of cross-contamination.
Kitchen Cleaning Tips Oven Cleaning Hack
Found on Craptastical
We use our stovetop and oven almost daily, as do most households. It goes through a lot day in and day out. I do not know about your oven, but ours always seems to have spills on the bottom.
A simple baking soda paste scrubbed on with a stiff brush does a great job at getting the grease and grime off so you can avoid smoking the house by preheating the leftover crud!
Soak any removable parts (grates, drip pans) in hot soapy water while you work on the rest of the kitchen to make cleaning those a breeze!
De-Stink the Disposal
How often do you think about cleaning your sink disposal? Probably rarely, if you’re like most people. Either put chunks of cut lemon or just the rinds in the disposal, and run it with cold water to help clean it and remove any gross smells.
De-grease Cabinets
Many people totally forget to clean the faces of their kitchen cabinets.
I think we fall for the “if it’s vertical it won’t get too dirty” trap most of the time. But especially over the stop and around the sink, grease, steam, and drips can quickly and easily build up some grime on your cabinet doors.
Use diluted vinegar or diluted dish soap to give your kitchen a wash and leave it truly squeaky clean!
Clean Your Coffee Maker
Another spot that most people forget, but maybe one of the more important things in the kitchen to clean.
After you’ve had your morning coffee to get you pumped up to do some serious cleaning, add a few tablespoons of white vinegar to the water reservoir and run it until that’s empty.
You’ll help remove any bacteria and grimy film that might be building up in the hidden parts!
Family Room / Kids Play Room / Home Office Cleaning Tips Organizing The Office
Found on Mom Fabulous
The office is my favorite house cleaning and organizing room to get decluttered.
At least once per year (but monthly will keep you better on top of things), shred any statements from the previous year you will not need to keep track of anymore.
In the above picture, I love how simplified everything is and that there is a place for everything. Definitely make sure that you have a place for everything so you have no excuse for papers and clutter to pile up!
Make Use Of “Dump” Bins for Kids Toys
If you have to pick up toys and put them carefully back into specific storage cases, you’re going to pull your hair out before all the little parts are put away.
The more open, generic bins of toys you have the better. Even if all the Legos go in one bin and all the cars in another, that’s still better than trying to keep building sets separate or storing cars in special cases with single-car slots.
The more toys you can clean up at once with a generic, scooped handful, the better!
Use A Blanket Basket
If there’s one thing that never seems to happen in our house, it’s putting blankets away when we’re done lounging on the couch after a movie on a lazy weekend night.
One thing that makes it so much easier to get the room put back together again is having easy storage baskets.
Having one basket to toss magazines into and/or a basket to toss loosely folded blankets in makes for a super-fast drop-and-go style pickup, so we can get on to other things!
Laundry / Mud / Utility Rooms Cleaning Hacks Periodic Dryer Lint Cleaning
Found on The Spruce
Dryer fires happen more often than you think. Properly cleaning out built-up lint in hard to reach places is crucial to keeping your family safe.
Following the instructions found on The Spruce or watching a YouTube tutorial is a must this spring. There’s an added benefit to keeping a more regularly lint-free dryer: you’ll have less dust to circulate back your home, so you can dust the furniture less often!
Deodorize Shoes
Most people don’t think about cleaning their shoes too often, because, well, they’re just going to get dirty again the next time you wear them! But even taking the few minutes required to sprinkle baking soda into some stinky sneakers will help you with keeping house clean even working full time, because you’ll eliminate smells that can linger and possibly absorb into other nearby fabrics.
I mean, what good is getting your house spotlessly clean if it still smells like dirty sneakers anyway?!
General Cleaning Tips Polish Wood Floors To Shine Again
Found on Pins and Procrastination
If you are like us and you do not use your dining room very often, then you will not have much to clean. Having a clean and polished hardwood floor can be hard to keep up with.
There are a lot of different floor cleaners on the market. Make sure you are using the right one for your floors.
Use An All-Purpose Cleaner
You can get lost finding a unique cleaner for just about every inch of anything without your home. But there are honestly so many things that you can clean with one good multi-purpose/multi-surface cleaner, from the kitchen to the bathrooms to the windows to the floors. You can find some good recipes for homemade cleaners here.
Remove Marker Spots With Toothpaste
Yes, it’s true. The same thing you use to clean up your teeth with remove (most) market from wood surfaces. This is a relief to hear as a parent!
Quickly Pick Up Dog Hair
If you’re in a pinch to get the house clean because company is coming over (or maybe you just want to know how to clean a trashed house because it’s been neglected for a while), try this awesome hack: wash your dishes while wearing rubber gloves.
When the dishes are done, leave your wet gloves on and give your couch a quick rub over the cushions.
Any loose hair and dust will stick to them. Wash your gloved hands and carry on!
Work In Batches
Especially if you have kids and/or pets, you’ll want to make sure to batch your tasks as you clean, not just your rooms.
The reason for this is because in the time it takes you to polish up one room to magazine-clean, you’ll find that the room you just cleaned prior has most likely been torn apart and dirtied!
If you’re in a pinch to clean a house fast, batch your tasks like this:
Grab a laundry basket and toss in everything that needs to go “back to its home.” When the rest of your cleaning is done you can put them away (or stash the basket in a closet to put away later, if your company shows up early). Pick up any and all dirty laundry from floors, beds, etc, and put into hampers. Clean the bathrooms and kitchen. These are the two most used rooms in a home, and the easiest to identify as “gross” from a guest perspective! Dust the house. You want to work top to bottom, so this way any dust off the TV stand or crumbs off the counter that might fall here will settle on the floors to be vacuumed up. Vacuum the floors. This should just about be your “final polish” to the house because here you’d have a place that’s presentable for most every situation. Mop the floors, put away the “homeless” items from your laundry basket collection, and move on to the “extra” tasks if you have the time for it, such as giving window screens a vacuum and wiping a dryer sheet or microfiber cloth over baseboards to remove any dust that vacuuming may have missed.
BONUS: The Ultimate House Cleaning Checklist
Found on sheknows
This infographic from sheknows is incredible. It’s the perfect chart to refer to every time you get into the spring cleaning mood. Even better print it out and put it on your fridge! The more you stay up with cleaning the easier the task becomes.
Cleaning your house does not have to be overwhelming, it’s easier to keep up with if you do it regularly. If you like to go room by room this list should work perfectly for you. If you are more of an item by item person, that works too!
Get your spring cleaning started today, your family and home will appreciate it!
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The post 20+ Stupid Simple House Cleaning Tips To Make Every Room Sparkle appeared first on The Savvy Couple.
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