We’ve all been there, you have the best intentions to knock the house cleaning out of the park (and off your list). Then you spend hours going back and forth between rooms, getting distracted, and getting only a little bit done. At the end of the day, you look around, wondering what on earth you actually accomplished.

We have some suggestions to keep you cleaning efficiently so you can sit back and relax when you’re done with a sense of accomplishment and a clean house.

Pick a Room

Worst first is usually a good approach. Choose your starting place and bring everything you need to clean efficiently into that room. Running back and forth to grab tools and cleaning supplies as you need them wastes precious time. 

Declutter

Give the room a good once-through. Put garbage in the trash and put away items that belong in that room.

Anything that doesn’t belong in that room can go in a basket to be put away when you are finished. We’re cleaning efficiently here, so you aren’t going to waste time running items around the house.

Purge and donate anything you don’t need, which is just collecting dust. Cleaning is always easier when there is less stuff.

Use the right tools and products

Cleaning with ineffective products or tools is a huge waste of your time, requiring multiple passes to accomplish the task.

Increase your efficiency and save your energy and elbow grease by using; degreasing agents in the kitchen, products that remove soap scum and hard water build-up in bathrooms, and horsehair attachments on your vacuums for dusting.

Our cleaning caddy’s are always stocked with the right products for the job and save so much time.

Top-to-bottom, left-to-right

This is an incredibly efficient way to approach a room.

Starting at the highest point in the room and working your way down, from left to right, you will ensure that no spot gets missed in your cleaning and no time is wasted wandering around the room.

Vacuuming and mopping the floors on your way out of the room is always the last step.

Utilize music or timers

Sometimes, our brains can work against us. Distractions eat into our time and you can lose your cleaning flow.

If music or podcasts help you to focus while working, make sure to put on your favorite to keep yourself on task.

Setting a timer can also be helpful. Challenge yourself to work for 25 minutes before giving yourself a 5-minute break. It’s also helpful for future you to know that a task like emptying the dishwasher only takes 4 minutes, for example.

Lists

Having a list of rooms and cleaning tasks can help break things down into more manageable and efficient chunks.

Our Cleaning Guide breaks everything down for you room-by-room. Our hardcopy version (when in stock) is even wipeable, so you can check things off with a dry-erase or chalk marker as you go.

Rinse and repeat

Once a room is completed, shut the door, pat yourself on the back and move on to the next room to repeat these efficient steps. Before you know it, you will have made it through your whole home.

Cleaning efficiently requires a little preparation and a different mindset, but it is incredibly easy once you know what steps to take. You’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish when you do it the right way.

Once you’ve got efficiency under your belt, check our blog for other deep cleaning tips you can add to your rotation. You have time now!

• Courtney @ GoCleanCo