I’ve given up on rags for cleaning hairy surfaces - you really do have to use damp paper towels, as many as you need (I do use recycled paper towels, so I’m making some effort to be ecologically sound).
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is not only an excellent cleaning product, but it’s kind of fun to use - once you start seeing what all you can clean with it, you can get carried away trying it on everything.
I get my tub and shower sparkling with not too much effort by combining a spray cleaner and a Magic Eraser - spray first, then wipe down with the damp eraser. It gets off all the soap scum and water build-up and whatever.
If you have hardwood or laminate floors, they don’t need a weekly wash. A microfiber mop is what you need for regular cleaning.
The sparkling clean toilets might be from having newer toilets, too - older stuff never looks as good as newer stuff, no matter how much you clean it.
Further to this, especially if things have been left for a while, wipe the bottoms of the things you pick up off a surface as residues will collect on them.
Home Comforts is indeed a good book, but I’d also recommend Speed Cleaning - he pitches his products, which are in fact great (especially the ones that make the system work, like the apron and stuff) and teaches you absolutely step by step how to clean your house in a really efficient way. Seriously, wear the apron. Yes, you will feel like an idiot, but then you will be done cleaning, which is awesome.
Funnily enough I was pondering starting a very similar thread this very morning. Though I think what I need is more likely the class after Cleaning 101.
Through some concerted effort I feel like I’ve gotten the very basics sort of in control.
How often to people do things like wipe down the fronts of cupboards? Clean baseboards? How and when do I clean radiators?
One tip for the bathroom. A while ago I read a suggestion somewhere about having a basket of face cloths and using a fresh cloth each morning and evening. I kind of expanded on that a little and after I finish washing my face I use the cloth to wipe down the sink, counter and taps before tossing it in the laundry.
After a bath or shower I do the same. Takes only a couple of seconds and it’s one less thing to do when I clean the bathroom.
That’s part of the monthly dust to start with. After a bit, depending on the house, it might be less often. When the kids were toddlers, fronts of cupboards and some walls needed weekly, sometimes daily, wipedowns.
A good vacuum with a clean filter, used often, will help keep dust down. Most people probably do not clean their vacuum often enough.
When dusting use Windex lightly sprayed on the towel, not the thing you are dusting. I use kitchen hand towels and a lot of them. If you try using one towel and rinsing it you are just spreading dirt and dirty water around, get another clean towel. When you are done, throw them in the laundry. I go through a lot of hand towels each week.
In greasy areas, like the kitchen I use Simple Green. It is a great grease cutter. I am also a bit of a car nut and spray Simple Green right on the (cool) engine, wait a few minutes, and then spray it off with the garden hose. The engine will look like it just came out of the show room. A little trick I learned at car shows.
Cook’s Illustrated (well, America’s Test Kitchen?) just did a comparison of cleaners and Simple Green came up “not recommended.”
Simple Green:
“The first problem: This product comes in a full 22-ounce spray bottle yet is described as “concentrate.” (Are we supposed to dump it out, dilute it, put some back, and store the rest elsewhere?) Worse, even full strength, its cleaning performance was weak. Its scent reminded some of Porta-Johns.”
Their favorite was Method All-Purpose Cleaner. It cleaned well and smelled good:
"This spray embodies the winning combination of being pleasant to use and cleaning thoroughly and effectively with a minimum number of squirts. It cut grease, lifted stuck-on messes, and left surfaces shining. "
I have big dogs, so the fronts of cupboards - at least the lower ones - I clean every week or two. Also the stove, fridge, walls and so on. The dogs either lie up against them, or come in from the outdoors all muddy and shake off unless I remember to contain them in the mudroom until they’re non-muddy and wet.
I’ve never been fond of Simple Green (don’t like the smell) but hardware stores have some sort of orange concentrate cleaner that smells wonderful and works really well.
Tip for picking up dust and pet hair - save your used dryer sheets, if you use those. They do an awesome job of dusting.
Back when I had more disposable income and less time, I hired a cleaning lady (a grad student looking for work on the side.) It was GREAT. She just came in every week or two and did nothing but floors and baseboards; things I hate cleaning. She vacuumed, scrubbed, cleaned the wood floors with Murphy’s Oil, spiffied up the vinyl and did the tedious work of cleaning baseboards. Cost me about $25 a visit and worth every penny.
Have an air filter. Seriously, if you want to cut down on dust and make it easier to deal with, get it in the air.
It doesn’t have to cost much. Make yourself a ghetto air filter; get a 20" box fan and a 20x20 furnace filter. Duct tape the filter to the fan and let 'er rip. Costs $30 or $40 and works as well as a $150 filter. It’s ugly, but you can put it away when company’s over.
It’s amazingly effective, and also helps with allergies.
If I’m being good I wipe down the fronts of my cupboards once a week. If I’m being my usual stuff, every six months, or when something really dirty drips down them.
Baseboards, as well as any fancy carved parts of furniture, are best cleaned with the brush attachment of your vacuum. Do NOT try to clean these kinds of things with anything wet! The dust will form a perma-layer of grime.
I’ve never lived with radiators, so I don’t know about those.
When I notice dust in the bathroom, I grab a few squares of the nearest handy paper from the roll hanging right there, dampen with a few drops of water, and wipe up. It takes very little time and effort, and often prompts me to do some more cleaning.
I have hard water, and get toilet rings. If they’re too bad, I drop in 2-3 denture cleaning tablets and let them sit at least an hour. Flush, add Comet, and scrub. Serious housekeepers would recommend a pumice stone, but I aim for “good enough,” and sometimes achieve it.
And before I start cooking, I wash my hands and dry with a clean paper towel. I then reserve that damp towel for wiping spills and drips as I go. When the messiest bits are done, I then wipe up drips from the floor. That way, I can go longer between mopping.
The fronts of my cupboards get cleaned thoroughly one every two weeks. However, I wipe things I see on them on a daily basis when I do dishes or empty the dishwasher.
My baseboards get dusted every two weeks (which is how often I dust). They only get scrubbed once every six months.
Radiators I don’t know as I don’t have them. We have baseboard heating and they get dusted when I do the baseboards and washed when I wash the baseboards.
Good one for stove tops: some stuff is hard to budge, because it’s baked on or dried on, and it takes forever to scrub it away. The easier way to handle it is to wet a washcloth or paper towel, plunk it on top of the stuff, and just leave it there a while. The water will soften the gunk and make it much easier to scrub away.
To make it feel less like work I always play some music. I always get up early on the weekends and turn the music up LOUD and I’m done with the cleaning before 8am. Got the rest of the day to screw off.
I found a really good checklist for everyday cleaning on Real Simple’s website. Here it is: checklist.
I think some of it is excessive (is it really necessary to disinfect all sinks every night?) and it does take a bit longer than advertised, but I tried it in one-room chunks throughout the evening for the last week, and my house looks awesome - well, in comparison to what I used to look. It’s still pretty messy, but at least it’s sanitary and messy.
ETA: Before I had kids I thought it was ridiculous to consider purchasing Clorox wipes; now I have a package of them in every bathroom. They’re wonderful because they allow you to clean immediately if you happen to be in the bathroom and the idea pops into your head.
Even if you don’t have kids and/or think that disposable cleaning wipes are wasteful - if you’re still not cleaning, then get something like this just for how easy this makes it for you to spot clean. Once you get into the habit of cleaning, you can eventually switch over to washable cleaning cloths or whatever - just make sure you keep the appropriate type(s) in each room they’re needed in, and work up a routine for laundering and replacing them.
Do you put the filter on the front or the back of the fan?
I have an incredible amount of dust and dirt that comes with living on a farm, having 6 dogs and 4 cats, and using a wood pellet stove. I sweep, I wipe down countertops and cupboards, but I still never get everything clean at the same time. And the dust is astounding! The top of my refrigerator, where my stand mixers live, is horrible (and because it’s well above my head, I can easily ignore it.).
Most pre-made filtration systems put the fan after the filter system. I don’t know if that’s just habit or a scientifically-decided thing.
Just to be contrary, I must point out that installing some kind of filtration doesn’t eliminate the dust problem; it simply moves the problem from “dusting surfaces regularly” to “replacing filters regularly”. But at least filters concentrate the dirt, so you don’t have to dust dozens of scattered square feet.
