Tips on cleaning house more efficiently?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m living by myself at the moment (except for the pets, who could stand to do a little work, IMO). I seem to have fallen into a pattern for the last 3 years of doing piddly chores here and there during the week (a load or two of laundry, taking out garbage, cleaning rats’ cage) and then doing a thorough clean-up on the weekend. I work full time (9 hour days at the moment, but can go to 10 during back-to-school season) so the last thing I want to do when I get home is spend the whole night cleaning.

My weekend routine involves:
-dishes (have to do them by hand)
-dusting
-cleaning bathroom (sink, tub, toilet)
-laundry (usually 2 loads; I live in an apartment so have to go to another unit to do it)
-sweeping
-washing floors
-vacuuming couch and loveseat (I have a cat so this is necessary to do often)

It doesn’t look like a whole lot, but this usually takes me most of a day to get all of these chores done, no matter how fast I seem to work. I’ve been told I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to cleaning, so maybe that could be why. But I’m starting to feel like any free time I have is spent cleaning. If I sacrifice a chore to actually relax, then I just have more to do when I get around to it.

Any tips on cleaning efficiently without it taking forever?

2

If you took it out, put it back.

If it’s dirty, wash it.

If you spilled it, sweep or mop it up.

Give the bathroom a quick wipe down with rag and spray cleaner after every shower.

Don’t let the laundry pile up. Do a load when you have enough to fill a washer.

Iron while you watch TV in the evening.

Wash dishes as you cook the meal. Soak the last pot/pan(s) as you eat.

Make the bed every morning right after you get up.

Fold laundry while it’s still warm from the dryer.

If it’s full, empty it.

If it’s empty, fill it.

3

Well, I do do those things…but inevitably there are always times when I’m in a rush, have company and have to entertain, or are sick or totally exhausted. The fact that I have nobody to help me complicates things, since I’m at work all day. I’m not sure if I’m just being to obsessive about keeping the place clean and making it harder for myself. Anyone else feel like/has felt like this?

4

I work full time as well and I’ve got my kids with me every other day so it’s just my mess and their’s that I have to worry about. They pick up their toys and clothes and I do the rest of the tidying, cleaning, laundry, etc…

Of course, it’s a condo/apt that I live in and not a house, so that makes it a bit easier.

What’s obsessive about your cleaning habits? Do you have an urge to clean behind the fridge and stove every day?

5

Is that weird?

Kidding, I’m not *that * bad. I tend to spend my whole Saturday cleaning, but that’s partly because I’m a late starter (I’m so not a morning person), and partly because I’m a psycho scrubber. I have a mouse problem in my building, and even though I know rationally 1. that my apartment is clean, and is not the problem, and 2. all this cleaning is fruitless if the other tenants aren’t doing the same, I can’t stand the idea of not scrubbing everything down at least once a week.

AmazonFloozyGoddess, how big is your place? And what products are you using to clean? For instance, if you live alone (minimal traffic), and really mop well once a month, a Swiffer should be more than adequate the other three weeks. **QuickSilver ** is right about that after-shower bathroom spray being a huge time-saver.

6

I think AFG is wondering if she is keeping the house too clean considering she’s the only one currently living there.

Not knowing anything about your living situation, I might suggest “de-cluttering”, i.e., getting rid of 10% of your stuff. My wife found that the less we have, the less we have to clean.

Looking about the house, we have a total of 5 things on shelves that could be called “ornamental” - and three of those are in our little girls room. People tend to be a little surprised when they walk in… many reactions are of the “where’s all the stuff?” category. We have tables, and lamps on them, but no magazines, no figurines, no momentos, nothing that stays on them regularly. Our dusting is nil, little more than running a cloth over already-exposed surfaces.

We have just enough plates, glasses, clothes, etc to last us for a few days - no closets full of little-used garments for us! We limit our shelf space, and we regularly purge by having regular “sweeps” of stuff to send to Goodwill or the local library or whomever. Vacuuming is easy because even if you move tables, there’s nothing on them to balance.

We’ll rinse off plates before putting them in the dishwasher - that way, they don’t cake as they wait for enough dishes to run the thing. We run it before we go to bed, having clean dishes in the morning.

In a bow to necessity, we have a cloth cover for our couch. Our basset hound loves to sleep on the thing and my wife found that it was easier to wash a couch cover once a week than it was to (a) retrain the 11 year-old dog or (b) constantly sweep hair off the couch.

But, yeah - the easiest thing to do about cleaning is not have a lot of stuff to clean. You can’t get past vacuuming or washing your clothes, but you can do a lot to minimize dishwashing and dusting.

You also might want to see if you can go two weeks between vacuuming or dusting. Or getting rid of the cat (the reason for the dusting and couch cleaning). That last isn’t an option you’ll likely consider, but it’s still out there. Being a dog person, I find myself almost compelled to bring it up. :wink:

7

I’ll second the ‘not having a lot of stuff’ idea. I don’t have lots of knickknacks and I never have stacks of magazines sitting around. Makes it easier to dust.
After I read a magazine, I toss it. No sense having old magazines sitting around. Are you really going to read it again?

Swiffers are the greatest things. They work easily and are disposable. I use the dusters and floor moppers. I love 'em.

I do laundry when there’s enough for a load, but I might let it sit until I have a good pile for folding, and fold it while watching TV. I do get it out and loosely fold it on top of the dryer, so it’s not wrinkled. I’ll fold t-shirts in half, anything that would normally get hung up gets hung up, socks and undies and towels and anything else gets tossed in the basket. Then I fold it all at one time. Better (IMO) than folding little bits here and there.

Rinse dishes as they get put in the sink if it’s not going to get washed right away. I don’t have a dishwasher, so they all get done by hand. If something is greasy or sticky, rinse it off and rinse any food bits down the drain. There’s nothing worse than going to wash dishes and finding an eighth-inch of dried milk or soda crusted over the bottom of a glass or greasy and sticky God-knows-what all over a plate.
I don’t dry the dishes - I stack them in the dish drainer and turn on the ceiling fan. They’re dry in about 30-40 minutes and I can put them away. That saves time for something else.

8

[QUOTE=JohnT]
I think AFG is wondering if she is keeping the house too clean considering she’s the only one currently living there.

No such thing as too clean.

Anyway, as others have said, pick up after yourself, wash dishes after your use them, wipe down sinks and counters after you use them and take a few minutes each day to straighten up.

As for efficent housecleaning, what I do is divide each room into several smaller sections and clean a section at a time…pick up, put away, dust, wipe down, polish. You need to get a hand-held container and/or a holster belt…for your cleaning supplies (Windex, Comet, dusters, rags, furniture polish, etc). This way you don’t waste time running back and forth for supplies. If you have all your supplies on hand, you can clean amazingly fast working through the place section by section. The vacumming I save for the end, first doing the upholstered furniture with a small handheld vacuum then the floors with the larger one.

The real key is not letting the place get too dirty, though

Barbara

9

[QUOTE=Accidental Yuppie]

That’s a great idea. We live on three floors, and we have basic cleaning supplies, mops, rags, and even an extra vacuum cleaner (cheap ones) on every floor.

But AFG, if you’re working 9-hour days, plus commute time, it’s no wonder you don’t feel like cleaning every night. When I worked full-time, I spent most of the weekend cleaning too. I could have done those things on weeknights, but it felt like I was working 12 hour days instead of 9. So I chose weekends.

Laundry and dirty dishes are the most noticeable things at our house, so those chores get done more often than dusting, vacuuming, etc. Maybe you could piddle in those two things during the week, and give yourself more free time on weekends?

10

Hell, I can go months! :smiley: I wouldn’t recommend it though…

11

If it is just you and you are taking a full day to clean - plus you are only there awake briefly each day, I do wonder if you are getting it TOO clean. I mean, if you like doing it and you like it that clean, I’m not stopping you…but it sounds like you’d like to spend less time doing it.

Some thoughts:

Every other week do a quick wipe down of the bathroom instead of cleaning it. Same thing with the floors on alternate weeks. Really clean the bathroom the other week, the floors the next.

Get the dishes done each night before bedtime. If you don’t already. I know a week worth of dishes by hand can take a long time.

Dust every other week with a lambswool duster (or a swifter, if you prefer). Basically a quick “get the surface dust off” On the alternate weeks, actually dust with a cloth and pick everything up and wipe it down.

If you have to sit with your laundry, and there is only one washer/dryer - take it to the laundrymat. The industrial machines will go faster and you can do both of them at once.

Make sure to play some music that makes you want to move while you clean - I always find that helps.

Don’t allow yourself to get distracted. TV is off. And that book that you are dusting - now is not the time to read it. Don’t answer the phone.

Start early. Brainiac4 still hasn’t figured out why I want to start cleaning at 8am on Saturday, but its because if we start at 8, we finish by noon and I haven’t “spent all day” cleaning. If we start at noon and end at 4:00, we’ve spent the same quantity of time, but I’ve now “spent all day” cleaning - because my morning was spent doing nothing.

12

I think you’re cleaning too much. (Of course, I have admitted frequently here that I’m a Half-Assed Housekeeper, so take my opinion for what it’s worth. :smiley: ) The kitchen needs to be clean, the bathroom needs to be clean, the garbage needs to go out, the litter box needs to get scooped - beyond that, do one little thing a day, and forget about doing a major clean on the weekend. (I’m still working on getting my ass in gear to do one thing a day. It is my goal, though.)

I want to de-clutter, too. I really want to do a major purge this spring. My husband, the packrat, isn’t as keen on it.

13

This is probably more of a laziness thing than anything else but…

When I’m sweeping my kitchen or bathroom floors; I sweep all the debree onto the carpet then I vacuum the carpets. (Thus bypassing the dust pan)

14

Cloth couch cover - that’s a good idea. I think I’ll look for one. I hate lifting up the cushions to vaccuum up whatever debris is underneath.
I think I do need to loosen up a bit on my cleaning, actually. It seems like some of my chores are more than a one-step process; for instance, when I dust, I take everything off a table, wipe table with dust cloth, wipe everything that was on the table with cloth, spray on furniture polish, wipe that off, return stuff to table. When I sweep, I use a broom, then a swiffer to catch all the hair and dust that the broom didn’t, then I wash the floors. I love the feel of really clean floors and tables, I guess that’s why I do it. But it is taking up too much time. I’ll start skipping some steps and see how things go. Some really good advice here- thanks.

15

Decluttering is most of my problem.
Oh, and the dog hair. That is the rest of it.

16

Only eat in designated eating areas (don’t eat on the couch in front of the tv or in bad).

Clean from top to bottom. Do floors last and do them all at once. Do the bathrooms first, everything else is easier by comparison. Move around a room in a methodical fashion.

Keep your fridge, pantry and freezer free of clutter as wel. Clean your fridge at least once every six months.

Most tall people overlook the low spots and shorter folks tend to miss the high spots.

17

Do some every day. Pick up, clean the dishes, make the bed, put clutter away.

It is much easy to keep things clean than to get things clean. I spray vinegar on the tub and walls after showering and spray vinegar on the floor and then wipe with a sponge mop. It takes five minutes and keeps the floor clean.

Don’t buy a bunch of cleaning products. It is unnecessary, expensive, and makes a clutter. Learn to clean with baking soda, soap, and vinegar at this site.

18

I also think you’re working way too hard.

Bathroom: do you have to clean it every week because of a mildew problem? There’s two fixer-uppers to cut that down in a meaningful way: strip out mildew-infested old caulking; paint-stripping to remove similarly tainted old paint; followed by disinfecting those surfaces and re-caulking and re-painting (with a mildew-resistant paint). The chief problem re. mildew is probably insufficient ventilation. Either get a fan installed (or upgrade it) or leave a window open more often, perhaps with a floor fan brought in to help exchange the air. If mildew isn’t a problem, then you’re definitely doing too much cleaning! I’ve gotten in the habit of wiping down the wet surfaces with my washcloth after a shower, to lessen lingering humidity and prevent mineral deposits/spotting on those surfaces. Takes only a minute or two each day, and so far it seems to be well worth it.

Floors: I take my shoes off in the foyer and leave them in a small storage room next to the foyer, less to cut down on dirt tracked in (which is usually minimal), but to prevent scuff marks on the kitchen linoleum and extra wear and tear on my shoes. I wipe down the foyer flooring every few days. Not mopping – just wiping it down with a damp paper towel. Quick and easy.

Kitchens: Probably the single greatest key to keeping a kitchen clean overall is to have good ventilation during frying, preferably with a stove hood/fan. Keep a spray bottle with vinegar to occasionally zap at the mineral buildup on the faucets, and wipe it away later. Taking an extra couple of minutes to wipe down the sinks after doing the dishes really helps make the kitchen look nicer.

Dusting: Why dust the whole house each week in one fell swoop? If you’re spending more time dusting your possessions than using or enjoying them, then you’re dusting too much. I do most of my dusting in a “flylady” way, anyway, during commercial breaks and while waiting for food to microwave, computer downloads, etc. – just a bit here and there, as needed. It’s less imposing that way and I don’t feel like I’ve just wasted two or three hours just dusting. If you use an outdated vacuum cleaner (one without HEPA filtration), then your vacuuming is adding greatly to your dust problem.

Pets: you can attack pet hair and dander at the source, with regular brushings and/or baths (the baths undoubtedly make more sense with dogs than cats, or in any event are less suicidal). This is especially important during their shedding season (like now). A pet with a thick coat or longish hair should probably be brushed daily, and sometimes even twice daily, during its spring shedding. Not only does that cut down on the fur flying everywhere in the house, but with cats, it also reduces their yakking up furballs. So it’s a win-win situation!

19

How about employing someone to do it for you? :smiley:

20

That’s a great way to dust, and needs to be done - occationally. But not every week.

Likewise, vaccuuming under the couch cushions - not every week.

If your apartment is a bedroom, livingroom, bathroom and kitchen, that’s four rooms - you could break it up to CLEAN one room a month, and pickup, run a duster over, and vaccuum/mop the other rooms each week. Try and spend 15 minutes or less in each of the non-target rooms (the kitchen usually takes a little longer).