How to Clean Your House Quickly

It’s a myth that cleaning your house takes hours and hours of work. In fact, it doesn’t take any more time than most people spend watching TV or browsing the internet. That means you only need a few hours at most to clean your whole house if you have the right strategy. And once you know how to do it, keeping things tidy is actually quite easy. Here’s everything you need to do to quickly clean your messy house!

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Here are some tips to getting started cleaning:

1) Enlist help cleaning the house

It’s much easier to clean the house when you have help. They should help if they live in the home and contributed to the mess!

Ask your partner, children, or whoever your live with to take on part of cleaning the house. Children often love to help clean the house, and the process will go a lot faster when you work together as a team.

2) Set a time limit

Set a specific time limit for completing housecleaning. If you have 2 hours, then prep yourself to get it done in 2 hours. If you have only 30 minutes before guests come over, that might mean tackling the biggest chores that make the house appear cleaner and tidier.

Stay focused! Don’t fool around, take breaks, and get sidetracked. Work with the single goal of cleaning the house until it’s done.

3) Prepare all your cleaning supplies

Before you start cleaning, it’s important to have all of your supplies present and ready to use. This will help you work more efficiently and avoid having to stop to get something you need. These are some common supplies you may need. Below I

Extendable duster
Cleaning cloths
Vacuum cleaner
Broom and dustpan
Bucket and mop
Soap and water
All-purpose cleaner
Scrubbing sponges
Disinfectant
Window spray
Toilet brush and cleaner
Tile cleaner
Grout brush

4) Put everything away and get rid of clutter

Put everything back in its place. This is an easy and quick task that children can do.

Remove any clutter like piled-up mail, papers, children’s and dog toys, and trinkets. This includes moving things like shoes off the floor and back into the closet or on the shoe rack. You want your floors and furniture as clear as possible for better cleaning.

5) Dust each room

You want to work from top to bottom when cleaning the house because all dirt and debris from high up will fall to the floor, which will be cleaned later in the process.

Dust quickly taking less than 1 minute per room. Move small items aside to remove any dust rings or hidden dust accumulation and then put them right back.

Use an extendable duster to get all those hard-to-reach places like cleaning moldings, the tops of bookshelves, and window blinds.

6) Tackle the kitchen

The kitchen can be time-consuming so don’t get bogged down. Note what you have to do and get moving. Wipe the counters, cabinets, microwave, stovetop, backsplash, and other appliances.

If any of them are particularly dirty with dried food stuck on, you may need to spray them with cleaner and let them sit for a few minutes. Do other chores in the meantime and come back to wiping things down afterward.

You may have dishes that need to be washed too. This may take a while if you plan to do them by hand. Use the dishwasher if you have one or pass that chore on to someone who’s helping you.

7) Tackle the bathrooms

The next step is to clean the bathrooms. If your bathroom is very dirty, you may need to spray the toilet, shower, and sink, then let that sit and work its way into the grime. In the meantime, wipe down the mirrors, countertop, and around the toilet. If you still need time after that, move on to cleaning the floors.

8) Sweep, vacuum, and mop

You’ve already dusted the house fixtures and wiped the furniture, so dirt and dust should be on the floor by down. Now it’s time to do a fast sweep of the floor and vacuum rugs and carpets.

Mop the kitchen floor and hardwood floors starting in the far corner and working your way back toward the door and out of the room.

Keeping up with regular cleaning

Now that your house is clean and tidy, here are some other cleaning tips to help you keep it up.

1) Clean regularly

Cleaning regularly is the key to keeping your house in order. Put together a list of the most important chores and a schedule for when they need to be done. Some examples:

Vacuum rugs and carpets every week
Scrub the shower every 2 weeks
Have a family cleaning day on the first weekend of every month

If you’re busy, don’t forget to pass on some of those chores to your family or other people who live with you. Or try doing 15 minutes of house cleaning on the weekdays so that you don’t have all the work waiting for you on the weekend.

2) Make a routine

Establish a routine for cleaning the house. It can be the steps above or something that fits your house and your preferences. You might want to start in the kitchen, put a load of laundry in the wash before cleaning the rest of the house, or skip vacuuming because you don’t have carpet in your house.

When you make a routine and do it week after week and month after month, it becomes part of your memory. You do it faster without even thinking about it. Imagine getting your cleaning done even faster!

3) Create a space for everything

Every item in your house should have a designated space where it belongs and you should try to stick to this as much as possible. Not only will this help to reduce the amount of clutter you have, but it will also make your life a lot easier because you won’t have to spend time looking for misplaced items.

4) Stay on top of clutter

Fight the clutter by cleaning up every day. It’s easy to let things pile up around the house, but the house will look and feel cleaner without clutter.

Do a quick 5-minute sweep of the house after dinner or before going to bed to put everything where it belongs. Children can put their toys in baskets and bins. Papers can be scanned, filed, or recycled. Shoes, jackets, and other clothes should be put back on racks and in closets.

5) Clean surfaces as soon as they’re dirtied

You’ll save yourself time by cleaning surfaces as soon as they’re dirtied. Dishes get crusted over if food sits on them to dry for too long. Dog urine will seep into floors and even concrete if left to sit there too long. Stains will set in clothes if not washed out the moment they happen.

You know the saying that a stitch in time saves nine. This is true when it comes to cleaning too!

6) Use the best supplies for you

Use the best supplies that you can to help you get things done faster. While some of these cost more than others, if they’re an option for you, you may find them worth it.

Use a robotic vacuum instead of a manual vacuum. I have a dog and this has saved me hours of vacuuming. I use a Roborock, which covers all areas of every room and leaves my floors spotless. There’s even one that mops and vacuums your floors simultaneously!
Use a Swiffer or sponge mop instead of a traditional mop. I find traditional mops to be too messy on the floor and harder to clean and dry. I like sponge mops because they’re easy to wring and clean after using. An even easier option is to use a Swiffer, but those can get pricey and produce a lot of trash with their disposable pieces.
Pan scrapers save you time and effort trying to scrub food residue and burnt particles off of pots and pans.

7) Stay focused!

Finally, staying focused will help you get done cleaning faster. You might want to multitask, but don’t do it if it’s going to make you take longer to get things done.

Listening to music or a podcast is a good option if you need a bit of entertainment or a pick-me-up while cleaning without taking you away from your goal of a clean house.

Whew, you’ve done a lot of cleaning, and I bet your house looks great! Pat yourself on the back. Now go spend all that time you saved doing something better than cleaning the house!