How to Keep Your Home Clean in Less Time

Once again, the holidays are knocking on our front door and filling our heads with the never-ending “to do” list of those pesky chores we must accomplish before the family caravan hits the driveway.

The one thing that always seems to top the list but is never really done is keeping your home impeccably clean for a neighbor drop-in or a family overnight visit. But before things get crazy, you can get ahead of the list of chores and keep your place in perfect condition with some simple and easy steps.

After all, the last thing you want to do when you could be eating holiday cookies is to be scrubbing toilets!

Step 1. Start with a Deep Clean.

The best way to spend less time keeping your home clean is to start from scratch with a spotless space that you can do regular maintenance on to keep that way. Some people choose to hire a cleaner for that deep-clean project while others will carve out a slow Sunday afternoon to tackle the project.

During this session you’ll want to do those often neglected projects like scrub floors, clean fan blades, wash the oven, and dust behind all your appliances. You shouldn’t have to do this kind of deep clean more than a few times a year if you keep up with your cleaning in small increments of time.

Step 2. Associate Projects with Other Daily Chores.

If you train your brain to associate small cleaning activities with other everyday chores, you won’t feel the need to set time aside specifically for cleaning.

For instance, every time you change the toilet paper roll in your bathroom, spray some bleach cleaner in the bowl to keep a clean bowl spotless for longer. And every time you take a shower, use a squeegee on the glass door as soon as you shut off the water to prevent water spots from building up.

Step 3. Utilize “down time” to accomplish forgotten tasks.

How often have you sat on your phone and scrolled through e-mail while you’re waiting for water to boil on your stove? When you’re taking care of other everyday things in your home like cooking, organizing the mail, or taking the dog out – incorporate 5 to 10 minutes of a cleaning task that will become second nature.

Wipe your countertops down while boiling water on the stove for dinner. Sweep the front walk while your dog is doing his business. Keep a duster in your TV room and take care of dust bunnies during commercial breaks.

If you get used to utilizing small amounts of down time to tackle chores, you’ll be left with less to do in the long run and can stay on top of a clean home instead of spending hours cleaning on a Saturday afternoon.

As the holidays approach, it will be important for you to find any small spurts of extra time to keep your home clean. And by staying on top of these chores as opposed to letting them build up, you won’t be caught off guard with hours-long cleaning projects.