If you have owned your own place for any length of time, you know that cleaning needs to be done on a regular basis to keep the mess from piling up. If you go about this cleaning in a haphazard way, cleaning tasks can take up big chunks of your time. If you follow these steps when going about your weekly cleaning, you can dramatically reduce the amount of time you spend cleaning and use that extra free time to do whatever you feel like doing.
The first step to making your weekly cleaning a more efficient process is to create a list of what exactly needs to be cleaned each week. By doing this, you make sure that nothing that needs to get done is forgotten when it comes time to clean. After you’ve created this list, if you are living with someone else, assign cleaning tasks on the list to each person. Sharing the cleaning responsibilities is a great way to speed up your weekly cleaning process. Having another person help you clean can also make things more enjoyable, which can lead to an even quicker cleaning job. Create a chart listing all the chores and who is responsible for each one so that everyone can see what they have to do each week.
When it is finally time to clean, the last thing you need is to constantly be searching around the house for various cleaning supplies. This can really make cleaning tasks a hassle and can result in unnecessary time being wasted. You should put all the needed cleaning supplies into a basket that you carry around to each room that you clean. By having all of your supplies right next to you when you need them is a huge time saver. In addition to having a basket for your supplies, you should routinely check to see when certain supplies need to be replaced or replenished. This should be a fairly obvious thing to do, but it can easily be forgotten. Running out of supplies in the middle of cleaning can be a big time waster. Each week, before cleaning, check to make sure that all the supplies in your bin will make it through that week.
Distractions while cleaning can take up a lot of your time, so when cleaning, focus on the task at hand to get things done more quickly. Turn on some music and try to enjoy yourself while cleaning. As mentioned before, having another person with you will also make things more enjoyable. You can even create rewards as incentives for finishing all the cleaning in a timely manner.
When it’s time to clean, it is important to move through the house in an organized manner. Clean one room at a time and don’t leave that room until you have finished all the chores in that particular room. Clean from top to bottom and from back to front. Do all of the dusting first before vacuuming. This will save you the hassle of vacuuming twice if you were to dust second. Move from the far wall to the door, and from left to right. By developing a routine like this, you ensure that everything is cleaned in the most efficient way possible.