"Task Cleaning" Is the Secret to Getting Your House Tidy in 2 Hours Flat
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Are you looking to streamline your cleaning routine and make it more efficient? Cleaning your house can be a significant task, but it's important to remember that there's no one-size-fits-all approach for how to clean your home. Regardless of how you tackle it, cleaning the house in whatever way works for you best is a noteworthy achievement that should be celebrated. After all, having a cleaner and more organized living space can benefit your physical health, mental well-being, productivity, time management, and comfort.
A clean home can lead to a clearer mind and make you more efficient. When you know how to clean your home and keep the space organized and clutter-free, you'll find it easier to focus on other essential tasks. Maintaining a clean and dust-free home can also help keep allergens, germs, and pollutants at bay, which is beneficial for the health and overall well-being of every member of your household — humans and pets.
While it's been established that a clean home is better for you, cleaning a house from top to bottom is no easy feat. It can be very overwhelming, even if you have a small space or if your home is well organized already. Whether it's deep cleaning and organizing the bathroom, decluttering the garage, or sprucing up the kids' spaces, there isn't always a lot of free time to devote to the project. So, we sought expert advice to uncover easy cleaning tips and hacks to make cleaning house a quicker and more efficient process.
House cleaning methods
There are several approaches to cleaning your house. Your choice of approach will of course depend on your personal preferences, available time, lifestyle, and your home's specific needs. For instance, a family of four will need a different approach than a single person. You may be looking to maintain a clean home versus give it a big overhaul. You may even want to combine some of these approaches to create the method that suits you best.
Daily Cleaning Routine: This approach involves performing small cleaning tasks on a daily basis to maintain a tidy and organized home. Daily tasks may include making beds, doing dishes, wiping down kitchen counters, and picking up clutter.
Weekly Cleaning Routine: A weekly cleaning routine involves setting aside specific days or time each week to perform deeper cleaning tasks. This includes vacuuming, mopping floors, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, and changing bed linens.
Zone Cleaning: Zone cleaning breaks your home into different zones or areas, and you focus on one zone at a time during your cleaning sessions. For example, you might designate Mondays for cleaning the kitchen, Tuesdays for the living room, and so on. This approach ensures that each area receives thorough attention. “The best way to effectively clean your home is to pick a room for different days of the week," says Karen Lee, household organization and cleaning expert and founder of Smart Robotic Home. "If you plan an entire day around cleaning your whole house, it can become too overwhelming and you can miss important areas to clean."
FlyLady Cleaning Method: The FlyLady cleaning method emphasizes establishing routines and breaking cleaning tasks into smaller, more manageable steps. It promotes the use of a timer to clean for a set period and then take short breaks.
Seasonal Cleaning: Seasonal cleaning involves deep cleaning and organizing your home at specific times of the year, such as spring cleaning or fall cleaning. This approach often includes tasks like washing windows, cleaning carpets, and decluttering.
Minimalist Cleaning: Minimalist cleaning focuses on decluttering and simplifying your home to make cleaning easier and more efficient. It involves reducing possessions and maintaining a minimalist living space.
Speed Cleaning: Speed cleaning is all about completing cleaning tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible. It often involves using cleaning checklists, optimizing cleaning tools, and minimizing distractions to save time.
The KonMari Method: Developed by Marie Kondo, the KonMari method involves decluttering and organizing your belongings based on whether they "spark joy." It's a comprehensive approach to tidying up and involves discarding items that no longer bring happiness.
Total Clean Method: Roman Peysakhovich, CEO of national cleaning company Onedesk, explains this method as cleaning the entire house with every cleaning session — not just one room at a time. “House cleaning is much more efficient if you pick one task, such as dusting, mopping, or vacuuming, and do the same task in every room of the house,” he says. “Focusing on one task will save you hours of time in the long run and it'll help you avoid starting the same task over and over again.”
Chore Charts and Rotating Tasks: Creating chore charts and assigning cleaning tasks to family members can help distribute the cleaning workload and ensure that everyone contributes to maintaining a clean home.
Regardless of which cleaning method you choose, the key is to maintain a clean and organized living space that contributes to your overall well-being.
How to clean your house, according to experts
While there's no right or wrong way to clean, there are ways to make the cleaning process more efficient. Ahead, you'll find expert cleaning tips, clever cleaning products, and more advice and recommendations straight from the pros.
Start by Decluttering
Before you dust, wipe and scrub, declutter your living space to give yourself a less overwhelming situation to deal with. A tidy space will make the cleaning process faster and more manageable. "Pick up, and put away everything [that] has gathered on the floor," says Sharon Lowenheim, MBA, MSE, certified professional organizer, and founder of Organizing Goddess. "Then, do the same with all the surfaces."
Kate Pawlowski, founding partner of Done & Done Home, echoes Lowenheim's sentiment, adding that what makes cleaning so difficult for some people is that they have too much lying around the house. "We always suggest that doing a big declutter will make cleaning so much faster since everything is put away in its home," says Pawlowski.
Gather Your Supplies
Create a designated cleaning station with all your cleaning supplies and products in one place. This ensures that you have everything you need within easy reach while cleaning.
Devote one bucket or caddy to carry around the house with you while you clean, explains Wendy Silberstein, professional organizer and founder of The Aesthetic Organizer. Then, "create a master schedule and commit," she tells Woman's Day.
Divided Ultra Plastic Caddy
walmart.com
$5.12
Establish a Cleaning Schedule
Divide your cleaning tasks into daily, weekly, and monthly lists. This structured approach ensures that you maintain a consistently clean home without feeling overwhelmed.
Having a schedule and cleaning cadence can give your home the focus it deserves, while also keeping your mind in check. There's no sense in cleaning the same space over and over again if you're neglecting other parts of your home.
"You'll never have to spend hours (or days) doing an entire-home deep clean again," says Jamie Hord, founder of Horderly Professional Organizing. Hord recommends wiping down and disinfecting all high-traffic areas daily — doorknobs, countertops, kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms, just to name a few.
"On a weekly basis, wash sheets and towels, vacuum and mop floors, dust surfaces and furniture, and clean your showers and bathtubs," she adds.
As for monthly tasks, Hord suggests taking inventory of the food in your kitchen, cleaning supplies, and toiletries to make sure they're not expired or running low.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
Consider using time-saving tools and products to make cleaning more efficient. For instance, cordless electric spin scrubbers, like those with extendable arms, can simplify bathroom cleaning tasks. These tools are designed to minimize bending and effort.
Professional house cleaner and blogger of ConfessionsofaCleaningLady.com, Sara San Angelo, has a great motto for cleaning: "Work smarter not harder.” One of the tools that helps her work smarter: a cordless electric spin scrubber with extendable arm. “You can clean your whole bathroom with it with minimal effort,” she says.
“With the extendable arm, you don't have to bend over to clean large tubs or showers. Cleaning grout lines on the floor is a breeze.” San Angelo even dusts baseboards with it using a dry scrubber head.
Electric Spin Scrubber
amazon.com
$54.96
Clean With the Right Focus
If you apply the total cleaning method mentioned above, it means you're going to clean the whole house with each cleaning session. This approach ensures a more thorough and efficient cleaning routine, but it also gives the cleaner incredible focus — but the focus can't be on each room. Instead, focus on each activity
If you go this route, deviate from doing a "zone cleaning" because it's ultimately inefficient. "You can either clean your kitchen in four hours, or clean your entire house top to bottom in four hours," says Lisa Romero, owner of Just Like New Cleaning in Fort Collins, Colorado. "A lot of people get caught focusing on one area — say, doing a super job cleaning the counters — and never get to the stove, let alone the next room. In reality, just wiping things down and moving on is quick and efficient."
Be task-oriented. Complete one chore, such as dusting, throughout the entire house before starting the next activity.
Dust With Precision
Peysakhovich loves the Scrub Daddy Damp Duster for dusting most surfaces in your home. “The ridged edges of this easy-to-use duster trap even the smallest dust bunnies,” he explains. “This duster is built to last, and makes dusting your home easier.”
Scrub Daddy Damp Duster
amazon.com
$7.29
Tackle Grout Cleaning
For tough grout cleaning, consider the right tools.
Residential real estate developer and general contractor Bill Samuel has innovated grout cleaning as he rehabs houses for reselling and renting. “When it comes to cleaning bathroom and kitchen tiles, we have found that any basic cleaning solution and some elbow grease will get the job done in almost every case. However, getting stains out of the grout between the tiles is much more difficult and so we discovered an effective method for cleaning tile grout,” he explains. “First you should purchase a product specifically designed for cleaning grout, so check out the reviews of any retailer to find the right product for the job.”
But here’s where the innovation comes in: Samuel uses a drill bit brush for the motorized scrubbing action. He specifically uses this Holikme Drill Brush Power Scrubber. Simply attach it to your drill and scrub grime away.
Drill Brush Power Scrubber
amazon.com
$6.95
Show Some Love to Your Toilet
Doyle James, president of Mr. Rooter Plumbing, a Neighborly company, explains how to care for your potty: “For a squeaky clean toilet, mix 1 cup of baking soda with 15 drops of tea tree essential oil and 15 drops of lemon or orange essential oil. Let the mixture sit in the bowl for 30 minutes and scrub with a bowl brush before flushing.”
Give Attention to Appliances
Regularly clean your dishwasher to prevent mold growth.
According to Ron Shimek, president of Mr. Appliance, “The dishwasher is one of the biggest culprits for potential mold growth,” he says. "Its warm and damp environment is heaven for mold spores — especially if there’s food particles left behind from your last cycle."
To clean it, Shimek advises to regularly run an empty dry-heat cycle to flush out the interior, including the silverware basket, filter, panels, and door gasket. “To keep this appliance germ-free, you can clean the affected areas with diluted bleach and if there’s mold in the silverware basket, let it soak in your kitchen sink with diluted bleach and warm water for 30 minutes,” he adds. “Be sure to rinse thoroughly before placing back into the dishwasher.”
Don't Forget Your Drains
Routinely clean your drains with a combination of baking soda and vinegar, followed by hot water, to prevent clogs.
Jake Romano, who works for Ottawa Drain Cleaners, says a routine drain cleaning that you can do yourself can save you hundreds of dollars on plumbing services in the long run. “Every month or two, simply pour half a cup of baking soda into the drain, followed by half a cup of white vinegar,” he explains. “Let it fizzle and react for about half an hour before flushing it down with hot water.”
Romano says that doing so will eat away at the grease and grime building in the drains, which lead to stubborn clogs.
He also suggests using products like drain enzyme cleaners regularly. “These cleaners are safe for the environment,” he adds. “They usually include enzymes and bacteria that will slowly devour the particle buildup in your drains. It can help with your entire plumbing system, even into your sewer.”
Invest in the Right Tools and Cleaning Products
Lee says to arm yourself if you want to clean effectively. "You should also invest in multiple-sized cleaning brushes to help get into small nooks and crannies," she advises.
Lee also suggests to use all-purpose cleaners. "[They are] great to have as opposed to having many different chemicals under your sink which can lead to clutter," she points out. "Adding in vinegar and baking soda to your cleaning products is helpful as well as these products can be used all over your home from the bathroom, to your laundry room to your bedroom and kitchen."
Clean Your Cleaning Tools
"You should also make sure to disinfect these brushes and other cleaning appliances each week to ensure you are not spreading around bacteria," says Lee. Ensure that your cleaning tools are clean before you start using them. This will make the cleaning process more efficient and effective.
Peysakhovich points out. “You'll end up spending more time trying to clean if you don't clean your tools beforehand.”
Start at the Top, Then Go Step-by-Step
The recommended plan of attack? Top-to-bottom, left-to-right. "I always start [in the upstairs bathroom]," Romero says. "It's a good place to leave supplies." For each task, start at the highest point in the room (if dusting, this might mean high shelves), and move from left to right across the room. This way, you don't miss anything, and you won't accidentally knock dust onto already-cleaned lower shelves.
Step 1: Dust
Dust each room, including the topsides of all the furniture, undersides of shelves, and all handrails, as well as picture frames, TV screens, and knickknacks. "When it's possible to dry-dust, I do — getting something wet makes it harder," Romero says. To get rid of fingerprints, dampen a microfiber cloth with warm water.
Pro cleaning tip: Look up top. "People don't dust up on the very top of furniture, and that's where all the dust collects and then falls off," Romero says.
Step 2: Clean furniture fabric
Go through the house and strip and remake beds. Tidy up pillows or furniture blankets. Brush furniture surfaces with a vacuum extension as needed.
Step 3: Clean mirrors and glass
Easy to forget, but important to clean, wipe down mirrors and windows throughout the house. If possible, do the outside too!
Pro cleaning tip: Using one wet and one dry microfiber cloth won't leave streaks.
Step 4: Disinfect counters and surfaces
Wipe down all surfaces and counters throughout the house, disinfecting every step of the way.
Pro cleaning tip: Be sure to wipe down all places that fingers touch, like door handles, light switches, TV remotes and phones. "Those are the places that people forget, and they really hold germs," Payne says.
Step 5: Spray bathrooms and kitchen
Walk through the bathrooms and spray cleaner on tubs, sinks, and toilets. Return and scrub. Then, in the kitchen, wipe down the inside of the microwave, and cabinet and appliance doors.
Step 6: Sweep and mop
Sweep, then mop or scrub the bathroom and kitchen floors, and any other floor that needs it. You may want to vacuum first if you have lots of bits that you don't want to get caught on your mop.
Pro cleaning tip: "I always do bathroom floors on my hands and knees with a microfiber cloth and cleanser. That's how I know that I got every corner, even behind toilets, and that they're 100% disinfected," Romero says.
Step 7: Vacuum
"I vacuum my way out the bedrooms, down the stairs, through the living room and out of the house," Romero says.
Pro cleaning tip: It's not crucial to vacuum every single inch. Just keep moving. You'll get the spots you missed next week.
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