Real Life Solutions

One of the biggest problem with keeping a clean house is that cleaning the entire home can seem overwhelming. If you save all of your cleaning until Saturday or Sunday, you’ll have a six-hour job ahead of you, and nothing will get done because you’ll want to put it off. Instead, try these ten quick cleaning tips for a more organized home. These tips will keep you from dreading the cleaning binge on the weekends when you finally have time, and will leave you less stressed out during the week.

Use one or more of these home cleaning tips to keep your home clean and free from clutter.

Disinfecting Wipes Clorox, Lysol and even some of the major grocery stories manufacture disinfecting wipes (sometimes called Sani-Wipes) that can work wonders for cleaning sinks, bathtubs, toilet seats and even small messes on the floors. Purchase one container (usually thirty wipes) for each of the bathrooms in your home and one for the kitchen. Every time you go to the bathroom or use the kitchen, take a minute to run a disinfecting wipe over all of the surfaces. You won’t have to worry about wringing out or cleaning a sponge or rag, and it takes just a minute or so. This is one of my favorite home cleaning tips.

Squeegee Keep a squeegee (less than $4.00 from Walmart) in each of your bathrooms. Whenever you take a shower, squeegee the shower walls to avoid build-up of mildew. You should also teach your spouse and children to use their own squeegees. This will make cleaning the shower a much easier chore when you finally get down to using tile cleaner and a sponge. You can also keep a spray bottle of a bathroom cleaner in the shower. Spray the walls before you start the water and let it sit while you’re getting undressed and preparing for your shower. You can rinse the walls while you’re taking a shower, then squeegee when you’re done (works great with a detachable shower head).

Cleaning Bucket Rather than running around your house, trying to find the type of cleaner you need, store each set of cleaning supplies in its own separate bucket. That way everything is there when you need it, and you can transport it all easily with an easy-to-carry bucket. You can also use a caddy, if you prefer. Later, if you need the bucket to fill with soapy water, you can simply rinse it out in the sink or at the garden hose and refill it with your cleaning supplies.

Clean in Sections There is nothing worse than cleaning an entire room and then discovering that you missed spots. Instead, clean in sections from left-to-right or top-to-bottom. Not only will this prevent you from missing areas of the room, but it will also help your mindset when you realized that you’ve cleaned half the room.

Trash Bags Take a tip from restaurants and stores, and keep several trash bags stored underneath the in-use liner in your trash cans. This way, you won’t have to go looking for a new trash bag; you can just pull one of the spares from the bottom of the can.

Extension Cord Rather than switching outlets every few minutes, use an extension cord on your vacuum cleaner so that one outlet will allow you to clean the entire story. For example, if your living room is the center of your home, plug the cord into an outlet in your living room and then vacuum the whole house (or story).

Toothbrushes Recycle old and worn-out toothbrushes and keep one in your kitchen and in all of your bathrooms. When you’re cleaning and can’t get a hard-to-reach spot, the toothbrush will come to the rescue. Just be sure to rinse out the bristles when you’re done.

Empty the Sink Before going to bed every night, be sure that all of the dirty dishes have either been stored in the dishwasher or cleaned at the sink and put out to dry. It can be disheartening to wake up to a sink of dirty dishes, especially when you’re looking forward to a cup of coffee and some time to relax.

Hand-Held Vaccum A hand-held vacuum that works off of batteries is a wonderful little gadget that you can use when a job is too small to warrant pulling the big vacuum out of the closet. You can use it to clean up spilled cereal, dog hair, little clumps of dirt and any other mess that tries to ruin your day.

CD’s Even if you’re only cleaning for ten or fifteen minutes, it always helps to have a little music in the background to keep you going. Press “play” on the stereo every time you start a cleaning chore and the minutes will tick by much faster.

 Steve Thompson is a full-time freelance writer. In addition to the more than 3,000 articles he’s written for AC, he has also written articles and other materials for more than 100 happy clients

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