Quick and Dirty Guide to Cleaning

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A lot of people put off housework because they feel they don't have time to do it 'RIGHT.' But I've learned that even a quick slap dash cleaning job is better than being overwhelmed by the fear of having to do something "right." If we wait until we have time to do housework "perfectly," we're never going to have enough time.

It's that perfectionism that can keep anything from getting done. Drop the guilt trip you're giving yourself. If you only have 10 minutes, give it all you've got in that 10 minutes. You are still 10 minutes ahead of where you were before. Ten minutes here and there - go for 6 times during the course of a day will add up to a whole hour of housework.

When my mom watches TV, she gets up during the commercial breaks and does something. I've tried this too, and it's amazing how much can get done during a commercial break! Wipe down the kitchen counter, clear off the table, look around the room and put some things away, etc.

Clean from top to bottom (the bottom is usually the dirtiest) You get the most efficiency out of your cleaning wipes or cloths this way.

Let the cleaners do their job. We don't usually let cleaners just sit and soak and work. We are usually in a big rush, and by rushing it, we end up doing more scrubbing -- and more work.

Get cleaning tasks on a schedule this is as simple as writing them on a calendar. When you do a task, write it down on your calendar based on when it should be done again. For example, if cleaning the toilet is a weekly job for you, and you did it on a Monday, then write it down for the following Monday on your calendar.

Break tasks down
I learned this from FlyLady - break tasks down into 15 minute jobs. You can do anything in 15 minutes! Use a timer and keep focused on one task before moving on to the next. I like to listen to my music to keep myself cheerful and to a fast pace. If you want to listen to my music list, it is here and will save you a lot of time. Don't go fumbling around in your CD collection, if you are like me, it will just distract you & the next thing you know, you'll be alphabetizing the CD collection when you have 40 million dirty dishes in the sink!

This is a dreaded job for many people, because there's like 6-12 years of pot pie spillover crud baked into it, right? Don't worry, you can do this.

Take a microwave safe bowl, and put 1-2 cups of water in it. If you have a lemon, slice it and put that in the water. If you don't have a lemon, you can use an orange. If you don't have any citrus fruits on hand, then you can pour a bit of lemon juice in the water. If you don't even have that, don't worry about it, just use plain water.

Heat the water until it's just about boiling. Let it sit in the microwave, don't even open the door. Let the steam soak off all the built up crud. Give it about 20 minutes. Take a wet rag or a dampened paper towel and wipe down the inside of your microwave (top to bottom). You might need another paper towel to run over it all one more time and dry it.

If you find that anything is still stuck on (which I doubt), you can take a plastic spatula to scrape off the bits. Don't use your fingernails - that's guaranteed to completely gross you out and you will never do this again. lol

Try to do this about every week, every 2 weeks, or even every month, and you will see that the more often you do this microwave cleaning, the easier it will get, because there will be less gunk to clean off.

You are done!

I've spent valuable hours of my life attempting to clean horizontal blinds. I've tried spraying the blinds, then wiping with a paper towel. I've tried spraying the towel and then wiping the blinds. I've tried Windex. I've tried Glass Plus. I've tried soap and water. The end result is always spotty, almost muddy looking appearance, no matter how hard I've tried. My arms end up tired and I'm disgusted.

Here is the "secret" to cleaning window blinds. Nope, you don't have to have fancy brushes that glide in between the slats, although I can see those might have some merit. But sometimes the best way is also the easiest.

Here is the secret:

Fill your bathtub with several inches of warm to hot water. About 5 to 6 inches of water should do it. Squirt in a couple squirts of dish soap or shampoo. Probably the cheapest shampoo like Suave works the best.

Take the blinds down from the window and dunk 'em. That's right, dunk 'em! Bring them up out of the water, dunk them again. Up and down a couple times. Pull it out, shake it off, lay it on an old towel if you have one handy. Hang it right up damp. Wipe any remaining drips. Done.

It made my blinds look new again, except for that 4-inch piece of a slat that has broken off. That's life with kids!

If you have to hand wash your dishes, the key is to not let them pile up. Wash them even when you have just a few. It will make the job less demanding. When a big pile is there, it's human nature to want to put it off. So get to it even when there are only 5 dishes. You could also assign certain dishes to family members and require everyone to wash their own. You could get dishes and bowls in different colors and designate which belong to whom by color coding.

Another labor saving trick is to have your dishes soak while you cook. Before you start cooking, fill your sink with warm soapy water. As you dirty things while cooking, you can just plop them into the soapy water. It will make the cleaning up job much easier after the meal.

If you have a dishwasher, it isn't energy-savvy to run it without a full load, but if you are a person who tends to put off doing dishes because you hate putting away the clean dishes first, then you might benefit by running smaller loads. This is what my sister does. Then you know that to put the clean dishes away will be a very quick job, and therefore you will tend to do your dishes more quickly.

Once a month, try to remember to put one cup of white vinegar in your dishwasher and run it. (No need to add detergent). This will keep your dishwasher more free to stains and build up inside, which results in a better wash cycle.

Another tip for getting cleaner dishes from your dishwasher comes right from the dishwasher manufacturers. Run your hot water tap until the water becomes hot before running your dishwasher. This ensures that the right temperature water is reaching your dishwasher early enough in the cycle to help your dishwasher do a good job for you.

If you hate cleaning your toilet and you'd rather be out partying, then just think on this. After a night of too many drinks, would you rather barf into a clean toilet or a dirty one? DUH.

Ok, it's really easy. Use a toilet cleaner, I like Lysol. Put that around the insides of the toilet. Close the lid. Let it sit while you do the next step.

This part is going to be more involved than it will be for you once you get caught up.

Get some disinfectant wipes (again, I like Lysol, but Clorox wipes are good too!) If you want to use something less expensive, check out this homemade cleaner. Wipe the outside of the toilet from lid of the tank, the handle, and the outside of the tank area (this can be a part of the toilet that is very germ-infested because of the consensation on the outside of the tank).
Once you are caught up on this step, you only have to do it about every 2 weeks to a month, not every time. When you are caught up, you will need to wipe just the top of the tank and then the handle. The handle is very important to disinfect!

Now, if your tank top was very dusty and yucky, then you will need a new wipe. Get one, or two, if you are very disgusted just looking at your toilet!

Wipe the top of the lid.

Wipe the underside of the lid, don't forget the little bumpy pad things.

Wipe the top of the seat, make sure you get the edges.

Wipe the underside of the seat, following up by wiping the hinges and the area between the seat and the tank at the back.
Throw that wipe away.

Get another wipe and wipe the pedestal portion of the toilet, all the way down to the base. Then, turn the wipe so you get a clean area of wipe and wipe the floor area immediately in front and around the toilet.

Now we're back to the toilet bowl itself. Use a scrub brush to brush it clean. While you were cleaning the other parts of the toilet, the toilet bowl cleaner/disinfectant has had time to do a lot of work for you!

Take another wipe and wipe in the inside of the toilet bowl under the edge that you can't see. A lot of nasty stuff hides there (from splashing up, but let's not get into the gross details!) If you have any of the flushable toddler wipes, those are nice for that job, since they can be flushed.
It's a good thing to do, and helps keep your bathroom fresher smelling.

You are done!

This is the section of this page that will make you think I am certifiably insane, but so be it.

I learned this from having twin toddlers! One day, there were so many little toys on the floor, I was getting exhausted from picking them all up. All I wanted to do was vacuum, but it seemed like at the rate I was going, I was never going to get to the vacuuming stage.

It suddenly hit me to grab the rake from the garage. I raked all the Legos, crumpled paper, kleenex, sippy cups, wooden blocks, and miscellaneous junk into one big pile in the middle of the living room. Then I grabbed the trash can, and sat down next to the pile and started sorting. It didn't take very long, and I was onto the next stage of vacuuming much faster.

You can keep a plastic rake for just this purpose - one that you don't use outdoors. This is especially important if you use any kind of weed/pest control in your yard. You wouldn't want to spread that into your living room. A clean rake will also have a side benefit of fluffing up your carpet, and that's good for it too!