By reducing the number of items in your house it means you’ll always need to tidy less. The old saying goes “Organized clutter is still clutter. Get rid of it”.

1. Cut The Clutter

Embrace Minimalism

• Sell or recycle items that you don’t need.
• Donate on a regular basis.
• Don’t go shopping unless you need it.
• Find a suitable place for everyday items to avoid regularly shuffling objects around the house.
• Avoid keeping items only for the sentimental value.

2. Invest in High-Quality Tools and Products for Effective Sterilization

You’re only as good as the tools that you use. Equip yourself with the latest cleaning appliances to minimalise any unnecessary effort for a faster clean.

• Cleaning Checklist: Quickly work your way from room to room. A checklist helps you to be organised. Soon you’ll be able to build a solid, repeatable process to tackle each, individual room.
• Microfiber cloths /dusters: These cloths have smaller threads than the grease, dirt and bacteria you’re trying to removing whilst cleaning. Microfibres help you reach into surface pores and crevices that a standard mop or duster would struggle to penetrate. It’s deep cleaning with no extra effort, simply beautiful.
• Broom / Dustpan: Our favourite is the OXO Good Grips, this broom features a handle allowing it to be snapped straight onto the dustbin.
• Tote your tools: By Toting your tools you’ll be able to move around your house easily, equipped with all of your essential cleaning products.
• Floss: Use floss for loosening grime around the handles and crevices on taps.
• A Squeegee for Your Bathroom: If you have a bathroom, poor drainage or tiles within your shower, a squeegee is a great addition to your toolkit. Apply the squeegee after taking a bath or shower to cut your cleaning time in half.
• Toothbrush: The almighty toothbrush can easily defeat: Tile Grout, Stovetops, Velcro, Hair Dryer Vents, Car Seat Cushions and Drains.
• Lint Roller: An odd but useful addition to your arsenal, lint roller has a range of uses such as cleaning lamp shades, hairy clothes and cleaning up broken glass. Looking for more uses for your lint roller? Jillee’s article goes more into depth.
• Vinegar / Lemon Juice: Two hardcore, natural cleaning products which are skin friendly.
• Gloves: We recommend the Playtex Living Gloves which have reinforced fingertips and palms to help with slippery items such as dishes and cutlery. The gloves come with long cuffs, thus keeping your hands dry, allowing you to move swiftly onto other tasks.
• Cleaning Solutions: Buying high-quality products will provide a deeper clean for your surfaces, making your clean last longer. Either Cleenol or Method (Natural Alternative) are great options.

3. Make it a Cleaning Daily Practice, Not a Project

A daily cleaning practice will keep your workload small and manageable, with less work to do in one sitting, you’ll possess a greater commitment to cleaning and finishing successfully.

Habits take approximately 21 days to become fully integrated into your routine. So be devoted to your cleaning schedule – ensure that you never miss a day. The continual repetition will rapidly instil the positive habits.

Did we forget to mention “Eventually you’ll look back and your cleaning workload will be gone without you even noticing?”

Building Your Daily Cleaning Routine

• Decide on the amount of daily cleaning time you’re willing to commit to.
• List all of the chores, rooms and other cleaning activities.
• Plan your daily routine, ensure that it fits around your work schedule and that it covers every aspect of your home. (Rooms, Daily Tasks vs Weekly Tasks).

4. Be Time Efficient – Multitask

Time-effectiveness is crucial, therefore we recommend multi-tasking your cleaning activities. Firstly start with tasks that require a small time-investment that will self-execute after initially setting them up.

Below you’ll find several examples, that can be put on whilst tackling more ‘time-intensive’ sanitation activities.

Low Input, self-executing tasks

• Dishwasher: Load the dishwasher and start the wash cycle.
• Tumbledryer: Put it on a dry cycle.
• Washing Machine: Place dirty clothes in your washing machine and activate it.
• Drying Rack: Remove clothes from your washing machine and hang on a drying rack.
• Soak pots and pans: After finishing a meal, remember to soak pots and pans to reduce the amount of scrubbing you need to do in the future.

5. Utilise the Power of Teamwork

Are you running out of time despite having an awesome cleaning process? Why don’t you try recruiting extra hands to help you – grab all hands on deck!

• Ask your partners, friends or a fellow family member to help with the sterilization activities.
• Assign age-based chores to your children.

Tips & Tricks

• Remember to keep it playful.
• You can incentivise and positively encourage others for contributing towards the cleaning.
• Make a daily responsibility/chore chart during the week for each child.

Potential Incentives

Children

• Grant access to the TV, games and other media formats.
• Give occasional day trips out to zoos, model villages and other attractions.
• Share ice-cream, sweets or their favourite dinner.

Adults

• A free dinner at the local restaurant.
• Purchase the person an experience such as a 1-month gym membership or tickets to see their favourite artist.
• Spend quality time with them and be appreciative of their cooperation.

6. Clean From The Top → Bottom, Left → Right

Don’t start by washing the coffee table, then the windows, and spotting that the dust from the windows has travelled onto your newly cleaned table.

In the same fashion move from left to right, have a systematic approach and you’ll avoid going over the same spots again.

• Work from the top to the bottom of each room.
• Start at the top of your house and work your way downwards.
• Keep organised and only clean the same spot once, go from left to right!

7. Set A Time Limit Per Room

Setting reasonable time limits ensures that each room gets some well-deserved care and attention.

• Knowing that your clock is ticking will keep you moving at a steady, consistent pace.
• Use either your phone’s inbuilt timer / an IOS timer or Android timer.
• Give each room an adequate amount of time according to its size and cleaning difficulty. (i.e. the lounge – 20 minutes, easy  vs the Kitchen – 35 minutes, medium).

We hope that the tips above help you to have a fast, efficient and enjoyable clean. Remember that if you ever need cleaning help in your house, at Belle Casa we are always available.