Tiny habits that make cleaning work faster or easier

[canadian gardener]

When I go to wash my hands, I hold the soap, rinse the spiky little soap drying rack thingy, put it down, soap up.

AND THEN I take my wet soapy hands and sort of swish around the sink bowl, rim, sometimes the counters if they have mud spots from dh or ds, and the taps.

RINSE hands, and with water running, swish water around, and use wet hands to rinse taps, rim, and counter.

DRY hands on towel, using towel then to dry water spots off mirror (polishing any little dots off) and then drying the counter, taps, rim and bowl in that order.

DITCH TOWEL and replace with a fresh one. (I hit any little spotty dotties on the wall behind the towel where the grey spots land, with the damp towel too)

Presto chango a nice clean counter, sink area and mirror, taps etc. Clean dry towel!

What are some of your clean little secrets??????

[Sara Noel]

I'm a bit of a neat freak. I do clean the bathroom while I am in it too. I clean the shower after using it, so I don't ever need to really "scrub". I can just spray and wipe down after each use. This cuts the bathroom cleaning right down. Swishing the toilet takes not even two minutes if done regularly.

With having young children and a large home, I've found that doing things in small time increments really helps. Some days I am not as motivated as others, but I can always put ten minutes into cleaning something and not feel taxed.

I do this with the stovetop too. I make sure it's all cleaned after being used, so I don't have to scrub the drip pans or scour the top.

I know many others aren't as concerned with neatness like I am, but it is possible to be neat without exhausting yourself or compromising family time. It's all in how you manage the time you spend cleaning. I could never spend hours cleaning and be happy about housework. Maintaining a light schedule and rotating areas to clean, can keep things quite orderly.

I clean my floors daily. I don't need to get on my hands and knees and scrub each time. I just sweep and run my swiffer. It takes literally only minutes.

The single most helpful thing in keeping my home organized is having everyone know where things belong. I have the entire playroom picture coded, so cleanup is a breeze.

I don't think an hour a day broken up in 10-15 minute intervals is difficult at all. I know personally I couldn't clean if I had to take hours doing it. I would get discouraged easily and would dread housework.

Neatness is a standard that I have for myself. I'm happier when things are clean. I don't like how I feel when things aren't clean. I realize many people don't feel that way, but for anyone that is unhappy with the neatness in their home, it is possible to maintain a clean home without exhausting yourself.

My home gets pretty messy, as I am sure other homes get too. (especially with children) If you do small bits throughout the day, it's painless. I have small totes for toys upstairs and I toss toys in the totes and at the end of the day, I take them down into the playroom.

I put items in my path. For example, if something is out of place and belongs upstairs, then I will place the item on the stairs, so the next time I am heading up, it goes back to where it belongs. Then I am not running up and down all the time putting things back. I am heading up there anyway and have a little armload to put away.

My weakness is mail and papers. I've learned in time that I am not going to change in this area. All the tips in the world are not going to change the fact that I accumulate lists, papers, catalogs, and magazines. lol

All I know is that when I don't keep my schedule, I am sorry that I didn't. Things are upside down and I don't like living like that.

[paelthom]

I don't have any unusual tips. I do lay things to go up stairs or down stairs near them so that I can take them when I'm headed in that direction. Whenever I don't have a full dishwasher (only gets run once a day or once every 2 days) I will add my drip pans and burner protectors (whatever they are called). I clean the kitchen when I am loading the dishwasher. I wipe down the appliances, clean the sink, take out trash, etc. When I leave, the dishwasher is running and the entire kitchen is clean. I hate a dirty kitchen and I can't tolerate trash cans that stink or are running over. When I clean, I clean room to room. I will get everything I need and clean that space before going to the next. Each of our bedrooms has a bath so it gets cleaned along with the bedroom. The whole house may not be done all at once but that room is completely clean. I am also big on plastic storage boxes for toys and Ryan's paper junk.

No great secrets here but with me working part time and living with those messy folks at home, its about the best I can do.

[canadian gardener]

thank you Sara and Pat! Great tips both of you.

Sara you said

"it is possible to be neat without exhausting yourself or compromising family time. It's all in how you manage the time you spend cleaning. ....

Maintaining a light schedule and rotating areas to clean, can keep things quite orderly. "

and Pat you said "I do lay things to go up stairs or down stairs near them so that I can take them when I'm headed in that direction.

Whenever I don't have a full dishwasher .... I will add my drip pans and burner protectors.... I clean the kitchen when I am loading the dishwasher. I wipe down the appliances, clean the sink, take out trash, etc. When I leave, the dishwasher is running and the entire kitchen is clean. I hate a dirty kitchen and I can't tolerate trash cans that stink or are running over."

Those are really important concepts. --cleaning the shower when you are in it, --picking up as you go along.

--using the dishwasher as your cue to do a quick swipe on surfaces and take out the trash so it never ever builds up.

--placing stuff so you remember to put stuff away on your way to somewhere else.

I like to look at a room that I'm in, whether it's the living room, or bathroom, or passing thru the entry on my way down the stairs and pick something up, put something away or throw something out. Leave it better than I found it anyways.

Little things, really add up.

Habits hurt me, or they can heal me.

In fact I think the biggest single thing outside of learning to declutter my home, has been learning to do the little stuff that sort of makes my house almost clean itself.

[canadian gardener]

Another clean little secret I have, or tiny habit is this:

I take my kitchen trash out daily, and when I take it out, in it's half filled kitchen bag, I go thru the rest of the house, a quick tour of wastebaskets and trashcans.

I empty as many as I can without overfilling the bag on my way out to the trashcans in the garage.

If I spot trash or junk mail lying about it goes too.

And that brings me to the second part of this tip.

I have a trashcan with liner in almost every room except the living room/dining room.

This keeps them empty most of the time, and they look and smell pleasant

AND by having them in most rooms, I've trained the family to use them more often than not.

[simplemom]

Originally posted by smnoel
I clean my floors daily. I don't need to get on my hands and knees and scrub each time. I just sweep and run my swiffer. It takes literally only minutes.

Sara, that is something new I will be doing! I'm buying a swiffer! If it's going to prevent me to have to clean a dirty floor every few days...I'm doing it! Thanks so much for this tip!!!

....I also clean my bathroom when Patrick is in the bath. It's easier and quick...I'm in there anyways, so I make it productive.

[canadian gardener]

another little habit, is I ditch my rinsed "dead" dishcloth onto the kitchen floor (or if it ever hits the floor, I leave it where it lies).

Since I have lots, and I believe in changing often for sanitary purposes (and because I wash in hot rinse in cold with dishrags, towels, sheets and underwear etc)

that now becomes TA DAH

My little floor cleaning helper. I move it around with my toes to pick up fluff, crumbs, dog hair, coffee spots to name the 4 top things that land on my floor.

I do NOT, repeat do NOT do a perfect wall to wall wash of the floor or even bend over except to pick it back up and throw into the laundry, this dead rag is simply a quicker picker uppper for the odds and ends.

But somehow over the day, and week and months and years that little habit has kept my floors looking RELATIVELY, not spotless, but RELATIVELY clean.

It's meant that the gummy drops of orange juice that landed or the sugar spill, or the bBQ sauces spots GOT WIPED UP before they dried on like cement or left stains from sitting there a while.

ONE MORE THING: on it's way downstairs to the laundry, the dead dishrag and I pass the entryway landing where all the dirt, mud and grit that comes in my front door year round, lands. I have an entry mat but this stuff spills over the edges of the mat onto my nice white vinyl floor.

The last thing that dead dishrag does is wipe the entry floor mud spots. (I do rinse it out after doing the kitchen floor quicker picker upper so it's ready to perform this little duty)

[canadian gardener]

Lucie that Swiffer was the BEST thing I bought this summer besides the daily shower spray. (I had a total hysterectomy, and wanted to simplify my already simple light routines)

Now I LOVE THAT SWIFFER!

It does floors (if you get tired of paying for new cloths, just pop in a damp terry washcloth to pick up lint, dust and fuzz)

I've heard that you can wash the swiffer dry cloths in the washer and dryer (without a softener sheet) and they will be clean and ready to work the magic of static all over again, thus saving you megabucks.

If you want to wet wipe, just rinse it under the tap without even taking it out of the swiffer head, squeeze slightly and damp mop the floors.

If you need to get something worse up then spray lightly first with a spray bottle filled with a 1 in 10 diluted cleaner (I use a Clean Team product called Red Juice but you could do that with Mr. Clean or whatever you normally do floors with)

the point about dilution is you use the same strenth as you would in a bucket, with a mop

Only you jsut spray, then wipe up with the wet terry facecloth.

Here is my latest idea/invention to go along with the swiffer:

For tougher stuff, buy some of that nylon netting to make stiff petticoats out of. Put a doubled up square into the finger holes.

Spray, then scrub with the nylon net, it wont scratch but it will scrub.

When you need to apply wax to the floor, use a damp Bounty paper towel and dispose after.

For windows, use the nylon net outside with vinegar for hard water spots, with a dishwasher detergent solution (1 TBSP to a bucket of hot water) to scrub flyspecks, dog nose prints, greasy hand prints off glass windows. Rinse with hose and be done.

remember the dishwasher detergents sheeting action that leaves no water spots after rinsing? use it.

Then for walls, that spray bottle and a wet terry facecloth are a whole lot easier than a wall washing session.

there, that in a nutshell is why I LOVE MY SWIFFER

LASTLY that dead dishrag, that I mentioned in my previous post

Well it fits perfectly in the finger holes of the swiffer, so guess what I'm using now besides my toes to push that baby around my floors????

Gotta love that thing.

[Heather]

Thanks gals!! Great ideas!