Home Care

Cleaning Your House

The secret to tidying up every room of your house quickly.

Team Work

Working as a team is an efficient way to make cleaning more enjoyable for the kids. Show them how you sweep one area of the house, and have them continue the task on other parts of the living area. Since you are there to demonstrate how to perform certain cleaning chores, the job is more likely to get done correctly.

Involve your kids

Inviting the kids to participate in cleaning the house will make them feel valued, as they recognize their role in maintaining cleanliness at home. Play to their skill level, and show them how to perform simple tasks. If your son always leaves dirty clothes on the floor, invest in a laundry hamper sorter, and attach descriptive cards on the cart that detail the types of clothes that go into each container.

Once the kids know how to clean up after themselves, inform them about the tasks that they are expected to complete on their own. Use the word responsibility to refer to these tasks, so your kids will accept them as their obligation. Allowing your kids to perform cleaning tasks in their own way will foster a sense of responsibility, and give kids a sense of accomplishment.

Teach the Importance of a Germ-Free Abode

By letting the kids know of the health risks associated with a dirty home, they are able to see the importance of sweeping the floor, and dusting surfaces, instead of viewing these tasks as a nuisance.

Organize a schedule of regular cleaning

Simple cleaning chores done by you and the kids can help keep clutter and bacteria at a minimum. But if you want a deeper clean for your home, you will need to do more than just mop the floors, and scrub the bathroom tiles.

Picking items off the floor, and keeping up with all other household chores are time-consuming, and should not be the center of your life. Luckily, you have the option to enlist the help of professional cleaners so you don’t have to tackle the massive cleaning tasks on your own.

The Best Way to Clean Your House

The biggest mistake people make is cleaning room by room (this is called "zone cleaning"). It's much too slow! You can either clean your kitchen in four hours, or clean your entire house top to bottom in four hours. 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. "task cleaning": completing one chore, such as dusting, throughout the entire house, before starting the next.

You'll do a little more walking, so it's a good workout, and I find that it's faster because you're in a mind set to keep moving. Follow these seven steps and your whole house will sparkle in four hours if you're a beginner, two and a half once you become a pro. Need an even quicker method? Check out our tips for hour, or our speed-cleaning guide for just 30 minutes.