Nobody likes cleaning the house. Nobody. And we're never going to.
Instead we want to find an intelligent way to make cleaning the house faster, and hate it just a little bit less. That's a good goal. That's attainable.
A lot of why we don't like the tasks that are involved with cleaning house is that they are usually dreadfully inefficient. We're going to break five of those processes down here, with five of my personal favorite shortcuts to making your chores take less time and getting the most of your time off of work.
1. Pre-Sort Your Laundry
If you don't sort your laundry, congratulations! Move on to the next tip. Or maybe consider sorting your laundry so it lasts longer.
If you do sort your laundry, get a couple more bins, and sort it as you take it off. The time you spend sorting it every time you go to do laundry adds up to a lot more than you think. Bin for colors, bin for whites, bin for darks. Put a bin in the bathroom for towels. A communal pants bin, since people wash pants less often and washing everyone's at once makes things even more efficient.
2. Dusting Smart
Dusting is THE WORST. If you like breathing.
First thing, don't ever ever get a feather duster.
Second thing, keep old crappy socks. Or use some normal dark colored ones and wash them after use. When it's time to dust, turn the socks inside out and give them a nice spritz of some non-streak cleaning fluid so that the dust doesn't fly in the air, and stick your hand in there and do work.
For cloth curtains and furniture, use a lint roller to also avoid tossing dust into the air.
3. Window, Mirror, and Microwave Grime
Vinegar. Boil a cup of half water half vinegar in the microwave and blammo, all that gross crust wipes off.
For windows and mirrors, fill a spray bottle with half water and half vinegar, coat the things, and wipe it free.
Actually you know what? If you want to know how much you can clean with vinegar, check out this post at LiveLoveDIY. If you don't already know, vinegar is about to make your life a little easier.
4. Toilet Cleaning
Nobody wants to clean the toilet because it's gross, and using those toilet bowl cleaners that you just kind of keep around after using is gross too.
If you want it to actually get done, spend a little bit and get one of the wand-style toilet brushes with the replaceable, flushable head. Hang it on the side of the toilet, and keep the refills handy.
After that, get an in-toilet bowl cleaner. The in-tank automatic bleach cleaners can damage your toilet's parts permanently. This will keep buildup away for a little while longer.
5. Refrigerator Cleaning by Attrition
You're never going to clean the refrigerator. Nobody ever does. So let's just do it one piece at a time.
Every time you take something from the fridge, grab one more thing that needs to be thrown out, and get rid of it.
When you're out of stuff that needs throwing out, start moving items, one by one, each trip, until one shelf is empty. Now wipe that junk down with your vinegar/water mix. Did you keep your vinegar/water mix from earlier!?!?
Repeat until everywhere in the fridge is clean. And it didn't add any real time to your days or chores.
Those are my 5 tips to making cleaning a little easier, let me know yours below and try the coupon code CLEANINGSMARTER on your next order to see if you are among the first three to read this article! 20% off!
