Are you looking to streamline your cleaning routine and make it more efficient? Cleaning your house can be a significant task, but it's important to remember that there's no one-size-fits-all approach for how to clean your home. Regardless of how you tackle it, cleaning the house in whatever way works best for you is a noteworthy achievement that should be celebrated. After all, having a cleaner and more organized living space can benefit your physical health, mental well-being, productivity, time management, and comfort.
A clean home can lead to a clearer mind and make you more efficient. When you know how to clean your home and keep the space organized and clutter-free, you'll find it easier to focus on other essential tasks. Maintaining a clean and dust-free home can also help keep allergens, germs, and pollutants at bay, which is beneficial for the health and overall well-being of every member of your household — humans and pets.
While it's been established that a clean home is better for you, cleaning a house from top to bottom is no easy feat. It can be very overwhelming, even if you have a small space or if your home is well organized already. Whether it's deep cleaning and organizing the bathroom, decluttering the garage, or sprucing up the kids' spaces, there isn't always a lot of free time to devote to the project. So, we sought expert advice to uncover easy cleaning tips and hacks to make cleaning house a quicker and more efficient process.
House cleaning methods
There are several approaches to cleaning your house. Your choice of approach will of course depend on your personal preferences, available time, lifestyle, and your home's specific needs. For instance, a family of four will need a different approach than a single person. You may be looking to maintain a clean home versus give it a big overhaul. You may even want to combine some of these approaches to create the method that suits you best.
Daily Cleaning Routine: This approach involves performing small cleaning tasks on a daily basis to maintain a tidy and organized home. Daily tasks may include making beds, doing dishes, wiping down kitchen counters, and picking up clutter.
Weekly Cleaning Routine: A weekly cleaning routine involves setting aside specific days or time each week to perform deeper cleaning tasks. This includes vacuuming, mopping floors, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, and changing bed linens.
Zone Cleaning: Zone cleaning breaks your home into different zones or areas, and you focus on one zone at a time during your cleaning sessions. For example, you might designate Mondays for cleaning the kitchen, Tuesdays for the living room, and so on. This approach ensures that each area receives thorough attention. “The best way to effectively clean your home is to pick a room for different days of the week," says Karen Lee, household organization and cleaning expert and founder of Smart Robotic Home. "If you plan an entire day around cleaning your whole house, it can become too overwhelming and you can miss important areas to clean."
FlyLady Cleaning Method: The FlyLady cleaning method emphasizes establishing routines and breaking cleaning tasks into smaller, more manageable steps. It promotes the use of a timer to clean for a set period and then take short breaks.
Seasonal Cleaning: Seasonal cleaning involves deep cleaning and organizing your home at specific times of the year, such as spring cleaning or fall cleaning. This approach often includes tasks like washing windows, cleaning carpets, and decluttering.
Minimalist Cleaning: Minimalist cleaning focuses on decluttering and simplifying your home to make cleaning easier and more efficient. It involves reducing possessions and maintaining a minimalist living space.
Speed Cleaning: Speed cleaning is all about completing cleaning tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible. It often involves using cleaning checklists, optimizing cleaning tools, and minimizing distractions to save time.
The KonMari Method: Developed by Marie Kondo, the KonMari method involves decluttering and organizing your belongings based on whether they "spark joy." It's a comprehensive approach to tidying up and involves discarding items that no longer bring happiness.
Total Clean Method: Roman Peysakhovich, CEO of national cleaning company Onedesk, explains this method as cleaning the entire house with every cleaning session — not just one room at a time. “House cleaning is much more efficient if you pick one task, such as dusting, mopping, or vacuuming, and do the same task in every room of the house,” he says. “Focusing on one task will save you hours of time in the long run and it'll help you avoid starting the same task over and over again.”
Chore Charts and Rotating Tasks: Creating chore charts and assigning cleaning tasks to family members can help distribute the cleaning workload and ensure that everyone contributes to maintaining a clean home.
Regardless of which cleaning method you choose, the key is to maintain a clean and organized living space that contributes to your overall well-being.
How to clean your house, according to experts
While there's no right or wrong way to clean, there are ways to make the cleaning process more efficient. Ahead, you'll find expert cleaning tips, clever cleaning product recommendations, and more of the best advice straight from the pros.
Start by Decluttering
Before you dust, wipe, and scrub, declutter your living space to give yourself a less overwhelming situation to deal with. A tidy space will make the cleaning process faster and more manageable.
"Pick up, and put away everything [that] has gathered on the floor," says Sharon Lowenheim, MBA, MSE, certified professional organizer, and founder of Organizing Goddess. "Then, do the same with all the surfaces."
Kate Pawlowski, founding partner of Done & Done Home, echoes Lowenheim's sentiment, adding that what makes cleaning so difficult for some people is that they have too much lying around the house. "We always suggest that doing a big declutter will make cleaning so much faster since everything is put away in its home," says Pawlowski.
Gather Your Supplies
Create a designated cleaning station with all your cleaning supplies and products in one place. This ensures that you have everything you need within easy reach while cleaning.
Devote one bucket or caddy to carry around the house with you while you clean, suggests Wendy Silberstein, professional organizer and founder of The Aesthetic Organizer. Then, "create a master schedule and commit."
Establish a Cleaning Schedule
Divide your cleaning tasks into daily, weekly, and monthly lists. This structured approach ensures that you maintain a consistently clean home without feeling overwhelmed.
Having a schedule and cleaning cadence can give your home the focus it deserves, while also keeping your mind in check. There's no sense in cleaning the same space over and over again if you're neglecting other parts of your home.
"You'll never have to spend hours (or days) doing an entire-home deep clean again," says Jamie Hord, founder of Horderly Professional Organizing. Hord recommends wiping down and disinfecting all high-traffic areas daily — doorknobs, countertops, kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms, just to name a few.
Sources:
- All photos used in this blogpost are sourced from the internet, and the rights belong to their respective owners
- Piña, C., & Usigan, Y. (2024, February 22). How to Clean Your House Quickly and Efficiently, According to Experts. Woman’s Day. https://www.womansday.com/home/organizing-cleaning/tips/a4055/a-quicker-way-to-clean-house-83178/