Simple Systems: Clean Your House as You Go (with an added burst)

Photo by Shaylor

Every Wednesday is Simplicity Day on Zen Habits.

Who among us has the time or energy for housework?

Sure, we often make the time, if we don’t like living in a pig sty. But too often our homes fall into disorder, just because we are too tired or too busy to do a bunch of cleaning in our spare time.

Instead, make housework simple. Simplify your housework with two easy cleaning systems:

Clean as you go. This is merely the habit of putting things where they belong, instead of leaving them somewhere to be cleaned later, as well as cleaning any little messes quickly, instead of letting the messes build up. More on this below.
Burst cleaning. In my house, we call this a 30-minute cleanup, and it’s something we do on a Saturday when we don’t have much time for cleaning (which is almost every Saturday). The concept is to do a quick clean, in addition to the little cleaning you’ve done throughout the week, leaving your house (fairly) spic and span.

I’ve talked about the concept of clean-as-you-go before, but I thought I’d expand on it a bit after reader Jeff Lilly asked:

I have a question about your clean-as-you-go article. I sometimes have to let our bathrooms get pretty dirty for a while, because I simply don’t have the 30-40 minutes necessary to get in and clean them. If I could do a five-minute cleanup job every time I use them, it would be awesome. What exactly is your routine?

The toilet, for example: if I use the standard toilet cleaner and scrub brush, it takes at least 15 minutes because I have to let the toilet cleaner sit for 10 minutes in the bowl. Obviously, I can do something else during ten of those minutes, but it breaks up the flow of work, and no one can use the toilet during that time. Alternatively, I could simply clean the toilet bowl with a cloth and cleaning solution (which is actually my preferred method, since it gets it a lot cleaner), but if I use a new cloth two or three times a day, that adds up to a lot more laundry!

Also, the shower spray you use: usually these things are designed to be washed off during the next shower. Do you use it in the kids’ bathtub? Do you worry about the chemicals mixing in their bathwater?

Clean As You Go
Jeff’s excellent question allows me to use the cleaning of the bathroom as an example of clean as you go:

First, I don’t actually clean the bathroom every single day … but every 2-3 days is about right for me. I clean when I notice a little dirt building up, or if I notice something needs cleaning.
The toilet bowl, for example, usually stays fairly clean, but sometimes needs a quick swish. If I notice a bit of dirt in the toilet, I’ll spray it with a cleaner (any one will do if it’s not too dirty) and then do a quick swish with the toilet brush and flush it down. That only takes a minute.
If you let things get pretty dirty, you’ll need to do a more thorough clean — such as the things Jeff mentioned — but after that, it’s just a matter of maintaining the cleanliness. You’ll probably still need to do a deeper clean every now and then (use your eyes and nose to determine that) but for the most part, just try to keep things clean.
For the shower, again, if you keep it clean, you don’t need to use anything too harsh. Just a regular bathroom cleaner will work, if you’re cleaning it every 2-3 days. Just spray it down, and do a quick scrub either right before you get in the shower or while you’re in there. Only takes a couple of minutes, and then you get clean from the shower.
I do a quick wipe of the sink when I notice it getting dirty (again, every 2-3 days). The floor of the bathroom, maybe once a week. The walls don’t usually need cleaning as often.
As for the harsher cleaning sprays, yes, those can be harmful if you leave them in when your kids shower. I would recommend spraying, and then coming back and scrubbing and rinsing real quick, if you use those cleaners. But again, if you clean every few days, you won’t need anything too strong. Just a general cleaner.

This is clean-as-you-go for the bathroom: just a quick clean of the toilet, or sink, or tub, every couple of days. It only takes a few minutes, if things aren’t too dirty. I like to do a quick clean before I get in the shower, so I get clean after I dirty myself from cleaning.

But this concept can be applied to the rest of the house too:

Wash dishes when you’re done with them. Obvious, I know, but too often we leave dishes to pile in the sink. When you’re done with dinner, everyone should pitch in to put away leftover food, wash dishes, and clean the table, stove and counters. Takes about 10 minutes.
Keep counters and sink clean. If you cook or prepare food, wipe down the counters real quick when you’re done. When you do anything in the sink, rinse and wipe it down. Takes less than a minute.
Keep floor clean. I find that most of the house needs sweeping or vacuuming only once a week, but the kitchen needs sweeping every day (I have six kids and a cat). We share this duty (although I often end up doing it), and it only takes a few minutes.
Put away clothes when you take them off. If clothes are dirty, put them in the hamper. If they’re still clean, put them away.
Put other items where they belong. Instead of laying something on a counter, table, or floor, take a few seconds to put it where it belongs. This is a simple habit that will save tons of time.
Pick up before you go to bed. I like to do a quick pick-up before bedtime, of stuff that the kids left around. This leaves the house beautifully clean when I wake up in the morning. Only takes 2-3 minutes.

Burst Cleaning
While clean-as-you-go keeps your house fairly clean throughout the week, you’ll still need to do some general cleaning, preferably once a week. But you don’t have a lot of time.

I recommend that you do 30 minutes of cleaning, once a week. We use Saturdays, but you can do it whenever you have the time. For us, the entire family helps out, but if you don’t have a large family, you can just do what you can in 30 minutes.

Here’s what a family can tackle in 30 minutes:

Quick clean of the bathroom(s), including a wipe down of sink, toilet and tub, and quick clean of floor. Throw rugs in laundry.
Quick pick-up around the house.
Sweep floors, and mop if you have time.
Dust.
Clean kitchen a little more thoroughly than you do during the week.

If you don’t get all of this done in 30 minutes, don’t worry about it — you can always get it next weekend. But your house should be fairly clean.

Every 2-3 months, you should do a deeper clean — clean out the refrigerator, the oven, the cabinets, closets.

How to develop the habit
Don’t expect to be perfect at clean-as-you-go right away. It’s a new habit, and you’ll have a hard time with it at first.

Instead, try one thing at a time, for about a week or two at a time. I would recommend you follow the advice of one of my inspirations, Fly Lady, who says to start with the kitchen sink: just try to keep it clean and shiny. From there, work on the kitchen counters. Then the kitchen table. You might move to the bathroom sink next. And so on.

See also:

Simple Systems: Clean Your House as You Go (with an added burst)

Photo by Shaylor

Every Wednesday is Simplicity Day on Zen Habits.

Who among us has the time or energy for housework?

Instead, make housework simple. Simplify your housework with two easy cleaning systems:

Clean as you go. This is merely the habit of putting things where they belong, instead of leaving them somewhere to be cleaned later, as well as cleaning any little messes quickly, instead of letting the messes build up. More on this below.
Burst cleaning. In my house, we call this a 30-minute cleanup, and it’s something we do on a Saturday when we don’t have much time for cleaning (which is almost every Saturday). The concept is to do a quick clean, in addition to the little cleaning you’ve done throughout the week, leaving your house (fairly) spic and span.

I’ve talked about the concept of clean-as-you-go before, but I thought I’d expand on it a bit after reader Jeff Lilly asked:

I have a question about your clean-as-you-go article. I sometimes have to let our bathrooms get pretty dirty for a while, because I simply don’t have the 30-40 minutes necessary to get in and clean them. If I could do a five-minute cleanup job every time I use them, it would be awesome. What exactly is your routine?

The toilet, for example: if I use the standard toilet cleaner and scrub brush, it takes at least 15 minutes because I have to let the toilet cleaner sit for 10 minutes in the bowl. Obviously, I can do something else during ten of those minutes, but it breaks up the flow of work, and no one can use the toilet during that time. Alternatively, I could simply clean the toilet bowl with a cloth and cleaning solution (which is actually my preferred method, since it gets it a lot cleaner), but if I use a new cloth two or three times a day, that adds up to a lot more laundry!

Also, the shower spray you use: usually these things are designed to be washed off during the next shower. Do you use it in the kids’ bathtub? Do you worry about the chemicals mixing in their bathwater?

Clean As You Go
Jeff’s excellent question allows me to use the cleaning of the bathroom as an example of clean as you go:

First, I don’t actually clean the bathroom every single day … but every 2-3 days is about right for me. I clean when I notice a little dirt building up, or if I notice something needs cleaning.
The toilet bowl, for example, usually stays fairly clean, but sometimes needs a quick swish. If I notice a bit of dirt in the toilet, I’ll spray it with a cleaner (any one will do if it’s not too dirty) and then do a quick swish with the toilet brush and flush it down. That only takes a minute.
If you let things get pretty dirty, you’ll need to do a more thorough clean — such as the things Jeff mentioned — but after that, it’s just a matter of maintaining the cleanliness. You’ll probably still need to do a deeper clean every now and then (use your eyes and nose to determine that) but for the most part, just try to keep things clean.
For the shower, again, if you keep it clean, you don’t need to use anything too harsh. Just a regular bathroom cleaner will work, if you’re cleaning it every 2-3 days. Just spray it down, and do a quick scrub either right before you get in the shower or while you’re in there. Only takes a couple of minutes, and then you get clean from the shower.
I do a quick wipe of the sink when I notice it getting dirty (again, every 2-3 days). The floor of the bathroom, maybe once a week. The walls don’t usually need cleaning as often.
As for the harsher cleaning sprays, yes, those can be harmful if you leave them in when your kids shower. I would recommend spraying, and then coming back and scrubbing and rinsing real quick, if you use those cleaners. But again, if you clean every few days, you won’t need anything too strong. Just a general cleaner.

But this concept can be applied to the rest of the house too:

Wash dishes when you’re done with them. Obvious, I know, but too often we leave dishes to pile in the sink. When you’re done with dinner, everyone should pitch in to put away leftover food, wash dishes, and clean the table, stove and counters. Takes about 10 minutes.
Keep counters and sink clean. If you cook or prepare food, wipe down the counters real quick when you’re done. When you do anything in the sink, rinse and wipe it down. Takes less than a minute.
Keep floor clean. I find that most of the house needs sweeping or vacuuming only once a week, but the kitchen needs sweeping every day (I have six kids and a cat). We share this duty (although I often end up doing it), and it only takes a few minutes.
Put away clothes when you take them off. If clothes are dirty, put them in the hamper. If they’re still clean, put them away.
Put other items where they belong. Instead of laying something on a counter, table, or floor, take a few seconds to put it where it belongs. This is a simple habit that will save tons of time.
Pick up before you go to bed. I like to do a quick pick-up before bedtime, of stuff that the kids left around. This leaves the house beautifully clean when I wake up in the morning. Only takes 2-3 minutes.

Here’s what a family can tackle in 30 minutes:

Quick clean of the bathroom(s), including a wipe down of sink, toilet and tub, and quick clean of floor. Throw rugs in laundry.
Quick pick-up around the house.
Sweep floors, and mop if you have time.
Dust.
Clean kitchen a little more thoroughly than you do during the week.

If you don’t get all of this done in 30 minutes, don’t worry about it — you can always get it next weekend. But your house should be fairly clean.

Every 2-3 months, you should do a deeper clean — clean out the refrigerator, the oven, the cabinets, closets.

How to develop the habit
Don’t expect to be perfect at clean-as-you-go right away. It’s a new habit, and you’ll have a hard time with it at first.

See also:

Posted on 29 August 2007 in Habits, Simplicity |
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Comments (33)

Ames Says:

August 29th, 2007, 5:41 am

Leo - My vision of your perfection has been smudged! This is a great post, but not even a MENTION of the importance of using eco-friendly cleaning materials??

Your sharp focus on the practical makes your blog so useful. Now, isn ‘t eco-awareness the ultimate in practicality? What good is efficiency if we are poisoning our nests and harming our great green Mother?

As compensation, how ’bout a nice piece on using the solar oven to cook lunch, for the embodiment of simplicity, economy and the Zen of using Nature’s free resources to provide for our needs effortlessly?

Just a thought–
;-)

Vincent Says:

August 29th, 2007, 6:27 am

There are plenty of very easy, very green recipes for cleaning products! Before there was Windex or AJAX, people were using natural cleaning solutions as the norm; vinegar, lemon juice, and sodium bicarbonate are all very safe, very effective cleaning agents that have been in use for hundreds of years. Of course, Johnson & Johnson don’t want you to know that.

Besides Google, a great place to start, believe it or not, is Martha Stewart’s magazine, Body + Soul. There is an article in particular that gives recipes for natural cleaning products, including anti-mold and anti-fungus solutions as well as a ceramic cleaner, which should cover most bathroom needs without putting you or your children at risk.

With chemical cleaners in our wastewater building up in the environment, it’s important that we do all that we can to reduce our impact—and that includes changing the things we clean with. Natural solutions are not only cheaper and in many cases more effective than off-the-shelf cleansers, but they’re also much, much kinder to nature.

Leo Says:

August 29th, 2007, 7:35 am

@Ames and Vincent: Thanks for the eco-tips … I’m very grateful for your ideas and the information you’ve added to this post. :)

I’ve never claimed to be perfect. ;)

Alison Says:

August 29th, 2007, 8:07 am

I’ll add my vote for green cleaning products. Bicarb (sodium bicarbonate) is great for getting the bottom of the shower clean (you know all that greasy soap residue that builds up). It needs a little bit of scrubbing, but no more than most chemical cleaners. Add a bit of vinegar as you clean, and it fizzes and acts like a foaming cleaner.

There’s also at least one range of cleaning cloths that don’t require any cleaning chemicals: I’ve got one for my office desk (glass), one for the bathroom (porcelain), and one for dusting.

This means that it’s possible to clean some things literally as you go: swish the brush around the bowl every time before using the toilet, swipe a damp cloth over the basin after you brush your teeth, and wipe up kitchen spills when you make them. I clean my desk while I’m waiting for my computer to boot up.

It’s also possible to have a house that minimises the need for cleaning. My house has polished floorboards, so most of my floor-cleaning involves five minutes waving a dust mop around, instead of lugging a vacuum cleaner about the place. Furniture on wheels (mostly) means that I can nudge things out of the way to clean under/behind them.

And of course decluttering makes cleaning so much easier, because there’s much less stuff to clean, as well as much less stuff to clean under/around/behind.

Ben Licher Says:

August 29th, 2007, 8:26 am

We have the (eco) cleaning products standing in the toilets, in the bathrooms, everywhere where we need them, so instead of walking up and down to find the stuff, it’s already there.

Graham Lutz, The Young Capitalist Says:

August 29th, 2007, 8:42 am

This is my wife’s job. UH OH! EVIL MAN!! chill out. In a world of scarce resources, why would I spend my time doing it when my wife does it just to make me happy?

priri Says:

August 29th, 2007, 8:48 am

Flylady suggests swishing the toilet bowl daily. Part of her philosophy is ’soap is soap’, and suggests the use of shampoo in the holder for the toilet brush.

I use a non-toxic shampoo and dilute it about half in the container that holds the brush. I swish every day, and have a spotless toilet. I change out the shampoo every week or two.

Katie Viazcan Says:

August 29th, 2007, 8:49 am

I just wanted to say that harsh chemicals can be harmful to little kids…a cheaper and less harsh way to go is by using natural products. I keep a spray bottle of distilled white vinegar and water under my bathroom sink. I spray it on the shower, sink, floor, toilet…..it is even so gentle that you can clean kids toys, tabletops, windows, sinks–ANYTHING! And it really works!! Sometime I wipe after and sometimes I’ll just spray the shower or something and leave it. It doesn’t foam up, so you won’t see marks left behind.

Katie Viazcan Says:

August 29th, 2007, 8:52 am

oops! I posted before I read everyone else’s postings about the wonders of vinegar! :) Sorry!

Jeff Lilly | Druid Journal Says:

August 29th, 2007, 9:21 am

I want to thank Leo for the great information, and all the commenters who’ve added so much to it already! I especially appreciate the information on green cleansers! I’m a druid, and the natural environment for me is a spiritual necessity, not just a good idea. ;-)

A dirty house is such a terrible source of stress and frustration for me — it makes my harried days so much worse. This information is a real godsend.

linlu Says:

August 29th, 2007, 9:34 am

Priri is right, as FlyLady says soap is soap. I also discovered FlyLady thanks to your site, and my house is clean after 2.5 years of being a complete and utter disaster (it only took a few 4 months of the FlyLady system - do a little each day). Daily cleaning routines, a couple minutes here, 15 minutes there, make my weekly cleaning doable on a Monday night. A “Load of Laundry a Day”, “Swish and Swipe”, “Control Journal”, and so on. My Saturdays are free from cleaning so I can do as I wish. I highly recommend FlyLady. Her tips/system are great, even for guys.

P.S. Her tips for the control journal are also easy to adapt for work. I created a control journal for work and it has made my life so easy, I look for things to do now.

Mary Says:

August 29th, 2007, 9:37 am

Our bathroom used to be downright nasty due to a lack of time and general laziness/dread of cleaning it. I discovered a simple way to keep it clean so I only have to do a deep cleaning (read: scrubbing toilet, sink and tub) once or twice a year.

My husband and I keep a spray bottle with a diluted bleach mixture in it. The last one to use the shower each morning sprays down the entire tub/shower/curtain. Same for sink and toilet each morning before we leave for work.

To look at my bathroom now, you would think I scrub it every day. No mildew and it smells clean and fresh.

Christa Says:

August 29th, 2007, 10:00 am

To Graham Lutz, The Young Capitalist regarding your comment about this being your wife’s job.
Remember their is nothing sexier than a man who helps cook and clean. Something to keep in mind.

Jeff Lilly | Druid Journal Says:

August 29th, 2007, 10:05 am

Christa, my wife says the same thing…

I actually do the vast majority of cleaning in my house, mostly because my tolerance for clutter is considerably lower than hers. :-) But — no kidding — I really enjoy it. There’s nothing like losing yourself in some serious housework — really getting into the moment of it, being there — and then coming up for air and realizing that everything around you is sparkling.

There you go, Graham: that’s why you should help out with the housework. Why let your wife have all the fun? ;-)

Les Says:

August 29th, 2007, 10:25 am

I find that dirty dishes, and “stuff” that is not where it is supposed to live, drags me down — it makes life and living, apart from cleaning, much more difficult. “Cleaning as you go” will be extremely helpful, from a standpoint of making cleaning quicker and easier. At the same time, it seems to me that “cleaning as you go” will have vast and dramatically helpful benefits to living and breathing — to optimism and enthusiasm.

Mikey Says:

August 29th, 2007, 10:54 am

Great suggestions and comments.

After my partner and I quit smoking (cold turkey in 1983), we rewarded ourselves with a housekeeper who cleaned twice a month. When he first saw our house, Les shook his head and warned us not to expect miracles, that he would cover the high spots every visit and deeply clean one part of the house at a time. I learned from him that having high expectations can be self-defeating: “I don’t have the time and energy to get it completely clean, so why bother?” After two years of help, I have been cleaning the house myself by the clean-as-you-go and burst method (1 hour first thing Sunday morning.) I didn’t know it had a name!

Other things that helped me get in control of housecleaning:
- canceled newspaper and magazine subscriptions which resulted in fewer stacks of things that I felt needed attention before I could start cleaning
- replaced shiny furniture that required extra work and rarely looked clean
- installed shelves and storage gizmos to keep all but most frequently used items off countertops (it’s easier to clean when you don’t have to move lots of things first.)

Monica Says:

August 29th, 2007, 11:18 am

One of the reasons I’m not happy about the fact that I need to be a tenant is that I need to keep my apartment barely clean enough not to get in trouble with the landlord or building administration. Why even bother cleaning if you don’t have to? If I owned the apartment, I would live in a bigger mess, and I was living in a terrible mess in my former apartmetn where the landlord did not care. In fact, the right to do so is one of the reasons I would love to buy a home, and that’s one of the first things I would do in my new home if I ever got one. At first, I would probably feel like doing it even if I could afford not to, just to assert my freedom. My apartmetn was quite clean when I moved in, and I did have a short period of relatively clean habits, but I became very busy and let things pile up and never recovered.

However, from time to time, I would clean and organize something relatively well. I bought bookends for my bookcases, and the bookcases are probably the best organized part of my apartment. But I can’t believe anybody would want to clean the bathroom so often or even have the vain ambition not to let the bathtub look dirty. I have tried to make it spotless, but it seemed to take too much work and I just gave up.

Steve Says:

August 29th, 2007, 11:41 am

in respect to dishes, my wife and i have followed the clean as you go idea and found something that helps with this is to reduce the number of dishes you have available for use. for instance, there’s just the two of us, so we only have 2 of each piece (2 cups, 2 plates, 2 bowls, 2 spoons, etc) we keep extras for guests in a separate place that is near by, but designated as not for daily use.

this helps force us to do the clean as you go method for dishes.

we’re trying to apply this to other areas too, but have so far only found a few other places where this works (there will hopefully be more that we find later).

Danielle Says:

August 29th, 2007, 12:09 pm

One quick tip for the bathroom - we added a small towel hook inconspicuously next to the sink for a ‘wipe up rag’. After every use of the sink we wipe off the water spots, dust, etc from the sink and bowl. We use old tshirts for rags usually, nothing fancy or too bulky, and wash the rag every few days (after using it to wipe off the toilet usually, keeping that clean too!).

It keeps our sinks clean for weeks without requiring any cleaning solution and takes only seconds of our day.

Terry Says:

August 29th, 2007, 12:12 pm

Here is a helpful hint that I have adopted in my house. In every the kitchen and every bathroom I have one of those Clorox wipe containers under the sink. I usually get one of the nice smelling flavors like lemon or orange. Whenever I am in the bathroom I go under the sink and grab a wipey and just wipe around. It’s quite easy since I am in those rooms at least twice a day. You don’t really need to spend a lot of time in those rooms if you just wipe down each time you walk in there.

Keith Says:

August 29th, 2007, 12:34 pm

Something I just started doing. My shower stall was getting a little gross. I’m the only one using it. We tried the shower clean sprays, but kept running out and always took a while to replenish it. There was never a scrub brush or cleaner handy when I would think about cleaning - when I was already in the shower. The shower head would not spray into all corners. I bought a $1.98 scrub brush from Wal-Mart. It has a tapered end that gets into the corners and a handle that hooks over the top of the glass shower wall (keeping it handy). I also spent $10 for a detachable hand shower, at Lowes, to replace the shower head. I used the brush to scrub away the mold and skum on tile and glass. It is handy to spot scrub as needed. I can then use the hand sprayer at the end of each shower to rinse down the walls and glass. I think it will stay much cleaner, much easier, for all of $12.

rjfrost7 Says:

August 29th, 2007, 12:45 pm

I have found the book Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell to be a great resource in getting quick, efficient, and effective cleaning accomplished in my home. I have learned to build in daily 5 or 10 minute sessions to keep clutter under control, and then every 10 days or so I do Speed Cleaning that is more in depth and keeps real grime under control.
Great post Leo!

LisaS Says:

August 29th, 2007, 12:57 pm

One big thing here: if you have kids, involve them in the work. Everyone who lives in a house should share in its upkeep, and teaching this from the get-go will save them a lot of grief as adults sharing space with people who don’t have to put up with it (roommates, partners, etc.). You’d be surprised what a 3-4 year old can do, especially if you accept that wiping things with water alone is usually okay.

Brian Tanaka Says:

August 29th, 2007, 14:58 pm

“Clean As You Go” is a great tip. I’ve adhered to this strategy for many years, and it works far better (for me, anyway) than doing less-frequent, big cleaning sessions. Strangely, I learned this from an acquaintance who, despite projecting a rebellious, devil-may-care vibe, actually kept a strikingly meticulous home. Kinda funny. But his exhortations to clean-as-you-go stuck with me all these years, and I’m all the better for it!

gayle Says:

August 29th, 2007, 15:45 pm

You’re supposed to leave the toilet cleaner in there 10 minutes before you scrub? Who knew? I never do that! Just squirt and scrub. That stuff will take the color out of your shirt 3 seconds after it splashes on you. So I’m sure the germs don’t need to soak.

The other beautiful thing are the pre-moistened wipes. I just leave them out all the time, and give the toilet rim/seat and sinktop a swipe every day, whenever I happen to be in there. And these are available in both nasty-chemical version and eco-friendly version. You can also make your own by soaking a roll of sturdy paper towels in whatever cleaning solution you prefer. I will admit, I haven’t tried this.

The hardest part is the tub. That is my downfall, I don’t clean this as often as I should. But then, the only thing I touch it with is the bottom of my feet, and how dirty can it get? It’s just soap.

Deaf Musician Says:

August 29th, 2007, 18:30 pm

Damn, I have the exact shower.

Lynda Sereno Says:

August 29th, 2007, 20:36 pm

One tip I haven’t seen that works great for us: After you dry off, use your towel to wipe down the shower walls and fixtures.

I second many of the other tips mentioned, especially those from flylady.

Janice Says:

August 30th, 2007, 21:19 pm

This is a helpful post… and now I have an embarrassing question. How do you clean shower stalls that are all tile? I’m used to cheap apartment tubs with showers in them, and the tile shower stall with a sliding glass closure is harder to work with. Any suggestions?

Yes, I know, I’m a grown-up, I should know how to clean. But I don’t. Help!

Vanessa Says:

August 30th, 2007, 23:18 pm

Great tips! I’m going to move some cleaning supplies into the bathroom right away.

I use bicarb and vinegar too, using the ‘two-sponge method’ from the brilliant book Spotless – it’s been a massive bestseller here in Australia. (http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=162165) You dip one sponge in some bicarb and another in white vinegar, and then press the vinegar sponge on top of the bicarb one to wipe. Magic!

If things are really dirty, a mild abrasive paste called Gumption is the shizney. I can’t believe I didn’t know about it before! …Though really, since I started using the two-sponge method, my bath never gets that dirty. (Janice: the other thing that’s essential is a simple scrubbing brush with a comfy handle: use a bit of Gumption on it and the tile grout cleans up beautifully.)

Re: FlyLady, I like the idea, but if I’m honest, I know I’m never going to clean every day! I’m going with the minimal approach: an apartment with a dishwasher (my boyfriend and I are about to move in together), splashing out on an iRobot Roomba 560 robovac, and once a quarter, calling in my super-thorough cleaner to get the place sparkling. Then it’s just a matter of spending 15 minutes once a week dusting, cleaning the bathroom and taking out the bins, and mopping the floors once a month.

Rubab Says:

August 31st, 2007, 0:11 am

Gujranwala in Pakistan is very famous for the house hold articles check here http://www.gcci.org.pk

Productivity Blog Says:

October 9th, 2007, 17:28 pm

I apply clean as you go where my desk is concern. That way I never have to spend half a day to clean up my desk.

I also apply Clean as you go method to wash my car too. Whenever i buy a take away and I eat it in the car, I make sure that I remove all the wrapping as soon as I arrive home and if I have stained a seat, I make sure that I remove the stain before it gets worse ;)

Aineias Says:

January 19th, 2008, 2:28 am

Cool…

Mobea Says:

January 22nd, 2008, 17:03 pm

Any hints on cleaning when you’re disabled. I can’t bend over to clean the tub. It hurts to mop. Just to stand and do dishes takes me two or three attempts at it. I have a big dog that is constantly running in and out of the house and at this time of the year, bringing in leaves. I do have a glass cofffee table that I keep clean so that it “appears” that I clean. But it’s really hard to keep my house clean every day. What used to take me 15 mins. now takes me all day it seems. I can’t afford a housekeeper, I was just wondering if other people who are disabled have hints on cleaning their house.