3 Cleaning Methods That Save Time
Keeping your house clean never ends. Between life, kids, pets, home improvement projects and everything else, keeping your home organized and spotless is always going to take time and energy. As a professional house cleaner with over 10 years of experience I have put together a few time-saving methods that you can use right now to clean your home more efficiently and save time.
5 Minute Rule
The 5 minute rule is a great way to get you into a cleaning routine. If you find that you are a little sporadic when it comes to when you clean your home, this is a great way to set a short amount of time everyday to make sure small tasks get done. As a professional who offers recurring and one time deep cleaning services, I find that the homes that require extensive deep cleanings are the ones that had daily maintenance just slip away. That could be for multiple reasons, but if you are able to commit to the 5 minute rule, this is a fantastic way to establish a routine that will keep up with maintaining a clean home.
The 5 minute rule is simple: find a room in your home and spend 5 minutes cleaning it. Time yourself on your phone. I recommend a little planning (so it might be more than 5 minutes) to ensure you have all of the cleaning supplies you need to do a decent job. What I like about the 5 minute rule is that it keeps you focused on completing the task. When you set a timer, you set a goal for yourself. You’d be shocked at what you can accomplish in 5 minutes. This method also works great with kids. Having your kids spend 5 minutes a day cleaning their rooms means you get to spend less time doing it and it is something the whole family can participate in. Having the family buy into keeping your house clean and taking ownership of their spaces is a huge win for buying back your time to do other things!
The 6 x 10 Method
If you are looking for more structure than the 5 minute rule, try this. The 6 x 10 method assigns 6 daily cleaning tasks, and 10 weekly cleaning tasks. If you have kids, this is also a great one to follow, especially to track chores and provide little incentives for getting the items done.
Your daily tasks should be small but meaningful. Here’s an example:
-Make beds
-Wipe down countertops
-Wash dishes
-Do one load of laundry
-Take out all garbage
-Put away laundry
This way, you keep a general daily standard that is organized and set in place for your family to follow.
The 10 weekly tasks might look something like this:
-Vacuum the house
-Wipe down the refrigerator
-Clean the bathrooms
-Mop
-Wash bedding
-Clean the microwave
-Dust
-Tidy the pantry
-Clean mirrors
-Declutter shoe racks, and spaces where personal items gather
Over time, you should customize your cleaning tasks to serve your needs, but I like using the 6 x 10 method and the 5 minute rule together as they outline your tasks and give you a time frame to completing those tasks so you stay to the point without getting distracted.
The FIFO Method.
The acronym is cool, but it stands for first in - first out. As a professional cleaning service I use this method and train my team to work this way. This means that you isolate a space in your home, and you clean it from beginning to end. It sounds simple, but it can be hard to commit to cleaning a space without getting distracted. Many of us have kids, spouses, pets and a million things happening at once. I mean we’ve all gotten a call in the middle of vacuuming and completely stopped to answer the phone. Then, 15 minutes goes by and we can’t remember where we left off and we repeat everything and waste time!
First step is to put your phone away or turn it off. Next, I take a ground up approach to this method. If I’m in a bedroom, let’s start by decluttering the floor, then vacuuming, then making the beds, then wiping down surfaces, then cleaning the windows, and finally cleaning the ceiling fan.
The FIFO method might not be able to be achieved in 5 minutes but I would set a reasonable time frame. If you want to clean 5 rooms of your home, give yourself an hour or 20 minutes per room. You might get the job done faster than that but this ensures that you don’t spend too much time in one room unless it really does need a deep cleaning. If you are not a list oriented person, the FIFO method can also be a good substitute for the 6 x 10 method as well as it gives you more wiggle room to focus on the tasks at hand.
Summary:
Cleaning your home should not take away all of your time. I often find that when homes are not on a routine schedule it can be easy for cleaning tasks to slip out of control and leave your home in an overwhelming state. By implementing these 3 time-saving cleaning methods, you can stay on top of regular house cleaning tasks and better yet get family members to take ownership and pride in keeping your home clean. Of course if cleaning your home is difficult for you for other reasons, I’m happy to help! I don’t charge an hourly rate, and all pricing is customized based solely on your needs. My goal is to provide Grand Junction and the surrounding areas with impeccable house cleaning services!
