Can you find a spare 15 minutes a day? That’s all the time it will take to speedclean a standard room in a house. Sounds too easy, doesn’t it? Well, there may be some initial changes you’ll have to make before you reach top speed, but once you do, you too could become a lean, mean, speedcleaning machine!
In this book we outline three types of cleaning: daily cleaning; speedcleaning and spring/autumn cleaning. Daily cleaning includes jobs like wiping benchtops, washing dishes, sorting laundry and emptying bins. Speedcleaning includes weekly and emergency cleaning. Spring/autumn cleaning is done only twice a year and is like a stocktake or audit of the household. We’ll take you through the house, room by room, outlining speedcleaning techniques as well as describing how to make general cleaning speedier. We also anticipate cleaning emergencies and include lots of tips and hints for around the home.
Here are the basic rules for speedcleaning:
Follow this order to speedclean each room.
No matter what the item is, everything—from sticky tape to DVDs—needs to have a designated spot. Putting things in their special place will not only speed up your cleaning, but life inside the house will be easier because you won’t be searching high and low for whatever you need. The best way to work out where to keep things is to start with some graph paper, a tape measure, a pencil, scissors and plain paper. Graph paper is becoming increasingly hard to find so another option is to print off a sample from the back of this book (see page 210). Pick a room in your house and measure the furniture. Represent the room to scale on graph paper and work out the corresponding size of your furniture to scale. You’ll find a sample at the rear of this book. Create flat cutout models of your furniture using scissors and plain paper. You can arrange and rearrange the furniture in the room until you work out the best layout. Keep your paper cutouts in a zip-lock bag in case you want to rearrange the room again or if you move house. If paper cutouts aren’t your thing, you could also use a pencil and draw the furniture directly onto the graph paper, but it’s harder to move around if you change your mind.
When working out your floor plan, take into account the breezeways in each room. They will be different for each house and each room. To determine a breezeway, light a candle and see in which direction the flame blows. The flame will bend away from the breeze indicating how the air circulates. What you’re aiming for is air to flow as easily as possible: so don’t put a heavy item of furniture near a window if it blocks the flow of air. Good airflow helps to prevent mould and creates a much healthier atmosphere—and it’s cooler in summer.
While arranging a room, think about creating the smallest walking distance between two points; which means items should be stored near where they are used. For example, scissors could be kept in a kitchen drawer or in an office drawer, or you may decide to have two pairs if they are used often in both locations. You don’t want to be going backwards and forwards constantly. Another example is cutlery, which should be stored near the dishwasher or dish rack so you don’t have to move far to put it away. For items which don’t have a regular home, set up a miscellaneous bowl or basket. Just make sure you clear it out regularly.
If there are several people in your home, consider colour coding. The way this works is that everyone in the house is allocated their own colour and that colour is then attached to their items. For shared items, there’s a household colour. By using this method, the household has a system for sorting and storing things.
A small bit of advice: no matter how enthusiastic you are, don’t overwhelm yourself and attempt to overhaul the whole house in one go. Take it one room at a time!
‘Hints for Blokes’ are included throughout the book because men and women clean differently. Men generally clean from one side of a room to another whereas women tend to be more job-specific. Men tend to be visual when cleaning, so make sure their line-of-sight is unimpaired. They may need to stand on a ladder or sit on the floor to see the dirt. Women tend to clean because they know it’s there, even if they can’t see it—they’ll rewash clothes because they’re in the dirty pile rather than because they need it. There are pluses and minuses in both ways of cleaning. Neither style is better—they’re just different. Allow for these differences in approach.
It’s easy to let things pile up, but really, you’re just creating more work for yourself. Keep in mind that old saying: ‘a stitch in time saves nine’. It’s better to have one pile than nine! And let’s be honest: no matter how busy you are, you can always find some time in your day if you really want to. Schedule it in if you need to.
The speedcleaning routine is based around a nine-room house. The idea is to clean one room per weekday and four rooms on Saturday with a day off on Sunday, or whenever you’d like it to be. You may prefer to clean the whole house one day each week. It’s up to you to work out the system that suits you best. Add 10–15 minutes extra time for each additional person in the house per day because more people mean more mess. The important thing is to have a system and for that system to be as efficient as possible.
I also think it’s crucial that everyone in the house knows the system so it’s not a ‘one-person rule’ situation—because that one person then tends to get a bit cranky. Assign the worst or laziest cleaner in the house to coordinate the schedule because they’ll be more likely to follow their own rules. Also, you can’t get cross with a list!
I can’t emphasise enough just how important it is to have the right cleaning tools for the job. Storing the tools in the nearest location will keep cleaning time to a minimum. There are several ways to organise your clean kit. You could have everything stored at a centralised spot or divided up and kept in different parts of the house. You could have different kits for different rooms. You might like to carry items in buckets or plastic toolboxes or you may even use a traymobile like they do in hotels. It depends on your storage situation and preferences. I like to be able to pick up my clean kit with one hand—and have found that a nappy bucket is the perfect size for me. I attach a butcher’s hook (available from hardware stores) to the edge of the bucket so I can hang a rag from it. Whatever you decide to use, just make sure the kit isn’t too heavy.
Another suggestion is to store a cloth for cleaning timber in a zip-lock bag in the lounge room, for example. That way, when you’ve got a spare couple of minutes or when you’re talking on the phone, you could speedclean some furniture. The main thing is to have your kit ready to go for the speedclean.
If you don’t have a broom cupboard, create a storage area by fixing hooks from the hardware store on the back of doors or in cupboards.
Brooms come in many varieties, including nylon, straw, copra, bristle and polycarbonate. Select the broom according to the surface and amount of soil to remove. As a general rule, the heavier the soiling, the tougher the broom. They can be long-handled or short-handled. Nylon brooms have soft bristles and are best used inside the house. If you wrap an old T-shirt around the head of a long-handled nylon broom, it can also be used as a mop. Straw brooms are good for outside the house to sweep bulky dust and to collect cobwebs. Yard brooms have a wider head and are good for large areas such as driveways, paths, verandahs, garage floors and patios. If you can, clean the broom every time you use it. Do this by wetting a cake of soap with water then rub it over the broom bristles. Rinse the broom under warm water, shake the excess water off then stand the broom upwards to dry. Brooms are quite cheap these days so have several. You could even colour code them!
Buckets come in many shapes and colours. Square, oblong and round are the most common shapes. Round buckets are either standard or nappy size. Choose ones with a pouring spout and lid. Use buckets to soak clothes, store washing water and transport items.
Clothes’ baskets aid the transport of clothes. They can be plastic, cane or wicker. Never have one bigger than you can lift when full. Plastic ones are light, come in a variety of colours and are easily cleaned with a little dishwashing liquid on a damp cloth. Cane baskets are popular but wear more quickly, take less weight and, because they’re unsealed, collect mould. Wicker baskets aren’t made any more but Shannon loves them. Wash them with salt water applied with a cloth every two months. When not in use, store all baskets upside down, so they don’t collect dust.
Cloths come in many varieties, but the best cloth is an old cotton T-shirt or old cotton knickers with the gusset cut out. Both are lint-free and can be rewashed in a washing machine on a hot setting. You can use proprietary cloths but there’s no need to. See the Rag Bag (page 12) for other types of cloths.
Clutter bucket is any kind of handled bucket used to transport items from one room to another. Select whichever size suits you best. I find allocating a particular colour for each family member is a good organisational approach.
Dusters think the best duster is an old cotton T-shirt because it picks up dirt really well, is easy to wash out and won’t scratch surfaces. Fluffy dusters tend to spread the dirt around the house so it just settles elsewhere. The best way to dust is to wipe a damp cloth over a surface. When we say damp, this means the cloth has been wrung out so tightly that it feels cool against your skin. If it’s wet, you can feel the moisture and the water will end up creating mud trails when you clean. When storing a dusting cloth, wring it out in methylated spirits to make it antiseptic and sterile. Once it’s dry, put it away with your clean kit ready to use next time. Never wipe surfaces with methylated spirits directly!
Dustpan and brush collect dust, dirt, leaves and other items.
Elastic bands are used to temporarily secure items. They need to be strong enough for the job. Here they are mainly used to secure T-shirts over a broom head or vacuum cleaner.
Garbage bags come in a variety of sizes, strengths and thicknesses. Whether you have tie tops or drawstring bags is your choice.
Gloves can be disposable, rubber, cotton, gardening, polyurethane or acid-resistant. They protect the skin from chemicals, abrasion and heat and can also help with grip.
Hairdryer is very useful for dusting, particularly delicate fine china. A hairdryer also helps to remove wax and can be used to apply heat to an area to speed up the drying process.
Mop can be made of rag or sponge, although newer ones combine the two and have spongy rags. I prefer to put an old T-shirt over a broom head and use that as a mop because it’s easier to clean and clean with.
Old stockings are great cleaners and great non-scratch scourers, especially when cutting through soap scum. They’re also handy to wrap around the back of taps to clean. And they’re cheap to buy if you don’t have any old ones around the house.
Old toothbrushes—don’t throw them away! Keep them to clean difficult-to-access areas, such as around taps and in tight corners.
Old T-shirts are great to use for mopping, dusting, polishing and wrapping over the vacuum cleaner head to protect surfaces. They’re also very absorbent. If you don’t have any old T-shirts, buy them cheaply at second-hand stores, which is cheaper than buying new sponges at the supermarket.
Paper towels are great for mopping up spills and clearing grease.
Rag bags care used for storing old T-shirts, clothes, tea towels and towels to use as rags for cleaning. Old woollen jumpers are great furniture polishers. Just make sure you remove all buttons and recycle them in your button box. Make your own rag bag using an old pillowcase and simply attach it with hooks, tacks or screws to the inside of a cupboard or the back of a door.
Scrubbing brush has a wooden or plastic top, and tough bristles. A dishwashing brush, made of nylon or bristles, can be used as a scrubbing brush. Use on stubborn stains and in tight corners.
Sponges use different coloured sponges so you don’t contaminate your areas. I use green sponges on benchtops, pink sponges on the floor and yellow and blue sponges in the bathroom. Wash sponges in a small bowl of white vinegar, leave overnight then rinse in hot water.
Spray bottle either buy at the supermarket or reuse an old spray bottle—buy the cheapest product that comes in a refillable spray bottle, use the product, clean the bottle in warm water then reuse. Check the bottle has a spray or mist option on the nozzle. Use removable labels and mark the bottle clearly. Spray bottles have many uses, for example, fill with lavender oil and water to use as an air-freshener in the toilet.
Squeegee is a short-handled rubber-bladed implement used to wipe water from a surface. It operates like a windscreen wiper on a car. Use it to clean windows, the shower screen in the bathroom or to pick up dropped eggs from the kitchen floor. A squeegee can be bought at the supermarket, petrol station or discount shop.
Storage box could be an old cardboard box, plastic box or timber box in a variety of shapes and sizes. Select one according to its use.
Vacuum cleaner—what a great invention! It sucks up dust and dirt from all manner of things using a variety of attachments. The main elements of the vacuum cleaner are:
+barrel: this is the body of the cleaner. It has an inlet and outlet connection. The inlet is where the hose goes and it sucks dirt into the barrel. The outlet is where the air blows out of the machine and it’s generally covered. You can attach the hose to the outlet to backflush and clean the vacuum cleaner.
+bag: located inside the barrel. Modern vacuum cleaners have a window which shows when the bag is full. If you don’t have this, check the bag each time you use the cleaner. It’s a good idea to change the bag regularly. The vacuum cleaner won’t work efficiently if the bag is more than half full.
+tube: hard part—the length may be varied to suit your height or according to what you’re vacuuming. Make it shorter when vacuuming furnishings and longer when vacuuming floors. If you are tall, extra lengths are available from the vacuum cleaner shop and will save your back.
+soft part—the flexible hose connection.
+main head: this can be set to have bristles up or down. Vacuum with the bristles down for shiny and hard floors; put the bristles up for carpets and soft floors, unless you have pets. Clean any fur or dust out of the bristles with an old comb.
+brush head: a small round attachment with long bristles designed to clean cobwebs, cornices, window sills, etc.
+upholstery nozzle: a small flat attachment to be used to vacuum the surface of furnishings, curtains and pelmets.
+corner nozzle: use it to access tight spaces, such as the sides of chairs, or to clean around the buttons on padded furniture.
Work from the top of the room to the bottom. Begin vacuuming with the brush head and remove cobwebs from the ceiling. Then clean the tops of things such as wardrobes, picture rails, dado rails, skirting boards, light fittings, window frames and sills and so on. Then change to the corner nozzle and vacuum skirting boards, corners and edges. Attach the main head and clean under furniture before vacuuming the main areas. Start in one corner of the room and move diagonally across—vacuuming diagonally puts less stress on the carpet fibres and leaves fewer marks. Just before you finish vacuuming, spray some insecticide spray onto a tissue then suck it up into the cleaner to kill any insects that might have landed in the bag. Alternatively, you could put some oil of pennyroyal on a tissue and suck it into the bag. (Do not use pennyroyal if anyone in the house is pregnant.) If you’re allergic to dust mites, suck a couple of damp teabags into the vacuum cleaner bag before you start cleaning. This will kill the dust mites.
To clean the vacuum cleaner, vacuum inside the barrel and all the attachments and clean the outside with a damp cloth. Wash the head in a mild dishwashing solution but make sure you dry it well so that it doesn’t rust or corrode.
Even if there’s only one person in your house, a cleaning schedule is really helpful because you’ll always know where you are in the cleaning routine. I always start cleaning at the front of the house where the main bedroom is and work in one direction around the house: that way I don’t track dirt and I can remember where I’m up to.
As an example, here’s my cleaning planner:
Tuesday—lounge/dining
Wednesday—bathrooms
Thursday—kitchen
Friday—family/study
Saturday—entrance/hall/outside/laundry
Sunday—day off
Make a master cleaning list that includes dates for when you shampooed the carpet, had equipment serviced, cleaned windows, fixed squeaky locks and hinges, had pest inspections, checked exterior paintwork and completed minor repairs so that you know when you next need to address that issue. If you’ve just had your carpets steam cleaned, don’t spot clean for at least four weeks and then vacuum the area four times because the chemicals used in steam cleaning can adversely interact with them. When you’re speedcleaning, you’ll come across tasks, such as stains and scratches that you won’t be able to deal with at the time. Write these down and add them to the master list. When you have some spare time, you can consult the list and do the task. If you have children, include them on the roster and reward small children with a stamp or a gold star and older children with a treat for a job well done. Helping with regular chores is a good way for kids to earn pocket money.
There are several ways to store the cleaning list. Attach it to the fridge with a magnet or keep a book with the information stored near your cleaning kit. For speedcleaning, I use two A4-sized magnetic sheets, which you can buy from hardware stores and craft stores. One magnetic sheet has the master Lush Family Cleaning Roster on it, which I mark with a whiteboard marker. The other magnetic sheet has been cut into shapes with various irregular jobs written and drawn on them, for example, there’s a magnet for shampooing the carpet. This magnet is placed on top of the master roster until the job is done. Be as creative as you like—cut pictures from magazines or photographs of family members and glue them to the magnetic shapes. These shapes can be used to stick on the master sheet to show what job has been completed and by whom. Kids love them and will enjoy helping to make them.
If you find cleaning a real chore, set up some incentives and rewards to help you. Play your favourite music (I always knew an old neighbour of mine was cleaning when loud disco was playing!). Sing at the top of your voice. Listen to a podcast. If you’re the competitive type, make cleaning an Olympic event by setting an alarm and trying to beat your personal best. Imagine your mother is about to visit. You could even pretend you’re an actor in a play about cleaning. Once you’ve completed the cleaning, allow yourself some treats for work well done. Buy yourself a bunch of flowers or pick some from the garden, play a computer game, sit down and watch the footy, have a cuppa or do whatever makes you feel relaxed. If you’ve got cleaning tasks you just detest, tackle them first before moving on to the ones you detest less. Make difficult jobs a challenge, not a chore. I have a friend who does one difficult job a day to keep these tasks under control. There’s an added bonus to doing this: you’ll feel great when you’ve completed the task and the other members in the house will feed off your positive energy.
When choosing a cleaning product, you have to know what the stain is and what surface you’re working with. For instance, is your wooden table bare timber or does it have a polyurethane, shellac, varnish or acrylic finish? If you don’t know, you need to find out. The same goes for any surface you’re working with: be it fabric, vinyl, leather or even carpet. They all react in different ways to different products and cleaning utensils.
These days, thanks to mobile phones, it’s more likely that people will ring before popping over, so you may have 10 minutes to get the place in order. But what can you do if visitors arrive unannounced at the front door and your house has got that lived-in homely look? Here are a few suggestions:
I keep a cloth impregnated with lavender oil near the front door so that when there are unexpected visitors, I can wipe over the back edges of the door before opening it. The smell is fresh and creates an impression of cleanliness. You could also keep a spray bottle filled with lavender oil and water and give it a squirt before opening the door. It has the same effect. Guide your visitors to the cleanest room and excuse yourself as you make them a cup of tea. In the kitchen, if you don’t have a dishwasher, stack any unwashed dishes in a pile because it appears neater, and wipe down any surfaces. You could even place a pair of washing up gloves over the top of the dishes to suggest you were just about to wash them if you hadn’t been interrupted by your visitors!
Just focus on the areas that your guests will see. First, grab your clutter bucket and gather extraneous items, then put it into a room you can close off. Stack dishes in the kitchen into a neat pile if you don’t have a dishwasher. Put papers into a neat pile. You’ll be amazed at how much cleaner an area appears if things are neatly ordered rather than strewn around. Grab a damp cloth and wipe over surfaces. Throw a tablecloth over the table. Throw a sheet over the washing basket. Wipe door jambs with a lavender-oil impregnated cloth to give a fresh smell. Check the toilet is clean. If it’s not, give it a quick scrub with the toilet brush and spray some lavender oil in the air. Quickly sweep outside the front door—a tidy entrance always makes a great first impression—and your 10-minute speedclean is done.
