STRATEGIES

If you stay on top of small day-to-day tasks—wiping down the sinks in the morning, sweeping the kitchen floor each night—cleaning won’t seem so insurmountable.

1. calendar it in

Establishing a routine for daily, weekly, and seasonal sessions will ensure you don’t overlook anything.

• Designate a “cleaning day” for your weekly once-over—and try to stick to that schedule. While it sometimes makes sense to break up the tasks over a matter of days, your home won’t ever seem as clean as when you cover all the spaces in one fell swoop.
• Delegate tasks to everyone in the home to help get them done faster. At the least, kids can look after their own bedrooms and play areas; give them their own cleaning kits (and put their names on the supply caddy) for extra motivation.
• For more thorough spring and fall cleaning sessions, mark off days on your planner ahead of time—preferably over one weekend—to avoid letting these important chores go undone. Doing it early in each season means you can get on with activities you enjoy.
• The same goes for blocking off time for monthly tasks (cleaning kids’ bath toys) as well as bigger once-a-year jobs, like chimney cleaning—these services get busy, so making an appointment in advance is always recommended.
• See page 184 for a suggested schedule, which is just that: a suggestion. Adapt it to work with your own schedule and home—always noting everything on your weekly, monthly, and/or annual calendar (however you organize your time).

2. establish a system

Cleaning your home the same way every week means you will (almost) be able to do it on autopilot.

• Before you can really clean, you must declutter; plan to do this first (or better yet, the night before), walking through the home and putting things back where they belong. Of course, if you make a habit of decluttering on a daily basis, you can probably skip this step.
• The other precursor is having the supplies at the ready; going forward, post-cleaning session, make a point of noting anything that needs replenishing (detergent), refreshing (mopheads), or replacing (worn-out sponges).
• Always tackle rooms in the same order; consistency breeds efficiency. Some pros like to start with the bathrooms and end in the kitchen—arguably the spaces most in need of your attention. Others strip the beds and clean the bedrooms first so they can be laundering those items simultaneously. There’s no right or wrong way, but rather your own way.
• Just be sure to adhere to the top-to-bottom rule if you live in a multistory dwelling, and also the inside-out and other approaches described on page 182.
• Don’t be tempted to deviate from the system—at least until your routine is down pat. Then it’s okay to make an occasional exception, for example, when you are hosting houseguests and need to make the spare bedroom a priority.

3. go from top to bottom

Dust and dirt are subject to gravity just like everything else.

• Start on the top floor of the home and work your way down—this way you won’t be tracking dirt.
• Hit the hallways and staircases along the way, cleaning the baseboards, risers, and handrails (not just the stair treads).
• Clean from ceiling to floor in individual rooms: Dust the ceiling lights and fans, then the window frames, furniture, and radiators—and, finally, the floors.
• All rules have exceptions: When washing off walls, starting at the top will only result in dirty lower reaches—clean these from bottom to top.

4. work from the inside out

This method is a must for sweeping, mopping, or vacuuming, but it helps establish a rhythm for general tidying up, too.

• Emptying the trash, going for more cleaning supplies, answering the doorbell—these and other distractions often cause you to leave a room during cleaning, thereby disturbing an already cleaned entrance.
• Instead, start by cleaning rooms from the point farthest from the door, toting your cleaning caddy with you.
• In pass-through spaces, do the reverse: Start by cleaning at the entry point and then work your way to the exit point, where you will then clean that adjacent room.

5. Clean dry, then wet

There’s no other way to keep everyday grime, pet hair, and food crumbs from spreading around.

• This principle applies particularly to bathrooms: Dust all surfaces thoroughly (it’s easy to forget this step in this space) and then sweep (or vacuum) the floor before washing down the sink, tub, and toilet. End with wet-mopping.
• Repeat the above in the kitchen, sweeping off counters and tables and floors before using wet methods on sinks, stoves, and appliances.
• Always thoroughly sweep, run a microfiber mop, or vacuum before wet-mopping the floor in any space. You’ll also save time and effort (filling the bucket and such) by waiting to wet-mop all floors in the home at the end, going back through from top to bottom and following your usual order.

tip

When mopping wood floors, go with the grain; for other surfaces, work the string mop in overlapping figure eight motions to avoid streaking. Start by sweeping or vacuuming, especially in the corners, to keep dust and dirt from scratching the surfaces.