10 House Cleaning Shortcuts You'll Wish You'd Known About Years Ago

Time is precious, and no one (well, almost no one) wants to spend most of it cleaning. Between all the other things you have to do on a day-to-day basis (running errands, going to work, taking care of kids and/or pets, etc.), you want to ensure yourself some spare time at the end of the week for whatever strikes your fancy.

With these 10 speed-cleaning tips, you’ll be ready reclaim your free time in less time than ever!

1. “Trick” yourself by attaching a quick chore to something you actually enjoy doing.

For instance, you can wipe down your kitchen counters and clean your sink while waiting for something delicious to bake in the oven. You can also work on sorting your laundry while enjoying a moisture-infused face mask.

2. If you live in a two-story home, keep two sets of cleaning supplies.

One set will be for upstairs, and the other will be for downstairs. This saves you the hassle of lugging them around from one floor to the other and allows you to start cleaning more quickly.

3. Break up chores into “bite-size” pieces.

Don’t try to tackle the whole house or even a whole room at once. Try focusing on just one side of one room for half an hour, and make it your goal to clean as much of it as you can. If you finish with time to spare, you might even feel like attacking the other side of the room.

4. If you have kids, keep bins or baskets for toys in multiple rooms.

Instead of trying to herd all of your children’s playthings into one toy box, keep some stylish baskets or bins in several rooms--or even every room--so that you have a place to collect toys for a quick cleanup.

5. Keep new garbage bags at the bottom of your trash cans.

This eliminates the extra steps of going to the cupboard or closet to fetch a new bag every time you empty the trash. Once you lift up and tie off the full bag of garbage, your next bag is right there waiting for you.

6. Don’t wait to clean or wipe down your shower.

Just pick a day and clean your shower while you’re still in it, or tack on a small section of grout each day for a few minutes with a toothbrush. If your shower has glass walls, keep a squeegee handy or use a towel to wipe it down after each use.

7. Don’t wait to wipe up a spill.

The longer you wait, the more a spill solidifies, and the more it solidifies, the longer it’s going to take to clean.

8. If a spill has crusted onto your stove, let it soak.

Don’t waste time scrubbing away at spots on your stove. Instead, lay a rag soaked in soapy water over the area you wish to tackle, find a different thing to clean for ten minutes, and then wipe the dirty spots away.

9. Clean a lampshade with a lint roller and a hairdryer.

Roll the lint roller along the inside and outside of the lampshade to pick up dust in a hurry. If dust collects in the seams, use a hairdryer to blow it out.

10. Start vacuuming/sweeping/mopping from the corner farthest from the room’s doorway.

Once you do this, work your way out towards that doorway. This prevents you from stepping directly onto the floor that you just cleaned.