8 Hacks That Will Change How You Clean Your House

A recent study showed that the average American spends roughly 300 hours every year cleaning their house. A quick breakdown of those numbers shows that it’s the equivalent of spending 12.5 days cleaning every year. If you’re like most people, you already feel like you don’t have enough hours in the day. Furthermore, even if you have some free time, you probably don’t want to spend all of it cleaning.

Unfortunately, many people think that they have to choose between truly getting their house clean and having time to enjoy being home. That’s just not the case. Here’s a look at eight hacks that can cut down on the time you spend cleaning without forfeiting the quality of your cleaning.

Buy a Doormat

This one may not seem like much of a cleaning hack, but if you don’t have a doormat, you can probably see the amount of dirt and debris around your doors. Even if you take your shoes off when you come into your home, dirt, grass, and other debris from outside attach to your shoes and can create quite a mess around your entryways. You can find a doormat that complements the overall design feel of your space, and to make things more appealing, they’re easy to clean. Instead of spending time mopping or sweeping the floor around your doors, you can take your doormat outside, give it a good shake, and keep the area clean with minimal work.

Kick the Bucket

Most people think that mopping or cleaning windows requires the use of a bucket. However, there are a few problems with that mindset. First of all, the water in the bucket quickly gets dirty, so you end up frequently changing the water, which leads to a loss of time, or you save some time but use dirty water to mop your floors, clean your windows, or wipe down your baseboards. Instead of using a mop bucket, which almost requires you to either waste time or cut corners, use a spray bottle with a cleaning solution mixed up in it. If you’re mopping your floors, a microfiber mop will do just as well as your traditional mop which requires a lot of wringing. If you’re cleaning windows or baseboards, the spray bottle approach allows you to clean one area at a time without dealing with the hassles of a bucket.

Kill Two Birds With One Stone

One of the best ways to cut down on the amount of time that you spend cleaning is to look for opportunities to multitask. For instance, when you’re cleaning your windows, go ahead and wipe down your blinds. If you’re sweeping or mopping, go ahead and clean your baseboards while you’re already working around the edge of the room. If you’re already planning on cleaning a room or a certain part of a room, look for ways to knock out other tasks while you’re there.

Thinking Outside the Box

If you’re a collector of “stuff,” you may have a lot of knickknacks and other trinkets in your home. Many people like to collect items that remind them of their childhood, so it’s normal to see mason jars and similar items in many households, especially with the surge in popularity of farmhouse décor. While you should certainly try to keep all those items clean and dust-free, you don’t have to do them by hand. Virtually any item that’s made of glass or ceramic should be fine in the dishwasher. You may want to adjust the settings on your dishwasher accordingly, but this is a much faster method of cleaning those collectibles than wiping them all down by hand.

Create a Cleaning Plan

One of the easiest ways to waste time cleaning is to wander aimlessly from one room to the next, doing a couple of little things that need to be done, but not getting an entire area cleaned. Not only does this haphazard approach leave you feeling like you didn’t really clean anything, but you’ll also realize that you spent most of the day cleaning without anything to really show for it. That’s why it’s so important to have a plan. Some parts of your home may require daily cleaning while other areas only need a quick cleanup every week or so. Create a plan that dictates how you’re going to clean, which rooms you’re going to focus on, and how often you’re going to perform those tasks. This allows you to create a streamlined cleaning program that keeps your house clean without a lot of wasted time.

Clean Your Toilet Every Day

For most people, cleaning the toilet is the absolute worst part of housekeeping. No one likes the idea of putting on rubber gloves and cleaning an important, yet dirty, appliance in their home. However, there’s a way to cut down on the amount of time that you spend deep cleaning the one area that most people in the home prefer to avoid cleaning altogether. Keep a toilet brush by the toilet, and near the end of every day, use the water that’s in the bowl to give the toilet a quick brushing. Your bathroom likely gets dirtier faster than any room in your house, and while you still need to deep clean the toilet from time to time, staying ahead of the game can help cut down on the time you spend when it’s time to deep clean.

Using Garden Gloves in Cleaning

We discussed the method of putting some knickknacks in the dishwasher, but that’s not likely to work on all of your collectibles. Undoubtedly, you have a few items that collect dust that can’t go in the dishwasher. Or, you may just be uncomfortable with the idea of putting non-kitchen items in the dishwasher. There’s good news! A pair of cotton gardening gloves can help you quickly and effectively dust your items. Instead of wiping collectibles down, you can put on a pair of gardening gloves, roll the item around in your hands, and the gloves will collect the dust. This is a much faster method of cleaning those items.

Get Your Swiffer Off the Floor

Swiffer completely changed the way people clean their floors with their disposable cleaning cloths that attach to the head of the device. However, you don’t have to only use your Swiffer on the floor. You’ll want to put a fresh cleaning cloth on the end of your Swiffer before doing this, but your Swiffer is a great way to quickly and effectively clean your walls. Depending on the type of finish that you have on your walls, you may not want to use any type of spray cleaner, but that’s OK. You can use your Swiffer to get dust off the walls, and you’ll be able to reach much higher than you can do by hand. Your Swiffer also provides you with a great tool for cleaning your crown molding.

Cleaning the house may not be your idea of a good time, but it’s a necessary part of life. However, you don’t have to burn 300 hours a year keeping your home nice and tidy. These eight hacks can help you keep your house looking good while still ensuring that you have enough free time to enjoy being home. After all, you deserve it!