Although it isn’t an exciting topic, let’s face it, housekeeping is a necessary evil. Who wants to spend a free Saturday sweeping and swirling toilets? No one! My grandmother, despite working full-time and leading a busy life, always has an immaculate and incredibly organized house. She told me once that she has a formula she follows "by the book" and she always follows the same simple approach. As a young adult starting out in my first dorm, apartment, or other homes, I wanted to know and share my grandmother's housekeeping strategy. How does she get her house in order in less than half an hour? "Follow this the way you would a Calculus formula", my grandmother said, "and I promise you an orderly house in no time." Following my grandmother's speed cleaning plan, you will be guaranteed to have more time on your hands for fun and, even better, you will always come home from your adventures to an inviting, neat space.
1. Put dishes in the dishwasher (don‘t turn the dishwasher on, yet).
Fill the sink with soapy water and put non-dishwasher safe items in to soak.
2. Make up all beds in the house.
3. Pick up all dirty clothes in the whole house and take them to the laundry room.
If it is your wash day, put a load in to wash. Otherwise, put the pile in the hamper for another time. Wash only one day a week.
4. Get a trash bag and go through every room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, family room, etc., and toss everything in the bag that is trash, broken, or no longer needed.
Empty all trash cans as you do this. Take the bag to your outside trash can or dumpster.
5. Go through the whole house and put away all clean clothes that are still lying around.
Put them away in your drawer or closet.
6. Now, go through every room and put everything that is not in the right spot in its proper place (e.g., the alcohol you used last night, the stapler you left in the living room, the dish you forgot to put back in the kitchen).
7. Go back to the kitchen and turn on the dishwasher.
8. Wash and put away the special soaking dishes, clean the sink, and wipe down the counters and appliances.
The steps above, if you stay focused and on task, will take little of your time and will leave your space ready for you to enjoy and ready to welcome your guests.
My grandmother emphasizes this to "Do these items just as it says. If it says put dishes in dishwasher, and fill the sink with water and put non-dishwasher items in sink to soak…do just that...don’t put the butter in the fridge if it is on the counter during this step."
The following deep cleaning tasks can be done one at a time on the same day after those first basic cleaning steps or one a day, as you choose, AND IN ANY ORDER:
1. Clean ALL GLASS (mirrors, glass top tables, etc.) in the entire house but not windows, of course, because that would be considered an extra special project.
2. Vacuum and sweep floors.
3. Dust and/or polish furniture in all rooms.
4. Clean bathroom sink, tub, commode, and counter tops.
5. Mop any floors that need mopping.
With this speedy housekeeping strategy, I wish you happy cleaning! Having used my grandmother’s approach myself, it really does take me between 20 to 30 minutes to clean my space one day each week.
Thanks to my Mama for letting me share her secrets on how to have a clean home. Her last words of advice for keeping a neat house were quite hilarious. She said, "Don't do all of those basic steps every day. No one needs to be anal retentive by tackling all that shit every single day. Just one day a week is enough!"