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Sometimes, you just don’t have time to leisurely clean your home. You need to clean your home fast. With everyone living busier lives than every before, keeping your home clean with minimal time and effort is vitally important.
Below, we’re going to talk about how to clean a messy house step by step. At the end of this article you’ll know how to clean your house in 2 hours or less.
Contents
How to Clean Your House Faster
We’ve pulled together a collection of tips and tricks to fast house cleaning. Some are super practical, like the process you should go through in each room for cleaning. Others are more focused on your mentality and perspective. At the end, you should have all the tools needed to get your house spick and span in a matter of hours.
How to Stay Focused on Cleaning
Cleaning your dirty house fast can seem like an overwhelming task, and doing it quickly doesn’t necessarily come naturally for us. For many of us, it’s an all-day ordeal. However, with a little organization, it is not only possible to clean your house in under 2 hours, it can be easy.
In fact, the most dedicated and organized home cleaners may be able to finish the job in an average size home in half this time! The most important thing to do before you start cleaning up your house is to make sure you stay focused.
Before you begin, do a few things:
- Turn off your phone (You can just silence it but turn off the vibration function too. No distractions!)
- Turn off the TV.
- Turn on some music. Listen to something peppy and energetic, to keep you moving.
- Organize your cleaning supplies so you have them on hand.
- Recruit help. Do you have family or roommates at home? It’s time for them to chip in. You’ve got a house to clean, fast!
Strategic Home Cleaning Tips
If you’re trying to clean your house in less than 2 hours, remember these two things:
1. Clean from the top down.
If you suffer from the debate on dusting or vacuuming first, let us solve that right now: clean from the top down. This will save you a lot of extra effort in the long run, which saves you time.
Start by dusting light fixtures and along the tops of windows and doors before cleaning furniture, walls, and floors.
This way, any dust you dislodge travels downward and can be picked up in a later sweep. No need to double back on any rooms.
2. Clean from left to right.
This one isn’t quite as logical as cleaning from top to bottom in terms of how dust and dirt move as you clean. However, by always going from left to right as you clean, you will reduce time wasted by cleaning chaotically.
You’ll move systematically, left to right, top to bottom, instead of running all around the room. This is also a great way to keep track of what has been cleaned, and what needs some attention.
Cleaning Room by Room
When you are learning how to clean house fast and easy, there are a few things to keep in mind as you start this timed task.
- You have two hours to tackle the house, so when it comes to cleaning, you need a prioritized checklist to show you what you need to do and how long it is going to take to do it. Also make sure that you are focusing on a quick clean, get in and get out by doing the base work and not worrying about organizing or trying to deal with clutter.
- If you have a lot of clutter, then opt to use a few laundry baskets to move the clutter out and find a private space that you can store it until you have time to work on better organizing and sorting through these things.
- This budgeted checklist will help clear up any overwhelming need to clean anxiety you may encounter and will give you a clear path for cleaning so that you aren’t wasting time trying to figure out what to do next.
There are a few different methods that you can choose for dealing with how to clean your house in 2 hours. Some checklists may suggest that you go from room to room, doing various tasks that all end up linking together to create a clean home in the time suggested. However, they don’t factor in all the travel time you spend going from room to room in between each task, that can eat away at valuable time that you don’t have to spare.
Instead, we suggest that you contain your cleaning to a single room at a time, conquer it and move on so that you can save travel time and get it all done asap.
1.Bedrooms
A standard size bedroom should take about 25 minutes to give it a quick pick up, change bedding, dust and vacuum.
When you go into a bedroom to clean it, immediately strip the linens and remake the beds. Keep your new blankets and pillows close at hand. Shuffle the old bedding immediately into a laundry pile. This should take you about 5 minutes per room.
Do a quick 5 minute floor and surface pick up. The laundry basket, garbage bags, and other items collected from the bedrooms should sit just outside the door. Remove clutter, gathering it in a spare bin or basket for later organizing.
Wipe down your furniture, 3 minutes.
Vacuum starting in a left-hand corner, sweeping from left to right, and vacuum yourself right out the door, 5 minutes. Bedrooms typically have carpet, so make sure to use a vacuum designed for thicker surfaces. This will save you time by only having to pass over each spot once.
Once out the door, pick up your laundry and garbage and get them to where they need to be. If you have a laundry basket of out of place items you can take the remainder of this time to put them where they belong, or find a safe space to set clutter that needs more intensive sorting, 7 minutes.
You may have some spare time since it won’t always take the full 25 minutes to clean each bedroom, you can bank it and save it for another room or spend it at the end of each room’s cleaning by opting to do a little extra organizing or clutter cleaning.
2. Bathrooms
Since we are focusing on a quick clean, we are estimating bathrooms at 5 minutes each. This is more than enough time to get in, spray, wipe and then rinse your surfaces, if you do it in the best order.
Once you enter the bathroom, first spray your shower and tub enclosure with a foam cleaner spray. Then, apply toilet bowl cleaner. You can let these sit and do their jobs while you work on other tasks.
Clean mirrors, countertops, and the sink while the shower and toilet cleaners work. After you’ve finished wiping down other surfaces, do a quick rinse in the shower. If you have glass shower doors then you will need to take a spare minute to make sure that the glass is rinsed and wiped dry. This is the same for your shower floors and pan.
Finally, take up the old toilet brush and clean the inside of the toilet bowl. Then do a quick wipe down on the outside of the toilet, from top to bottom.
If there’s trash to be emptied, place it outside the door. Spray a floor cleaner and mop the floor, working your way out the door. After you step out, simply pick up the trash and be on your way.
Give a final glance – your bathroom should be clean-smelling and clean-looking.
3. Living and Dining Rooms
At this point, you’ve gotten some of the tougher areas of the home done, like the bathroom. The kitchen is still to come, and that one can be tough. Take a “break” by moving into an easier room to clean, like the living or dining room.
You have 20 minutes to split between your main living areas, make sure to focus on picking up the floor, wiping down cleaned off surfaces and then vacuuming.
First, clear out clutter, you can use a laundry basket or two to quickly pick up and sort any toys or random items that have made their way into the main living area, 5 minutes.
Then, dust from left to right, top to bottom. Vacuum or wipe down any furniture. In this case, you might be better served by pulling out your canister vacuum because of the extension hose. This can allow you to cover a room that has a lot of obstacles quickly, 10 minutes.
Finally, take the remaining 5 minutes to put away the items in your laundry baskets. Return any toys to kids rooms and put items back in their general area.
Done and done – easy-peezy. Time for the final challenge.
4. Kitchen
Perhaps this is the most dreaded room to clean besides the bathroom. But, the kitchen cleans very efficiently if you know what you’re doing. Cleaning a kitchen in a 15 minute timeframe can seem like a challenge, but it can be done if you move quickly.
First, load dirty dishes in the dishwater. If you have anything that needs handwashing, then go ahead and run some hot soapy water in the sink so that those items can be soaking, 5 minutes. You can add in a little baking soda to help lift stubborn grease or gunk.
It shouldn’t take a full five minutes to load the dishwasher, so you will have a shaved minute or two to spare after wiping down your surfaces to come back to scrub and rinse hand-wash only dishes.
Make sure that for this task you are working from top to bottom and then from left to right.
Wipe down the front of your cabinets, use a glass cleaner on any glass windows. Dust the windowsill above the sink if you have one. Clean the backsplash and countertops. Wipe down any other appliances you may have.
If you use a multi-purpose spray and a damp cloth then you can move quickly with a spray and wipe combo to get this task knocked out in 5 minutes.Finally do a quick sweep and then mop the floors, 5 minutes.
Keep the House Clean in the Future
Now that you know how to clean your house fast, the key to cleaning your house even faster next time is implementing a few steps. These will keep your home a little neater and cleaner day by day. By doing these tasks, even with a little clutter, your home will always be ready for a surprise relative visit.
Make Your Bed Every Day
When you get up in the morning, take the time to make your bed. This isn’t just something your mother used to yell at you about. A home with a made bed and sheets that are replaced regularly immediately seems cleaner.
Making your bed in the morning sets a tone for the rest of the day. You’ll find as you make the bed, you’ll start tidying around the house almost automatically. The house won’t be as likely to get messy again.
Hide the Laundry Hamper
Where do you keep your laundry? In a hamper in a corner of the room? On the floor? First, if you don’t have a hamper, get one.
Second, keep it out of sight. Put it in your closet in an organized fashion and leave it there. Even a clean room looks dirty when there are dirty clothes visible. Hiding your hamper will help your house look cleaner automatically.
Clear off the Fridge Door
We know you’re proud of your magnet collection, your child’s doodles, and maybe your takeout menus, coupons, and miscellaneous papers. The fridge door often becomes a catch-all for clutter. The idea of cleaning it off may make your house seem less like a home.
Take the clutter off the fridge. We think you’ll be surprised how much cleaner the kitchen looks in just a few seconds.
Keep Fresh Flowers
It isn’t exactly a tip on how to clean your house fast. But, once you’ve wiped down your surfaces, dusted, vacuumed, taken out the trash, done the dishes, made the bed, and hidden the hamper, treat your home to fresh flowers.
A nice bouquet of fresh flowers seems to have a magical effect on a home, helping it to look prettier, tidier, and more welcoming to all
Checklist for Fast House Cleaning
This checklist for helping you learn how to clean your house in 2 hours is a timed checklist is based on a three bedroom, two bath home. Time may fluctuate up or down depending on the rooms you have that need cleaning.
Bedrooms 1-3: 75 minutes total. (For each room)
- Strip and change the bed – 5 minutes
- Pick up the floor and room surfaces – 5 minutes
- Dust – 3 minutes
- Vacuum – 5 minutes
- Put away items quickly picked up – 7 minutes
Bathrooms 2 : 10 minutes total
- Quickly spray, wipe, rinse and mop each bathroom – 5 minutes
Living Area : 20 minutes total
- Quick pick up – 5 minutes
- Dust/vacuum combo – 10 minutes
- Put away items – 5 minutes
Kitchen : 15 minutes total
- Load the dishwasher/hand wash special items – 5 minutes
- Wipe down surfaces/appliances – 5 minutes
- Sweep and Mop – 5 minutes
Conclusion
This isn’t intended to be a deep cleaning. It’s the “I’ve got to clean my house fast” sort of general clean. By staying focused and developing a system, you should be able to clean your house in under 2 hours fairly easily. With a little practice, you may even be able to do it in one hour.
