How to Speed Clean Your House with These Time Saving Tips

When I was in my 20s, I cleaned house for a living. With time and practice, I developed all sorts of tricks for speed cleaning which I still use today when it comes to cleaning my own house.

One very obvious tip that few people use is to assemble a tote of cleaning supplies, brushes, and dry rags that can be grabbed at a moment's notice. With a tote, you can jump to work immediately instead of wasting valuable time hunting down cleansers and other cleaning aids. Here's some other time saving tips that can help you speed up the task of cleaning your home.

Scrub the shower & tub areas just after bathing. One thing I discovered about cleaning a shower and tub is that it's tough to do a thorough job without getting water on the floor and totally wet yourself. One super simple tip is to scrub the tub/shower right after bathing while you are still nude and in the shower. Cleaning a shower from the inside is much faster than trying to clean it from the outside -- and without having to worry about getting your clothes wet, you can cut down the scrubbing time to just a couple of minutes.

Vacuum before mopping. With hardwood floors in the main parts of the house and Marmoleum in the bath & kitchen areas, I spend a lot of time mopping. Before hauling out the mops however, I always vacuum the floors and baseboards first to remove hair, dust, lint, and grit that can dirty up the mop heads and mop water. Vacuuming first cuts mopping time down to just a few minutes per room.

Keep a rag & spray bottle of all-purpose cleaner beneath kitchen & bathroom sinks. Dirty sinks, faucets and countertops are what drop-in guests notice when they walk into a bathroom or kitchen. Storing rags & spray cleaner beneath each sink in the house means you can shine up these areas in 30 seconds.

Load as you go. I'm one of the few people I know that utilize the "load as you go" philosophy of cleaning. "Load as you go" means completing a specific task now instead of setting it aside for later. This cuts handling time and will keep your house neater too. Examples:
--Loading dinner dishes directly into the dishwasher instead of stacking on the counter
--Placing dirty pots, pans, and casseroles into a sink to soak instead of setting aside
--Sorting through mail while standing near the paper shredder
--Loading wet towels, floor mats, kitchen and table linens directly into the washing machine until there's enough to do a full load
--Throwing out trash as it's generated
--Folding laundry as it's pulled off the clothes line or out of the dryer
--Picking up an armload of clutter when passing through a room

Cleaning the house really doesn't have to be some huge, tiresome ordeal. To speed up cleaning chores, presetting the task & consolidating the work seems to be the magic formula for finishing the job quickly.