How to quickly and easily clean the apartment

If you’re looking for faster, more efficient ways to clean your home, take a look at these tips.

Start cleaning the apartment

Consider how much time you are willing to spend cleaning. Try to devote equal time to each room or task. The hardest part is getting started. Before you start cleaning, take a few photos of the rooms with your phone and look at them. What looks clearly inappropriate? Maybe you’re already used to the pile of socks in the corner, but a photo can help you notice the ugliness of this pile.

Grab a trash bag, the bigger the better, and go around the house. Collect any debris in it, including in the bathroom and bedroom. When you’re done, put it up to the front door to take it to the dumpsters later.

Go through once more and collect all the dirty clothes. Don’t forget towels in the bathroom. Put the laundry in the washing machine and set to wash. The ideal time for laundry is house cleaning. Do one more playthrough and collect all the dirty dishes, if any, in the rooms. Take it to the kitchen and put it in the sink.

Now take two dry and clean rags. One for wooden surfaces, the second – for everything else. Spray furniture cleaner on a “wooden” rag and simply dampen another one with it. Run it lightly around each room, dusting with the first rag and then fanning the surfaces of the second.

Before using the vacuum cleaner, lift all possible small mobile furniture and place it on sofas or tables. Thus, you will save time and can easily clean all the corners in the rooms. Take the vacuum cleaner and go over the carpets throughout the house. Slowly move back and forth, passing several times into high-traffic areas – in doorways and in front of sofas. The basis for more detailed cleaning is ready.

How to do a quick cleaning of the kitchen, bathroom and toilet

These three zones are the most important in the apartment, because they are a kind of indicator of the cleanliness of the hostess, her business card.

In the kitchen, soak dirty dishes in hot water and detergent in the sink. Then take your kitchen and bathroom cleanser and spray it on the countertops, stove, sinks, tub and toilet. Any general purpose cleaner can be used. When cleaning your bathroom, start with mirrors. At the same time, run hot water from the shower – thanks to the formation of steam, all surfaces will be cleaned much faster. After that, wipe the racks with a damp cloth, then the floors, and then the shower. Always flush the hardest part, i.e. the toilet, last. Clean the outside first, then the inside.

During the cleaning process, put in cabinets or just boxes all unnecessary pots, washcloths, or other items that you do not use. You will immediately be surprised how much free space will be around.

Now wash the dishes – and the kitchen is in order. Return to the bathroom, turn on the water and use the shower head to wash off the dirt from all surfaces again. Then wipe them dry with a flannel cloth.

Those bottles and jars that are already covered with dust, just throw them in the trash – you are unlikely to ever want to open them. Always keep an eye on the condition of the soap in the soap dish, it should not spread and stick in layers. To save time and money, it is better to use liquid soap.

In the future, always check areas in the kitchen that are prone to accumulation of grease and dirt that need regular cleaning, such as the tops of cabinets and the kitchen exhaust fan. Grease and dirt collect in these areas and attract dust and insects.

Little tricks to help the hostess

Any hardware store sells tools that make it easier to clean the apartment, we just rarely pay attention to them.

For example, a mop with interchangeable nozzles. Such a mop is much faster and easier to clean the apartment. It can be bought for little money, but it will save you a lot of time.

Purchase special wipes in the store for wiping dust and wet cleaning. They will help to quickly put in order even polished surfaces and will never leave streaks. There you can find many different sponges and brushes to quickly wipe various surfaces, as well as aerosols and cleaning and washing products. Spending once a month on all this a certain amount, you will greatly facilitate your cleaning.

Here I would like to note that in order to avoid emergency work, it is better for the average person working outside the home to clean the apartment a little every day so that the work does not accumulate, and also to arrange spring cleaning several times a month. But which style you prefer is up to you.

If you live with a family, cleaning your home shouldn’t be solely your responsibility! You may have to take the lead, but it’s much better than doing this backbreaking job alone. Make sure the tasks are age appropriate – for example, first graders can clean their room floors, and teens can clean the kitchen or bathroom. Also, the tasks should be equal: cleaning the toilet is hardly on the same level as wiping the coffee table.

How to quickly clean the hall, bedroom and hallway

To quickly clean the rooms, you do not need to try to put every thing in its place. In this case, you can take a large box or bag and put all the scattered little things there. This will help to quickly create the appearance of order, because it is scattered small things or children’s toys that create a mess and make rooms cluttered.

When wiping furniture, work from the top down if possible so you don’t have to dust the bottom of something a second time or kick more dust off when you go up to the top uncleaned areas. If you’re short on time, start over with the biggest “hot spot” of the disorder and work your way up to the more serious stuff.

Unmade beds in the bedroom should be put in order, the sofa in the hall should be cleaned and covered with a blanket if possible. Although making the bed and tidying the sofa seems like a rather pointless thing – after all, they will be “spoiled” again after dark, as soon as you walk around these interior items, you will immediately realize how much the look of the rooms has improved. This will give meaning to cleaning the rest of the apartment.

All shelves, nooks and spaces under cabinets, sofas and beds are a paradise for dust, dirt and long-lost small things. You’ll need a dust mitt or a rag wrapped around the brush to get to them, but you can also use a dust spray or disinfectant wipe to get the job done. Once everything is cleaned, including the corners, you can vacuum or mop all these places.

Be careful with certain items such as lampshades and curtains. To clean them, it is better to take a hair dryer and gently blow off the dust.

At the end of all procedures, wash the floor using hot water with the addition of a suitable floor cleaner. Some of the innovative squeegee replacements may be useful, but they still won’t replace a good wooden squeegee designed to get rid of stubborn dirt. In the kitchen, and in other rooms, it is simply necessary for the floors to shine with cleanliness. And when it comes to tile or textured floors, nothing will remove grime from cracks and crevices like a simple rag on a granny mop. However, there are a huge number of options for round band mops. They clean better and last longer than sponge mops.

When cleaning the hallway, it all depends on what kind of floor is there: wooden, ceramic, linoleum and carpet. Based on this, you should choose the appropriate method of cleaning it.

Now that you have cleaned all surfaces, including the floor, fluff up the pillows on the sofa, adjust the blankets on the beds, arrange the little things dear to your heart, that is, put the finishing touches on it as if you were going to put the apartment up for sale. If there are too many items in plain sight, store some of them in containers or just put them away in cabinets.

When you’re done, add a nice, fresh scent to the air with a lemon or lavender scent spray. Sit down and admire your work. Have you missed anything? Grease door hinges? Replace light bulbs? All of this can be left to work for other family members.

Opinion

Sofia Martynyuk, housewife, Lyubertsy:

“I think that for some people, cleaning becomes so difficult because they have too many things lying around in the house. You just need to gather your courage and find a place for each little thing. Dividing cleaning tasks into daily, weekly and monthly is also very important.

For example, I wipe down all high-traffic areas daily – doorknobs, countertops, kitchen and bathroom surfaces. Weekly I wash the sheets and towels, mop the floors, vacuum the carpets, dust the furniture, and clean the shower. In terms of monthly tasks, I take inventory of my kitchen, fridge, and pantry items, as well as cleaning supplies and toiletries, to make sure they’re not expired. In addition, I clean dirt and dust in hard-to-reach places, wash refrigerators and dismantle cabinets to get rid of unnecessary things.