How To Completely Clean Your Home In Under Four Hours

How To Completely Clean Your Home In Under Four Hours was originally seen on: Bryan Fisher

Most people would be surprised to learn that you can clean any house top to bottom in just about four hours. It is always easier to clean a house other than your own because you are not personally involved in the mess. Another house does not present the distractions that yours does, interfering with your cleaning efficiency. A lot can be learned from cleaning a different home.

A standard cleaning like this will not include dish washing, laundry, or intensive kitchen cleaning (such as inside the fridge and oven). These serve as some of those distractions that were mentioned above. When you clean floors, and dust, the kitchen needs to be included for those tasks. Working like a professional cleaner can get the job done faster, and the tips one can use from their services are priceless.

Cleaning versus Clearing Clutter

Most will think these are one in the same, but they are very different. When cleaning our own homes, we often do both of these tasks, but this is very inefficient. When you hire cleaners, items and belongings are already picked up and tidied away. Cleaning should be separate from putting clutter away.

Stick to the Plan

Keeping a house clean requires organization and consistency. If you devise a cleaning schedule for each week and stick to it, over time, the tasks become easier, and you get quicker at performing them. When too much time is left between cleanings, dust and dirt build up, making the cleaning task longer than necessary. Practice makes perfect, so the more you clean, the more efficient you become. Then the tasks are not such a daunting one because now you are a pro.

Start with the Bathroom

Do all of the bathrooms in the house first. Remove all items from the tub or shower and let the fixtures and surfaces soak in cleaning solutions. Put cleaning products in the toilet and stir around with a brush and then let sit. While everything is soaking, you can empty the wastebaskets.

Ceilings and Walls: Go Top to Bottom

Leaving the bathroom items to soak, you can move onto walls and ceilings. Dust away cobwebs from the roof, door jams and corners. Moving from wall to wall in a room and them from room to room. Clean from the ceilings to the base boards, using a Webster or a cloth for the sticky cobwebs.

Microfiber mops work best for floors, but it can also be used for ceilings. While doing the ceilings, be sure to get all light fixtures and fan blades. In the event you have especially dirty light fixtures (complete with dust and dead bugs) cleaning them takes too much time. So to fit in your four hours window, clean a few each time until you have done them all.

Return to the Bathroom

The bathroom has had adequate time to soak by now so you can go back and start with the tubs and showers. Mr Clean products such as the “Magic Reach” make it easy to scrub the whole bathroom. This way you don't have to practice a number of body contortions.

Return everything to the vanity, shower or shelves and finish off by wiping and polishing the sink fixtures. The next task is to finish the toilet so remember to get your rubber gloves. It is a good idea to disinfect the brush with bleach after you are done. Use paper towels to wipe down the exterior surfaces of the toilet.

Finally, you clean the floors; using a rag is more thorough and easier than a mop, especially in smaller bathrooms. Swiffers can work for small clean-ups, but they are not able to reach all the tight spaces like those hiding behind the toilet.

Dusting

At this point, all the hard work is done, and you can start dusting the furniture. Remove all items from shelves and tables. Polish all the wooden surfaces with your choice of wood spray, oil or wax. Wipe off lamps (with fabric coverings) with a rag and dust underneath. The cover itself should be removed and set aside to vacuum. Wipe down all items before returning them to their original placements. Be sure to use a new rag for wiping down items, so as not to smear them with oil or wax.

Just like the dusty light fixtures, dusty books can also be time-consuming. At this time you can just dust the fronts and tops of the books. You will want to remember at some point when you have more time, to go back and remove each book to dust individually. As you get more efficient at your cleaning routine, you may get extra time. In that case, you can dust a shelf at a time, individually.

Ready for Floors

It is now time to vacuum. Do the lamp shades first and return them. You should also vacuum any furniture upholstery once a week. Use the vacuum attachments to clean in furniture crevices and along the edges and corners of the floor. You can then clean the rugs and carpets, making sure to vacuum first in one direction and then the opposite to get a full deeper clean. The more you do this, the less you need to spend on hiring professional carpet cleaners.

The last part of floor cleaning is for hard floors. You can either use a canister vacuum if you have one or sweep first and use a regular vacuum. For tile or linoleum floors use a roller head sponge mop to remove the stuck in dirt. You can also use a microfiber mop if they are only a little dirty. When it comes to hardwood floors, make sure you consult the manufacturers cleaning guide.

Congratulations

And just like that, you are done. And it only took four hours. You are a pro after all. All that is left to do is put away your supplies and equipment, sit down and put your feet up. Relax as you look around and enjoy the freshness and cleanliness of your home.