15 Fast and Ultimate Tips to Clean Your Whole House Effectively

15 fast and ultimate tips of house cleaning. Photo: Care

1. Clean the whole house, not one room at a time

Cleaning is much more efficient if you pick one task (dusting, vacuuming, mopping) and do the same task in every room in the house, rather than cleaning the kitchen, the bathrooms and then the bedrooms, Nation Wide cites. Doing it that way prevents you from feeling like you’re in an endless cleaning cycle, starting the same task over and over again.

Bathroom cleaning checklist:

• Scrubbing sinks, tubs, showers, and (yes) toilets,

• Sweeping and mopping the floor

• Windexing mirrors

Photo: The Maids

Kitchen cleaning checklist:

• Removing items from countertops and cleaning the countertops with soap and water

• Wiping down the outside of the items if they’re dirty

• Cleaning the stovetop

• Cleaning inside of the microwave

• Cleaning out the fridge, throwing away food that’s gone bad and washing out containers that can be reused

• Vacuuming and/or mopping floors

• Dusting surfaces

• Laundering and replacing dish and hand towels

• Maintaining your personal space, including changing your sheets, tidying up your room, and sorting your mail

• If you’ve decided to do shared shopping, making a grocery list and visiting the store, then putting grocery items away, Bungalow cites.

Bedroom cleaning checklist:

If you've already removed clutter, dusted, and vacuumed the house, and tidied your closets, your bedrooms will be basically done. To finish up, simply:

• Return any furniture (chairs, diaper bins, etc.) that you put up to vacuum earlier.

• Make the bed.

• Straighten.

• Special projects: Organize your sock drawer? Fold laundry and put in the dresser? Put a mint on your pillow?

2. Gather all your cleaning tools in a caddy

Photo: Molly Maids

Whether it’s a caddy, bucket, or tote, having everything you need to clean in one portable place makes it much easier to get the job done. You won’t waste time looking for tools while you clean, and don’t have to worry about gathering them before your next go around.

3. Clear the clutter

Before you even start cleaning, go from room to room and pick up the clutter. As you pick up each item – magazines, well-read paperbacks, old sneakers – consider whether you should put it away, toss it or donate it.

Photo: Living Well Spending Less

• Write down or draw a map of all the rooms and “clutter hot spots” you want to tackle.

• Give each space a grade based on the severity of the clutter to help you prioritize your time. For example, on a scale of 1-3 (3 being the most cluttered), a particularly messy room or closet would get a 3.

• Tackle one room or one space at a time.

• Set completion dates for each phase of your cleanup, and choose timelines that are attainable. Creating a declutter challenge for yourself that feels like a game can help you avoid frustration throughout the process.

• Plan out times to work on specific areas when you expect decluttering to take longer than a few hours, such as the basement or garage, as cited by Budget Dumpster.

4. Freshen the shower curtain

Photo: The Spruce

To banish moldy spots, throw plastic or vinyl curtains in the washing machine with a little detergent. Add two to three bath towels for extra cleaning agitation, then hang it to dry or put in the dryer on low heat or fluff only. To keep it fresher longer, stretch the curtain out after each shower to help moisture dissipate, Good House Keeping cites.

5. Clean burnt-on messes

Photo: Taste of Home

No dish soap? No problem! If you've got some rhubarb in your fridge or garden, you have everything you need to remove that caked-on mess.

Add a few sticks of rhubarb and some water to a pan and bring them to a boil, leaving them to simmer for five minutes. Once the water has cooled down, wipe the pan down with a scrubber sponge and the mess will lift away. The acids contained in rhubarb react perfectly with the carbons that are produced by burnt food.

6. Dust and vacuum

Photo: HomeViable

Before you start dusting, make sure ceiling fans are turned off. Concentrate your dusting on the tops of furniture and the undersides of shelves, on handrails, picture frames, knickknacks and TV screens. For hard-to-reach areas, like blinds and upper shelves, tie a microfiber cloth to the end of a mop or broom. Change the sheets in the bedrooms before you vacuum.

7. Revive cloudy glasses

Photo: Pinterest

Remove built-up film from hard-water minerals by soaking stemware in white vinegar for five minutes. Then rinse by hand and dry with a microfiber cloth.

8. Disinfect countertops and surface areas

Photo: The New York Times

Go through your house and wipe down the hard surfaces – from countertops, appliances, and cabinets to doorknobs, light switches, TV remotes, and telephones. You should disinfect some of those surfaces, particularly the ones that might deliver germs to people’s fingers and faces. Make a nontoxic disinfection solution by mixing one-fourth to a half cup of white or apple cider vinegar with a cup of water.

9. Focus on tubs, sinks, and toilets

Photo: ArchiPanic

Spray cleaner on the kitchen sink than on bathroom sinks, tubs, and toilets. Let it sit for a few minutes so the cleaner has time to dissolve dirt and stains. Then return to the kitchen and start scrubbing. Don’t forget to wipe down the inside of the microwave. Clean toilets last.

While in the kitchen, you also want to make sure your garbage disposal is in tip-top shape. If you aren’t sure the best way to clean a garbage disposal, click here for some useful DIY garbage disposal cleaning tips.

10. Sweep, then mop

Photo: The New York Times

Sweep the kitchen and bathroom floors. Start mopping from the farthest corner of the room and move backward the doorway (that is, don’t mop yourself into a corner). Rinse the mop every time you complete a 4-by-4-foot area.

11. Restore your dishwasher

Photo: Marshed

Over time, excess food and grime will build up in your dishwasher's interior. Get in the habit of cleaning any remaining bits of foods — beans, pasta, and so on — after each dishwashing cycle. Pull out the bottom rack to look for any leftover food and remove it with a paper towel to prevent future odors.

12. Clean your cutting boards

Photo: Simply Nicole

While most plastic cutting boards can be popped into the dishwasher, wooden ones are a different animal entirely.

"You can get out those difficult stains in your wooden boards by rubbing them with some lemon and salt," says O'Hanlon. She recommends letting the salt sit on the cutting board for a few minutes and rubbing it in with the lemon before rinsing it away.

13. Sanitize your phone

Photo: The National

The icky truth: Your cell might harbor more germs than a toilet seat. Zap germs with an alcohol wipe, and give your TV remote and computer mouse the same treatment while you're at it. Health experts suggest cleaning your phone at least once a day as a preventative measure, FCC cites. Before you begin, check with the manufacturer for guidance on how to clean your device. Apple and a number of Android device manufacturers offer similar recommendations:

• Unplug the device before cleaning.

• Use a lint-free cloth slightly dampened with soap and water.

• Don’t spray cleaners directly onto the device.

• Avoid aerosol sprays and cleaning solutions that contain bleach or abrasives.

• Keep liquids and moisture away from any openings on the device.

14. Freshen up your garbage disposal

Photo: Stewart Plumbing

With all the junk we throw into our garbage disposals, it's no wonder they're a veritable petri dish—with the nasty odors to prove it. Thankfully, making them a whole lot cleaner is easy: Drop some cut lemons down your drain for a fresh scent, Best Life Onlinecites.

Using lemon is likely an effective way: Slice up a lemon or two into a few pieces. A lemon that is starting to go bad or is partially unused will work as well — it needn't be an ideal lemon you would serve as food. Squirt a few drops of the lemon juice into the disposal opening and let it sit for a few minutes to help loosen anything that's caked onto the disposal blades.

Run some water in the sink, letting it flow into the disposal opening. Turn on the disposal and drop in the lemon chunks one by one until they're pulverized. The citrus juice combined with the rind texture will clean the blades and freshen the disposal, according to Hunker.

15. Don’t forget to routinely wash your cleaning tools

Photo: Cleaning Business Academy

An often overlooked part of cleaning the house is maintaining your cleaning tools. Using a dirty mop or a vacuum with a full bag is much less effective, and you’ll end up spending more time trying to clean.

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