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How to clean a messy home FAST
Cleaning your home is a lot of work.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when everything is messy. It’s hard to even know where to begin when everything looks like a complete mess.
The best way to avoid this feeling is to break your house cleaning down into small, manageable tasks. You’ll find that once you complete a small task, it’s a lot easier to move on to the next one. Before you know it, 30 minutes have gone by and you’re looking at a much cleaner home.
Starting is always the hardest part. It’s why we recommend beginning every day by making your bed.
This small task of making your bed gives you a sense of accomplishment and rewires your brain into productivity mode. You can learn more about the health benefits of house cleaning and implement simple habits to keep your home and your mind clean.
If you’re struggling to find the time and energy to keep your home clean day after day, this guide is perfect for you.
Step 1: Put on your favorite music.
The first step is the most important (and the easiest). Cleaning should be a fun activity, and before you get started you need to get into the right mindset.
Music is the perfect thing to lift your spirits and get you movin’ and groovin’.
Put on a playlist or an album that will play for at least 30 minutes, and let’s have some fun!
If you’d prefer a podcast, that’s fine too. Having something to listen to while you clean will make the time fly by.
Before you know it, 30 minutes will be up and you’ll feel happier, more productive, and you’ll be able to take it easy in a squeaky clean home!
Step 2: Wash all the dirty dishes.
The kitchen is the most central part of your home, and it’s where you’ll benefit the most from a clean and tidy space.
We’ve read other guides on cleaning your home quickly that leave kitchen cleaning to the end. But we’ve found that putting off washing and drying the dishes until the end usually ends up with them not getting finished. Plus, starting with dishwashing gets our muscles working and properly warmed up.
So, instead we recommend starting off in the kitchen. If you don’t get to anywhere else in the house today, that’s okay!
Remember, we’re trying to build up a routine of quick cleaning that will get easier and easier the more we do it.
Having a clean kitchen to cook and prepare meals in just gives your home an aura of freshness, and it translates to every other area in your home.
Start by washing and drying all of the dirty dishes in the sink. Once your sink is free of dirty dishes, you’ll be able to quickly see what other parts of your kitchen need a good cleaning. Usually the backsplash, countertops, and cabinets can all use a wipe down.
A great way to get your cabinets, backsplash, countertops and appliances looking shiny and sparkling, is by using Dawn dish soap. Dawn is an amazing all-purpose cleaner and it’s super easy to use.
Simply place a drop on your cleaning towel with some warm water and wipe your surfaces down. Take a dry microfiber towel and run it over the surfaces after a few minutes and that’s it!
We’re done in the kitchen!
Step 3: Move room by room and remove all the trash and clutter.
Next, let’s grab a trash bag and make a single pass through the house, throwing away all the trash in the process. Start in one room, and slowly move room by room until you’ve thrown away all the trash.
Then, let’s do some light de-cluttering and find a home for each item that you come across. Dirty laundry chilling out on the floor? Grab your laundry basket and throw all your clothes in the washer. Used cups? Put them in the sink. Books? Put them back on the shelf.
Decluttering and removing all the trash in your home makes your life SO much easier when it comes time to do the actual cleaning.
The cleaning part (dusting, wiping, and vacuuming) is actually a pretty quick process. It’s the preparation beforehand- decluttering and organizing that can take up a lot of your time.
Step 4: Clean the bathroom.
Cleaning the bathroom doesn’t need to be a sweaty, bleach-filled endeavor. We’re only going to spend 5-10 minutes cleaning the bathroom, and it’ll be easier than you think.
Start at the sink and put all your items like your toothbrush, toothpaste away in the drawers.
Grab your all-purpose cleaning solution, and spray the sink and counter down. At Seatown Cleaners, we LOVE Mrs. Meyers All-Purpose Cleaner. It’s eco-friendly, smells great, and gets the job done. Take a look at this post where we reveal 7 amazing household cleaning products you need to have in your home.
For mirrors, we love using Dawn, warm water, and a wet and dry microfiber towel. That’s it. Avoid Windex and any other glass cleaners when you’re at the store. An effective and cheap glass cleaner is sitting right next to your kitchen sink.
Then, we’ll turn our attention to the toilet. Spray your all-purpose cleaner on the toilet lid, handle, and around the base. Then, clean the toilet bowl with a toilet cleaner and brush and let it sit.
Move back to the sink and using a microfiber towel, wipe down your counter, sink, and mirror. Come back to the toilet and finish wiping down the area, remove the toilet brush, flush and boom! Done in the bathroom.
For now, we’re not going to pay attention to wiping down the shower or bathtub. We’ll save that task for a deeper cleaning on another day.
Step 5: Vacuum the floors.
We’re almost there! For now, all we have to worry about is the floors. Grab your vacuum and move room by room and vacuum your carpet and hard flooring.
We recommend a high quality canister vacuum from a trusted brand like Miele or Dyson. Make sure to adjust the height of the scuff guard when you’re moving from carpet to your hard flooring so as not to scratch the flooring.
Vacuuming should only take 5-10 minutes depending on how large your home is. Focus on the high traffic areas like hallways, the living room, and kitchen. For now, don’t worry about vacuuming rooms with less traffic.
Once you’ve finished vacuuming, you get to move on to the best step of all.
Step 6: Treat yourself!
Whew! You can call it a day! If you only made it through a few steps today, no worries! Cleaning is hard work, and even if you only cleaned for 2 minutes that’s a WIN.
The key to cleaning your home quickly is focusing on one small task at a time. Tasks like throwing trash away and washing the dishes will kickstart you into cleaning mode.
Once you’ve tackled a task like washing the dishes, you’ll feel less overwhelmed by the mess in the rest of your home.
When one area of your home is looking neat and tidy, you’ll feel inspired to continue cleaning another area. Before you know it, you’ve cleaned a few rooms in your home and you’re pretty much done!
No matter how often you clean your home, a simple task like making your bed or doing the dishes is a great start. As you practice the routine of cleaning everyday, your processes will get more efficient and refined.
We hope you found this guide helpful. At Seatown Cleaners, we love house cleaning. We know that a lot of people dislike cleaning their home. But, if you follow these simple steps we guarantee you’ll feel less overwhelmed by the mess waiting for you around the corner.
If you’re interested in hiring a professional house cleaning service, be sure to read our post about what you should know before hiring one.
At Seatown Cleaners, we offer premium house cleaning and maid services in Seattle, WA. If you live in Seattle, give us a call at (206) 880-3732 or book online in 60 seconds.
