Top 15 Cleaning Tips

1. Make a schedule and stick with it!
If you select a regular time to clean every week, particularly if you want your whole family to participate, it will provide consistency that will guarantee the job gets done. As a bonus, it’ll encourage good habits in all your housemates.

2. Make a list of cleanup priorities before you clean.
Checking things off lists can make you feel more accomplished and it’s a great way to stay organized.

3. Work in sections.
Rushing from room to room is a recipe for making you feel disoriented and overwhelmed. Start in one corner of the room and work around the entire room. No backtracking! Walk around the room once, and you’re done; then go back one more time for the floor.

4. Start with your least favorite room or area.
Might seem counterintuitive, but getting that bathroom or junky hall out of the way at the beginning will make the rest of your cleaning seem like a piece of cake.

5. Before you do anything else, declutter.
Picking up will automatically make everything look cleaner. Handle your clutter before you actually clean surfaces so you have less to work around.

6. Work from top to bottom.
This way dust all ends up on the ground before you vacuum. If you work in the reverse way dust from the top will fall onto areas you have already cleaned below.

7. Always clean with dry things before wet.
So wipe off and dust surfaces before using any kind of wet cleaner. Getting rid of a lot of stuff with the dry cloths prevents streaking and spreading of dirt.

8. Take your cleaning tools with you from room to room.
You can do this can be an apron with pockets or a pail. I suggest finding the right supplies (this is important) and then organizing them in some kind of bucket or tote. Just store them in the bucket all the time and all you have to do is pull it out and all your tools are there at your disposal. Plus they’re easy to carry!

9. Deal with stains early!
If you leave stains on carpet or furniture for long period of time they can become permanent.

10. When removing stains from clothing work from the back to the front of the fabric.
This keeps the stain from spreading deeper into the fabric .

11. Turn off your phones while you clean .
Try to eliminate any other distractions like televisions or computers too. You can keep your cell on for emergencies.

12. Make the house smell fresh!
There are plenty of fresheners on the market, but my personal favorite is leaving baking soda on the carpet for a few hours before vacuuming (some people suggest overnight).

13. When it’s perfect, take a picture!.
It may seem a little silly, but I used to take pictures after cleaning and organizing a room and post them on the interior of the door. This was the way I wanted the room to look, and with pictures, whoever in the family used the room could see it was possible.

14. Control Clutter daily.
Try to make a daily effort to keep down the clutter in your home so you have less to clean next time. The more you deal with things as they happen the better.

15. Maximize your cleaning time.

Yes, there are plenty of things we’d rather be doing than cleaning. One good solution is to find an easy and fun background task. No, I don’t mean turn on your computer or phone to work while cleaning. Don’t even think about work or anything distracting. Paying attention and focusing on the task are important for speed. You should also not do anything while speed cleaning that requires one hand – use both hands to clean.

But you can find an activity you enjoy (that requires no hand or heavy brain power ) and may not get to do otherwise. This will make your cleaning time feel a little bit more like a treat. Just make sure you can still focus on the task at hand: cleaning with speed.

A couple of examples:

* Books on tape are great — just go light. Don’t try to get through War and Peace while cleaning.
* Good music, especially upbeat or something you haven’t gotten to listen to in awhile, can really do the trick. Plus, if no one’s around you can fit in some quality dancing time with the mop.
* Cleaning is also great physical exercise.
* Need basketball practice? Shoot hoops with the laundry and other things while putting them away.
* When I am picking up or cleaning with kids I often challenge them to a competition: either that I can pick up more things than them or that I can finish picking up half of the room faster then them. This is just good old fashioned fun competition and always gets everyone a little bit more excited about the chore. It’s even fun with other adults.



I hope these tips shared by the professionals from Domestic Cleaning London help you get motivated and feel more in control of your housekeeping!