Four Easy Steps to a Cleaner House

By Deborah Lambeth

Let’s see…Tilex, Ajax, Windex—all the necessary X’s you need to keep your house clean, right? WRONG. There is a lot of grime that you can miss if you’re only using cleaners with an X in their name—dusting, for example, or vacuuming. If you’re like most people, housecleaning is not your forte nor is it something you look forward to doing. However, there are some semi-pain-free ways to keep a cleaner house that are pretty easy to follow.

1. Don’t wait to do your cleaning all in one day. Rome was not built in a day; neither can the dirt and grime that has accumulated be taken care of in one day, either. I know of one person who takes a room each day to clean. That way, by the end of the workweek, she actually has a weekend to do what she wants to do, rather than being constrained to what she has to do. Make a list of the rooms in your home and the things that need to be done in each room to keep it clean. Make your schedule and stick to it.

2. Take care of things as you go, instead of waiting until later. For example, if you are drying clothes, have clothes hangers available so you can hang things when they come out of the dryer. Many clothes do not have to be ironed if they are put on hangers as soon as they finish drying. How about that plate from dinner? I know it’s easier to stick it in the sink. However, if you’ll rinse it off and put it in your empty dishwasher (you did empty it from the last washing, right?), then taking a chunk of time to "do the dishes" will become a thing of the past!

3. Use storage bins, baskets, and compartments to organize your stuff. Try to cut down on the amount of "stuff" you have. You don’t need 10 dish towels. When was the last time you used those chili bowls that Aunt Susie gave you three years ago for Christmas? Go through your things and only keep those things that are necessary. Yard sale or donate the rest. The less stuff you have, the less cluttered your home will be.

4. Vacuuming and dusting are probably two of the most mundane chores in keeping a clean house. Well okay…toilet cleaning ranks pretty high up there, too! However, by vacuuming every other day, dusting becomes a breeze because there will not be much dust that will have accumulated. Make sure you change your furnace filters every month. Need a quick dusting tool? Slip an athletic sock on your hand, spray it with furniture polish and start picking up those bunnies—dust bunnies, that is!

Yes, a cleaner house can be yours, and it’s not that hard to do. Obviously, there are things that you will need to do only on a seasonal basis (washing windows, airing out mattresses, cleaning draperies, comforters, etc.). But if you’ll take a few minutes each day to do one or two regular chores, that small amount of effort will cut down on the amount of time that you’d ordinarily spend trying to get all the cleaning done in one day. Here’s a toast to your having a weekend to do whatever you want to do—in a sparkling clean house!