Clean Solutions

Cleaning Around the House

Decide how clean you want your house to be and how much time you have. This will help you decide how to set up your cleaning schedule. Be honest with yourself about what you can do, how much time you have, and how motivated you're feeling.

• Work from the top down, if at all possible. You don't want to vacuum and then get crumbs all over the floor, or dust the bottom of something and knock more dust down when you work your way up onto the previously uncleaned areas. If you don’t have much time, start with the clutter first and work your way to more serious things from there.
• For the "average" busy person it works better to do a little bit every day so that the work doesn't pile up, and also have major-cleaning day a few times a month. What style you prefer is up to you (unless you have roommates, of course).

Always have a cleaning checklist and a plan of attack. Know which rooms you plan to start and finish your cleaning in (generally back to front door works best). This will help expedite the process and ensure you are not duplicating your efforts, especially if more than one person is involved in the cleaning.

• Make a plan so that you can vacuum, sweep, and mop all rooms together (and so that your hot water doesn't get cold) and you don't have to go from one task to another.
• The below list of tasks can serve as a general all-purpose checklist, though they by no means have to be completed in order.

Attempt to delegate tasks. If you live with other people, cleaning the house should not be exclusively your responsibility! You may have to take on leadership by setting up a rotational cleaning schedule, but it's far better than having to do this backbreaking work alone.

• Make sure the tasks assigned are age-appropriate – i.e. grade school children can pick up their bedroom floors, teenagers can clean the garage or bathroom, etc. It should also be equal – cleaning the toilet is hardly on par with organizing the coffee table.