Once upon a time, we had a professional cleaning service.  They came to our home once a month for a good deep clean, leaving behind the heavenly scent of euphoria.  [if you live in Minneapolis, you must hire them.]  When we moved away & I started staying at home, we agreed to get rid of this monthly expense and I [begrudgingly]  took over the cleaning duties.  I immediately started looking for shortcuts.  Anything to make cleaning as painless & FAST as possible.

Currently, I spend less than an hour a week cleaning our house.  Now, that doesn’t include laundry or dishes- those are just daily necessities for us [and of course very time consuming].  While I am most certainly NOT an authority on cleaning, I have found a few time-saving tricks.  Oh, and it probably helps that our home is SMALL!

my favorite cleaning shortcuts

Cleaning Shortcut #1:  Use a dish scrubber to clean the shower.  This is my very favorite cleaning shortcut, because in my opinion, cleaning the bathroom is the absolute worst chore.  Specifically, cleaning the shower.  But, not anymore!  I fill a dish scrubber with an equal mixture of dish soap & vinegar and give the shower a scrub once a week DURING my shower.  I use a plastic cup to rinse down the walls afterwards.  It’s SO easy!

Cleaning Shortcut #2:  Norwex ‘magic’ cloths.  I went to a Norwex party about 3 years ago and it revolutionized the way I clean my house.  Their envirocloths are the best!  [buy a set HERE!]  You just wet it with water & wipe down any surface-  instantly it’s disinfected!  I have specific ones designated for bathroom use & they help me disinfect the entire bathroom in a few minutes.

Cleaning Shortcut #3:  Get rid of floor cleaning chemicals.  Most of my floor cleaning experience is with hardwood- we recently purchased a steam cleaner and I LOVE IT!  It’s so much faster!  I vacuum, then run the steam cleaner quickly over the floors.  That’s it.  I love that there are no chemicals, just water!  [sidenote:  I try to limit steaming to 1-2 times a month and use the lowest setting because I’ve been told steaming hardwood too frequently is not a good idea.]

• Bonus Cleaning Shortcut:  For Christmas this year, we got a robot vacuum.  Now, our floors are vacuumed while we sleep.  It’s pretty genius.  And a huge time saver.  But, it wasn’t cheap.  When I did the math, it’s roughly the cost of three visits from a professional cleaner, which we no longer do [let’s not talk about that], so this little guy pays for himself rather quickly.

Cleaning Shortcut #4: Dust with the palm of your hand.  I use my Norwex dust mit to dust surfaces QUICKLY.  [buy one HERE!]  It’s especially slick on blinds.  In the past I would take everything off a surface, spray it with Lysol, wipe it off, and replace everything back to its original place.  Now, I just run my hand [in the mit] over the surface and lift things up/down as I swipe under them.  Cuts the time in half.  My other dusting trick?  Lint rolling lamp shades.  I have no idea why, but it IS SO ADDICTING!

Cleaning Shortcut #5:  Prevent microwave mess.  We use this microwave cover when heating up our food and it completely eliminates splatter messes!  Seriously, I rarely have to wipe out the microwave because it stays clean!

 

What other cleaning shortcuts do you use to cut down cleaning time?  Please share!

 

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through an affiliate link, you will pay the same price, but I receive a small commission.  Obviously I really love all these products (as mentioned above)!