Top tips for weekend cleaning
The weekend is the perfect time to give your home or workplace a good clean! Well, this is an idea many people won’t be really enthusiastic about. Although our weekends are the time when we are free of all the other responsibilities and tasks we have to deal with during the working week, we prefer to use this free time for a bit more pleasurable activities rather than wandering around the house with a mop in one hand and vacuum cleaner in the other. Although weekend cleaning sounds like a mood killer, it really does not has to be that way and you need just a bit of motivation and inspiration, so here are the top 10 effective cleaning ideas for the weekend that will take two- to three-hour Saturday morning cleaning plan for when you didn’t clean all week (but want your house to look and feel like you did):
1. Get the laundry started.
Gather all the laundry that needs to be done, including bedding, and separate it into loads. Get that first load going. Make sure your cycle end signals are audible. Transfer loads and add new ones as soon as you hear the beeps. Make the beds or fold loads as soon as they come out of the dryer so you aren’t faced with a giant laundry mountain after you’re done cleaning.
2. Pick up clutter.
To clean quickly and effectively, you need clear floors and surfaces. Attack clutter strategically or you’ll spend all your time wandering around the house in circles trying to put stuff where it belongs. We suggest the laundry basket method or the bed method. You can even leave the actually-putting-stuff-away part until after your cleaning is done.
3. Dust and clean glass.
If your weekly schedule breaks up chores by room, put that aside for this Saturday morning catch-up session. We’re going task-by-task, and, as usual, we’re starting at the top and working our way down. This isn’t the time to be detailed; leave the knick-knack dusting for another time. Just do a general sweep of your duster to dislodge any visible dust in trouble spots. Then go around with your favorite glass cleaner and wipe down mirrors, glass table tops, glass doors, and shower doors.
4. Wipe surfaces.
In keeping with our top-to-bottom strategy, next, we’re going to wipe down surfaces. Again, this will be an abbreviated version (it’s not the time to scrub around the faucets with a detail brush), but go around and wipe down each bathroom counter, the kitchen counter, and other hard surfaces like desks and side tables. Use a clean rag for each room.
5. Clean the bathrooms.
Spend some time cleaning each bathroom. Clean toilets thoroughly, and give shower and tub faucets, bathtub ledges, and niches or shelves a quick wipe-down. Go over bathroom faucets and soap dispensers with an all-purpose cleaner and a rag.
6. Clean the kitchen.
The kitchen also needs a bit of personal attention. Wipe down your appliances, and give the interior of your fridge a quick once-over, discarding old food, wiping up any obvious spills and messes, and straightening up anything that looks particularly disheveled. Clean the kitchen faucet and scrub the sink basin.
7. Vacuum everywhere.
You may have common area vacuuming scheduled twice or more on your weekly checklist, but today your total weekly vacuuming time for the common areas is cut in half because you’re only doing it once! Vacuum common areas, including area rugs, and then vacuum each bedroom and bathroom.
8. Mop where necessary.
This isn’t going to be a wet-mop-all-the-hard-floors kind of morning. Probably, you’ll only really need to mop the kitchen, if that. Use a spray mop for efficiency.
9. Put all the folded laundry away.
Don’t neglect this step. In addition to an all-clean house, having all the (clean! folded!) laundry put away will give that aahhhhhh feeling like nothing else can so you can fully enjoy the rest of your weekend.
