No Matter How Busy a Family you Have a Clean Home is Possible.

The Basics of Keeping a Clean Home

Keeping your home clean takes time, effort and sacrifice. Our house cleaners at Mrs. Clean have years of experience under their belts in cleaning homes efficiently and effectively.

If you want to learn how to clean like a professional maid, it is essential to:

• get organized to make the job easier
• wipe things dry
• be thorough
• touch everything ONLY once

You can get the job done in less time and enjoy the fresh scent and sparkle of a clean home by following the tips and methods that the professionals use.

Clean a Little Every Day

This will help make sure that cleaning doesn’t become an overwhelming task that will take up an entire weekend.

Some examples include:

• Sweeping the kitchen floor every night after doing the dinner dishes will lessen the amount of food particles that are tracked into the living room and other areas.
• Dusting the TV room before sitting down to watch your favorite evening news program will help keep up with regular dusting.
• Wiping down the shower and bathroom sink after each use will reduce mold and mildew growth, making the weekly scrubbing much easier.

To keep my home clean, I make goals. For example, on top of my regular chores, I add three extra things to clean every day from my cleaning checklist.

One day I could be cleaning the dryer vents, coffee pot and chandelier. And then the next day I could be cleaning the toilets, doors and window tracks.

It’s good to switch up your cleaning routine regularly so certain areas of your home aren’t neglected.

Keep All Cleaning Supplies Together in One Place

One of the best cleaning inventions was the caddy or tote. Our cleaners love to have their supplies handy so they can easily move all of them from room to room. If you don’t have (or don’t want to buy) a caddy, you could use a small bucket to carry your supplies.

Gather all of your cleaning supplies – spray bottles, gloves and sponges – and put them in your caddy. Keep the caddy in a convenient place where it will be used most.

If you have a multi-story house, keep a cleaning caddy (with a full set of supplies) on each level so you don’t have to search all over the house before you get started. It will definitely save you time and energy.

I keep a tote in different locations throughout my house, such as in my kitchen, the bathrooms, laundry room and the linen closet. Determine where each tote will be primarily used to clean and then fill it with the appropriate supplies. By doing this, I have convenient items at my disposal whenever needed. There is dish soap for the kitchen tote, a toilet scrubber for the bathroom tote and carpet cleaner for the linen closet tote.

Wipe Everything Dry

It is one more step, but it gives you more than two times an advantage. Not only will wiping surfaces dry polish the area, it will also bring up two times as much dirt and grime as the wet wipe will do, and it stops any residue from smearing or clouding the surface. This is especially true for floors and counter-tops, but also applies to most other surfaces. The high polished shine is a bonus.

Don’t believe me? The next time you mop your floors, even if you’ve gone over it with a second rinse: Take a clean white cotton towel or rag and dry a section of the floor thoroughly. What’s the towel look like now? Super dirty, right? It’s very surprising but oh-so-true that your floors will be more than 2x cleaner by wiping dry after mopping.

Move Efficiently

Clean from the top to the bottom and then from left to right, or right to left, touching everything only once before moving on to the next area.

Get Organized and Get Rid Of Clutter

This section needs a lot more space than a paragraph or two, which is why I have a whole area devoted to organizing tips. The gist is to reduce the amount of “stuff” you have and to put things away. It takes much longer to clean a cluttered home. Get rid of your junk and put the rest of it away to save you tons of time. You will also feel better if you are organized.

Make a Cleaning Schedule

If you hire someone to clean your home, he or she will arrive each week according to a schedule. The best trick to cleaning a house yourself is to make a schedule and adhere to it (as much as possible).

If you and the kids are home on Monday afternoons between 3:00 and 5:00, make this the time you do a bigger cleaning. If you’ve been cleaning a little bit each day, this “big” cleaning won’t take as long.

Create a House Cleaning Checklist

It’s easy to forget some of the places that need to be cleaned: The louvered closet doors, the tops of the baseboards and the corners where walls meet can all become quite dusty and grimy if they’re not wiped down regularly.

In order not to forget them, walk through your house and create a cleaning checklist. Sort the list by the tasks that should be done daily, weekly, monthly and semi-annually. This trick to cleaning a house will keep you on track until you can afford the housekeeper you deserve.

If you want to save time, we have a large number of free cleaning schedules and checklists available. Just print them off and keep in a handy place.

Keep Your House Smelling Good Using Essential Oils

One of the things we use are essential oils to help keep our home smelling fresh. Essential oils are great, they are inexpensive and last forever and can give your home a refreshing scent.

You can use any essential oil your nose desires. Just add drops of your favorite essential oil or oils into a spray bottle with baking soda and water. Shake, then spray it a few times in the air.

Disinfectant Essential Oil Recipe

In a spray bottle, add:

• Two tablespoons baking soda
• Six drops of lavender essential oil
• Six drops of lemon or citrus essential oil
• Six drops of lemongrass essential oil

Give the spray bottle a good shake until until the baking soda and oils are mixed together. Then add two cups water and shake again until thoroughly combined. Label the bottle and when ready to use shake it up and spray.

Easy Diffuser Recipes

Here are some combinations of essential oils you may like for diffusing around the house:

#1:

• 4 drops Lavender Essential Oil
• 7 drops Cedarwood Essential Oil

#2:

• 4 drops Spearmint Essential Oil
• 3 drops Eucalyptus Essential Oil
• 2 drops Peppermint Essential Oil

#3:

• 3 drops Lemongrass Essential Oil
• 3 drops Lavender Essential Oil
• 3 drops Rosemary Essential Oil

#4:

• 5 drops Eucalyptus Essential Oil
• 4 drops Peppermint Essential Oil
• 3 drops Tea Tree Essential Oil