Inside tricks to cleaning more quickly and effectively
By Mary Findley

Speed-cleaning – it’s not a common term but one you’ll likely hear more about in the months to come, but what is it? Please do not waste your time learning speed-cleaning tips if you have piles of papers, shoes, magazines and last night dinner dishes cluttering every room of your home.

Pick up, put away and throw away “stuff.” Don’t just put things away but put them where they belong. Who me – misplace anything? If I could find my glasses I could see to type the answer! Quick results. If this sounds like a weight loss program, it is just that. Only the goal is to loose the excess “weight” hanging around your home.

Speaking of health issues, begin your cleanup campaign with the kitchen. Fast food becomes a habit when you can’t find the counter space to chop your veggies. Clean up and put away dishes and pans after every meal. Everyone on a diet loves to see fast results. Start your cleanup program with large items. As those piles quickly disappear it spurs you on to tackle the smaller ones.

Here are a few tips guaranteed to diminish those piles quickly and cut travel time:

4 Think of chores as a two for one offer. When you head in the direction of the washing machine, take a load of clothes with you. Retrieve enough meat out of the freezer in the garage for three meals rather than just one. Every time you leave a room take something with you and put it away. Call it multi-tasking if you wish, but it cuts down the number of trips you make.

4 It’s the little things that matter: Head to the hardware store for a spare pair of needle nose pliers, regular pliers, a hammer and one of those screwdrivers with all four heads in one handle. Tuck those in a kitchen drawer. You save two trips to the garage each time you need a tool.

4 Train yourself to pay attention to the trips you make. How can you combine two trips into one? Can you rearrange storage for easier accessibility? With a bit of effort a few months from now you’ll reap the rewards in newfound spare time. Focusing on exercises like this alerts you to other areas that can be combined into a two for one project when you begin speed cleaning your home.

4 Clean like the pros. Start viewing your home the way a profession views it. You never see a professional home cleaner, if they do fire them, enter a home and immediately heat up a cup of coffee or put a load of laundry in the washer. Leave multitasking for times other than cleaning your home. Every time you stop what you are cleaning to tend to another chore you loose valuable time. It takes time to pick up your speed while cleaning. Once your speed picks up, you want to keep that pace. Starting and stopping frequently is much like shopping for clothes. When you shop individual stores on opposite sides of town it takes far longer than heading to one area containing multiple shops.

4 Engage your spouse to take the kids out to play or run errands if needed. Then switch roles the following weekend. What a wonderful way to spend one on one time with the kids but it also removes distractions.

4 If you are a single parent, it may be necessary to clean after tucking the kids into bed at night. Yes the day has been long, but it only takes 15 minutes to do an average bathroom. If the kids are old enough to play in the tub without direct supervision, clean the rest of the bathroom while they play.

Mary Findley is a veteran cleaning expert and President of the Mary Moppins Cleaning Systems. Her website also offers a wealth ofcleaning tips and advice to help consumers.