It’s Sod’s law: The one time your friend or family calls last minute, announcing that they will be visiting in half an hour, your house looks like a bomb has gone off. What your house really needs is a thorough spring clean, but in your limited space of time, there’s no point worrying about that now. You need to prioritise your house cleaning.
While all the sorting and deep cleaning is important in the long-run, for this quick clean-up, focus only on “the appearance of clean,” which should serve to impress your guests.
Don’t panic. Here’s a 30-minute house cleaning checklist to save your day!
30-Minute House Cleaning Checklist
- Hide the Clutter
Time Required: 5 to 10 Minutes
Quickly assess and target the main spots where disorder strikes. Most people tend to have clutter in their front hallways and places where paper piles up, like desks, kitchen tables and surfaces. At some point, you should really sort everything out properly, but on last-minute house cleaning occasions such as this, storage will have to do. Try, at least to get the things to the appropriate room, to make your life easier later on. Place items in large baskets and tuck them out of sight — remember this is only temporary! - Get Dirty Items Out of Sight
Time Required: 5 Minutes
Wash stray dishes or load them into your dishwasher. If you’ve no time for the dishwasher, instead of leaving the plates stacked up in a pile on the side, place them in the sink. This looks a lot neater and a lot less obvious. The same goes for dirty dish cloths: You don’t have to clean them at that precise moment, but throw them in the washing machine or laundry basket out of sight, ready for washing later. - Wipe Down Surfaces and Sweep or Vacuum
Time Required: 10 Minutes
Give the bathroom surfaces, kitchen surfaces and any other high-profile surfaces, such as the coffee table or kitchen table, a quick wipe down. You can make this process even faster by having disinfecting wipes on hand. Glass cleaner can also quickly be applied to glass surfaces for added sparkle. If you have time to sweep or vacuum, go for it! This will be your most time-consuming step. This is not, however, the time to mop the floors. - Check Supplies
Time Required: Less Than 5 Minutes
Make sure your bathrooms have toilet paper and your hand towels are clean. - Save Time For a Walk-Through
Time Required: Less Than 5 Minutes
Absolutely make sure you reserve 5 minutes for a quick and critical walk-through! That way you’ll have time to hide away that dirty sock or stray trainer or dust the coffee table before your guests arrive. Sometimes making a good impression is all about the small details!
Pre-plan For Next Time
To make your house cleaning check-off go even faster next time, the professional organisers say that preplanning is the key. A committed time set aside on a daily basis is ideal to keep the clutter at bay. If a family spends just 15 minutes at 19:00 every night to put things away, the rest of the evening is peaceful, and you wake up the next day to a more organised environment. Remember, cleaning take sup a lot less time when there are many hands at work, so make sure you remember to delegate! Making this a new habit is something the entire family will benefit from.
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