HELP! How do I quickly clean the house?Looking for tips!

[Serendipite]

Landlord scheduled an inspection on Monday. It's Saturday morning where I am.

How do I go about this in a speedy way?

We have 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, living room, kitchen and laundry room.

I'm ashamed to say I haven't cleaned in a long time so the house is a mess.

You can waste ages trying to clean using the wrong products.

Bathroom- use an anti-limescale cleaning spray. Leave on stubborn areas for an hour or so, use a bathroom sponge (not as abrasive as a kitchen one but still a bit crunchy), rinse, dry (with an old towel) then polish. If you have glass shower doors use this method too. glass cleaner doesn't get rid of calcium deposits.
Kitchen- bleach sink, use multipurpose spray and cloth on surfaces- dry and polish. Oven- remove shelves take outside and spray both sides with oven cleaner, then spray oven and leave overnight. This can save hours of scrubbing. Wipe cupboard handles and fronts of cupboards/ appliances.
Surfaces- keep as clear as possible (stuff things in a bag in the car if necessary- like wise excess shoes/ hallway clutter)
Use wood polish to make things smell great.
Make beds, make sure curtains are lying straight
Hoover ceilings for cobwebs then skirting boards and floors, mop hard floors and dry/ polish with an old towel if you have time.
Windows- the quickest way is with a professional window cleaning kit which you can buy very cheaply from amazon- best product to use is called squeegie me.

If your'e shorter than average be aware of things like the top of the fridge which could be eye height and always gathers dust.

@Witchend!! I thought I was the only slob one who sometimes did the duvet thing at short notice. Sometimes I throw my slippers, morning mail and dressing gown over the bed. Then think 'yikes'

Antibac wipes are a must!

Languid there's also under the sofa (ironing board lives there!)

These are really good. Make it smell clean too. Use Zoflora diluted to wipe down hard surfaces. Smelling clean is half the battle.

How did you get on today op?

My best cleaning-lady tip (I was once a cleaning lady) - use a damp towel (with or without product) to clean mirrors, windows, tiles and shower screens, then buff with a dry towel. Stops smear and gets rid of limescale marks. As a cleaning lady I had loads of towelling cloths made from my old towels, but in your situation you could just use any couple of towels and then launder them. But so much quicker than anything else.

Oh, and my own studenty-tip I would use in my own home, not a customer's, would be to use the attachment on your vacuum to do a quick hoover-dust around rather than dust properly. You can always come back and do it properly if you have time.

Thanks for all the tips! Halfway through the finish line!!!

Be ruthless with throwing out anything you don't need.

I doubt it needs to betide for the inspection, but it's a good incentive.

I feel sorry for your landlord

1 bed 1 bathroom flat, how the heck do you let such a small space gettingnin to such a grotty state?

It must be a really bad if it will take you two days to clean a 1 bed flat. You've plenty of time but from now on tidy every day!!

It's not that it's so dirty, it's more of we have so much stuff so it takes a long time to tidy and put things into their proper places. And not enough cabinets.

Fly lady has a thing which is basically 15 minutes a room, fast as you can. Do 3 then have a 15 minute break. I find a timer really helps. If you have limited time but can get round all yours rooms twice it will be amazing what a difference there is. I do mainly tidying on the first run and clean bathrooms/kitchen surfaces. Don’t get side tracked putting away things in other rooms. Stck to the plan. Have a look at the website. There are great tips for decluttering. A good rule when sorting something out is never pull,out more than you can put back in an hour.

I get it op, we’re renting too and no matter how much I try to keep on top of it nothing ever seems properly tidy. I think with us it’s because our furniture, cupboards, proper storage etc is minimal where we can’t ever buy it to fit the house as we could potentially move again any time if the landlord wants us to. I’d love to be able to put up shelving but even though our current landlord is fab, I’m not sure she’d be ok with that and I’d feel cheeky asking.

Our last home had great storage in the kitchen, large cupboards for the hoover, ironing board, washing basket etc. This place just doesn’t have that and no cupboard under the stairs to keep things in. It’s not that we have too much stuff just not enough places to put the basics.

Thanks for this thread though, the kids had me up early today and I’ve tidied the kitchen and the living room.

People can’t resist coming in with a dig to try and make the OP feel like shite when she’s reached out for help 👏🏻

@Serendipite - glad it's going so well. It's actually quite fun once you get going.. So therapeutic. And you find stuff you've lost, and you get a really calm energy surge from having clean, clear spaces to look at.

Will you reward yourself with a bunch of flowers or reed diffusers or candle - something that celebrates what a good job you've done of sorting it out.

Then please please please follow the 5-15 minute tidy up rule in every room every day from now on, so you can keep it nice.

@Serendipite wondered how you're getting on

Inspection done!!