How can I clean my entire 2-bed house in 3 or 4 hours?

[ImaSandyGirl]

Hi, can anyone help me please. It takes me ages to clean my house. I do it room by room as follows:

Bathroom: Hoover floor then mop with floor wipes; clean bath, shower (including screen), toilet. Wipe skirting boards, surfaces, clean mirror.

Bedrooms: Tidy, put away DD's toys, hoover carpets, wipe surfaces, change bedclothes

Living room: Hoover carpet (involves lots of moving of furniture as the room is tiny), tidy, wipe surfaces

Stairs: Hoover stairs

Kitchen: Hoover floor, mop with floor wipes; clean all surfaces; clean sick and dish/cutlery drainer tray

When I write down the list of tasks like this, it doesn't seem like much, but it just takes me ages. Does anyone have any tips for how to complete all my housework in 3-4 hours please?

Many thanks

It's the tidying. I find if you're trying to tidy and clean at the same time you get bogged down and it takes ages. If you can get everything away in the right place before you start cleaning you can blitz it much easier.

I find it a lot quicker to vacuum a whole floor in one go, more efficient! Same with mopping. Do all the rooms that need that at same time.

I also try to spend 10 mins per day tidying so it’s less hideous than tidying everywhere at once at cleaning time I don’t have children though

Changing bed is done at different time to cleaning too, strip bed when get out of it on Saturday morning and straight in washer. It’s done by the time breakfast eaten, weekly meal plan written, and showered etc. Then in dryer or on line during grocery shopping. Short straw puts it back on while groceries being put away

If you're doing it all in the order you've typed, then that's really odd. I do downstairs first- tidy, clean (polish surfaces or anti-bac spray and wipe) then hoover and mop the places that need it. Repeat upstairs.

Yes you clean all mirrors together for eg. We do a 5bed in that time if we did it all at once. How dirty is it?
Yes to keeping it tidy.

Group everything by task not by room. Tidy everything away, dust the house from top to bottom and then do the bathroom and finish with the floors. Takes me about 2 and a half hours to do our 2 bed.

Don't try to do it all in one go, it's hard work and unrealistic. Have a cleaning routine which is spread across the week. Yes I know this means the whole house is rarely perfect but it's much more manageable. So I have daily jobs, jobs which are every other day and weekly jobs are done on different days across the week. Also I have big cleans and little cleans. Big cleans I will polish and wipe things properly but little cleans I just use the brush attachment on the hoover pipe to whip over surfaces etc. I can get away with 2 or 3 little cleans before a big one is needed. Plus every now and then I pick a room and deep clean.

I find the key is being clutter free - we recently moved and got rid of so much "stuff" to recycling, charity shops etc. It's made cleaning a lot easier. I also clean the shower whilst in it - easier and quicker.

I clean whole houses for a living and do two a day, so I can be cleaning non stop (no lunch break) for 6 hours.

Best way to start in any room is from the door and work clockwise from top to bottom. So wipe off any dust from the top of the door and the frame, use a duster for the ceiling. Work your way down the door frame and the skirting boards.
Dust all surfaces with a damp cloth, clean the window(s), the lampshade ect, then hoover the room last.

In bathrooms, again top to bottom, spray the toilet all over with anti bac and leave at least 10 minutes, clean the bath and then the shower.
Wipe over the toilet (disposable paper towels) and bleach. Then do the sink, skirting boards and mirror(s).
Then mop the floor, or just use floor wipes as some bathrooms are so tiny anyway.

Kitchen, same as all the other rooms, take care to clean the plinths, all surfaces. If cooker is gas, take the burners off and clean and then put all back together again.

Oven is a separate job in itself.

Clean the fridge, take all the shelves out and remove the plastic strips, clean individually each glass shelf and the carcasse of the fridge. (This is a separate job as well).

Fill up a bucket of hot water and then clean the sink and drainer. Add disinfectant neat into the plughole.
Vac the floor in full and then mop it.
Dispose of the dirty water outside.

Each house is different, but the most important thing is to damp dust to stop it going everywhere!

Floor wipes? How about just a quick mop? A lot more environmental.

@PoisonousSmurf re damp dust. what do you do with wooden furniture that damp dust would spoil? Any tips?

I clean the bathroom in 5 minutes, then dust the whole house (20 minutes), then vacuum the whole house (30 minutes), then mop everywhere (15 minutes), then clean the kitchen (10 minutes). I never spend more than 90 minutes cleaning. I go around most of the furniture, I don't move it and I don't clean skirting boards more than once every few years.

Poisonoussmurf I'm rubbish at cleaning and need to give my two bed cottage a proper clean so thanks for the plan

The organised mum method.

HTH

It’s quick to mop several rooms, how long does it take you with wipes?

Cleaners usually only clean. You are adding in tidying and washing as well.

I have a cleaner one day a week for 5 hours. On that day I also spend 5-6 hours doing housework . I tidy the whole house, empty bins and sort rubbish, strip beds and wash bed linen and towels , remake beds, wash and dry another two loads of laundry ( clothes ). Every week there’s an extra job to be done, like defrosting and cleaning the fridge, cleaning out kitchen cupboards and getting rid of things we don’t need, sorting out the kids clothes or toys. If I have time I’ll do some batch cooking or bake.

So that’s at least 10 hours of work each week just to keep things going.

Our house is a reasonable size and I like to keep it reasonable but it’s not a palace. We have no pets and only one carpet so don’t have a lot of vacuuming. Most things are easy to clean, we don’t have lots of ornaments or any glossy furniture that needs polished.

I’m always surprised that so many people on MN claim to be able to do all their housework in a couple of hours a week. They can’t all live in a studio flat or be very “ relaxed “ about cleanliness.

I try to do tidying one day and cleaning and a bit of tidying the following day.
Ours is a 4 bed Edwardian semi and there are loads of nooks and crannies. It can take me a day just to tidy, so this is enough.

The Organised mum method.
www.theorganisedmum.blog/tag/tomm/

Tidy the night before, as a whole family effort.

Thank you all so much for your advice. There's loads of really great suggestions here that I'm definitely going to take on board.