Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - 5 Quick Cleaning Tips | Clutterbug Podcast # 15

Episode Date: February 24, 2017

Here are 5 quick and easy cleaning tips that can help you spend time less an effort cleaning your home! Only 1 day left to claim yoru pre-order bonus: http://clutterbug.me/book   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Excited today to talk about some cleaning shortcuts. So some house cleaning shortcuts. I don't think anyone really likes to clean their house. The people that do, which are very rare, if they even really exist, I call unicorns. Because they're those people who are always happy and shiny and have rainbows coming out their butts. And yeah, unicorns may or may not like cleaning their house.

But for the rest of us, it is a chore. And unfortunately, it's something that if you put off, it's more work. That's what I've really discovered. I was always procrastinating house cleaning before in my slob days. And, you know, I would do it once a week, let's be honest, once every couple of weeks. And what I really found was the longer I put it off, it was compounded. So it wasn't even that, you know, instead of doing a half an hour every day, I'd have to do maybe four hours on the weekend. it meant having to scrub on my hands and knees and spend an exorbitant amount of time trying to remove

like built-up grime. And a lot of the times things were getting wrecked, things that I couldn't even clean because I had let it go too long. So then when I started doing a daily cleaning routine, I noticed that I never had to do those deep down cleans anymore. It just, it was sort of a thing of the past. So I would wipe, you know, the bathrooms down a little bit. And I'm going to talk about some other quick tricks that I do in order for me to never have to scrub. Who likes to scrub? I'm no Cinderella here. And I don't clean on my hands and knees. You want to know the honest truth? I don't even own a broom. And I don't have a traditional mop. I have one of those like spray mops, not a, not a swiffer spray, but a spray mop. It's called a Rubber Made Reveal mop to do quick mops. And that's

it. I'm not a deep down cleaner, but you don't have to be. When you do a little bit every day, it never gets really bad. So I have some tricks for you, some little cleaning secrets that make it so my house never gets really dirty. And there really are some things you can do to sort of make sure it never becomes overwhelming in the first place. And it's not just about a daily cleaning routine. We've talked about that in the past. I'm not even going to mention it again for this podcast because I kind of think that's a given. These are, that's something you're going to just have to do every day. I want to talk about other tips, things you can do right now to make cleaning easier and faster and have more time for the things you love doing while enjoying a clean house. So

let's get started with my very first tip, which is using like having a one product, I call it the one product wonder, but a one multi-purpose cleaner. you can use on almost every single surface. So while I love glass cleaner, I love, you know I'm obsessed with windex and I like making my own with vinegar, this cannot be your one product wonder. Because you can't use ammonia or vinegar on stone. So your granite, marble, any type of stone, you shouldn't be using vinegar and it's not great for wood finishes either. So we're going to pick a one product dusting, like a one product dusting spray. I guess, that doesn't have ammonia or vinegar in it. I like making my own and I just use baking soda,

a little bit of borax. You don't have to use that, a little bit of dish soap, and sometimes some rubbing alcohol, but I do have a recipe for my favorite cleaning products. I'm going to put that in the link. You just go to my website at clutterbug.me, so clutterbug, all one word, dot m. And there's a printables page on there, and it's a free recipe for my homemade cleaners. but the other ones I really like are Method. Method makes a multi-purpose cleaner. It's pink grapefruit is my favorite scent. And I also like VIM, but not the cream VIM, but the liquid VIM, it's blue, and you mix it with water. And in a pinch, a Mr. Clean multi-purpose very heavily diluted works as well. The thing about a lot of multipurpose cleaners that I find is they leave a residue.

So they leave sort of like a haze when you're cleaning things like your wood or anything that has a sheen to it. So that's why I really like method and I really like the VIM. It absolutely leaves zero residue, zero haze. And it's just like if you were to use a glass cleaner on it. So that's my one tip is to find a multi-purpose cleaner that you love and that is safe to use on, you know, your wood furniture, your coffee table, your kitchen table. your buffet, whatever it is, don't be afraid. You don't have to always use a wood spray on those type of surfaces. So my one product wonder, I grab a microfiber cloth, my one product, and I move around the room. I start with the things that are high and I just go around in a circle, going like

clockwise or counterclockwise, it really doesn't matter, around the room dusting all the surfaces. And because I'm only using one product, I'm moving really, really fast and I do. just basically go until that cloth is really dirty and then I'll grab a new cloth and continue on and I do my entire house like this. This is what you call this is the second step wet dusting. So a lot of people use a swiffer duster or like a feather duster or they just use a dry rag to dust and the problem with all of these is even though the swifter the like the swiffer dusters do collect some of the dust they do not collect all of them and most in the feather duster collects nothing and a dry rag collects nothing to you. You're just brushing it off and it's going on to the floor. And the problem with that is

as you walk or the wind blows, that dust is just swirling around and getting back on stuff. So you're not eliminating the dust. You're just moving it off your stuff and putting it somewhere else and it's just going to end up back on your stuff. So wet dusting is the key to actually eliminating the dust because when you're using a damp cloth or spray and wiping, it's actually sticking to the cloth. So you get the concept. grab a product a multi-purpose cleaner that can be used on any and every surface now this isn't going to be glass or mirrors you're going to have to have your own glass cleaner for streak-free mirrors and and windows but every other surface in your house window sales picture frames everything can be cleaned with your one product wonder and and and wet dusting your house is

really going to make it so you'll see you'll see a difference if you're a big dry duster and you try wet dusting a few times you're going to notice it takes longer for the dust to pile up again. So it's going to not only save you time the first time you're going around in wet dusting, but the next time you go to dust, there's going to be way less. You only have to do it, say, once a week instead of every couple of days. The next tip I'm going to talk about is if those times where you're doing a big house clean, especially if you're a working family and you don't have, you know, half an hour every day to dedicate to swip in and dusting your house, but you have to choose like a Saturday afternoon

to do it then. Or if you're like me and once a week, or let's be honest, once every two weeks, you spend a good hour or two giving your house a deep down scrub. Something that's really essential is a cleaning caddy. But for me, I use a cleaning bag. So I have this bag. I've been using this for a couple of months now. It's just a bag that I got for free from teaching of the college. It's nothing special. It's just like a canvas bag, but it's a shoulder strap bag that goes across my shoulder so I can swing it behind me. Basically, it's a purse. Let's be honest. It's like a big, it's like a purse. And I just put all my cleaning products I use. So I use a bathroom cleaner, a bleach spray, a wood spray sometimes for some things, some multi-purpose rags,

couple of different scrubbers in there, so some scrub brushes and the toothbrush. And I always have a little like a magic eraser in there too for those scuffs or something that is really hard to get off. And a glass cleaner. So I fill my bag with all of these different cleaning products, only my favorites. I don't want it to weigh 10 pounds, but you're getting the idea. And I move around the house with the bag behind me. So my hands are always free, but I can just reach behind and grab the product I need and go ahead and clean. And I love it. love this because while a cleaning caddy is great or, you know, a pale filled with all your things, maybe it's because I'm ADD brain, but I'd always like set it down in a room and they'd go to a different

room and then be like, where is my cleaning caddy and then have to search the house for the cleaning caddy or walk back and forth. So I'm, it's so much faster to just, you know, some people use a tool belt. I just used a bag I already owned. And I don't find it's heavy. It's just the same, you know, sort of weight as a purse, but I'm able to move so much faster when I do my full clean using a cleaning caddy bag. So that would be my next tip. The other thing I do when I'm doing my big deep down cleans is I do what's called a spray and walk away. So I always, when I'm doing my big house clean, I always start in the bathrooms and I use a bathroom cleaner spray. My favorite is fantastic with bleach. it doesn't matter whatever you like. And I spray the toilets and I spray down the shower and then I leave and go and

clean the rest of the house. Then I come back and while I'm cleaning the bathroom, I, you know, flush the toilet and I run the shower just to rinse all of that solution off. And just from having it sit on there, it's gotten rid of any ring in the bathtub or any mold that maybe has built up and I don't have to use the toilet brush to scrub the toilet because it's clean just from the solution sitting on it. So the spray and walk away really works for that deep down, dirty stuff, your grout, whatever it is, if you have a stain on like a countertop or something, doing the spray and walk away and then coming back and doing your clean after it's sat for 10, 15 minutes, a half an hour, it really doesn't matter. You are going to make sure that you're not going to have to do that big scrub. I also like to do

this to the kitchen sink. So I will spray the kitchen sink and let it soak and just kill all the germs or whatever and then come back and just rinse out the sink and I don't have to ever scrub it. The last tip we have talked about before, but I have to say it again because, I mean, it's so life-changing and that is audiobooks or podcasts. I mean, you're listening to a podcast right now, so obviously you're into podcasts, but for me, it's all about an audiobook. I am pretty much obsessed with reading, but when I do read, I accomplish nothing else. I am so hyper-focused on that book. If it's a good book, I don't want to sleep, I don't want to make the kids dinner, I want to do nothing except sit and read the book. The house goes to hell in a handbag, but I'll read like

an entire book in less than a day. So that isn't productive, is it? I mean, it's great to read, but doing it that way was not helpful for anyone. So what I started doing was getting audiobooks. And it's the same joy I get from reading, except I can move around the house and clean. And even better than that, I want to keep cleaning because I want to find out what happens next in the book. I want to finish the chapter. So I'll like, oh man, I'm done cleaning the house. Well, I'll do the baseboards like a super weirdo. Or, you know, I'll take something out of a closet and wipe down the shelf just so I can hear what happens next. And I find a lot of people that I've talked to who listening to audiobooks while

they clean are feeling the same way. They're feeling the motivation to keep going, whether it's making dinner, I make dinner, I fold laundry. Sometimes I drive in the car. I mean, I crush so many audiobooks. It's not even funny a week. But I get the joys and the benefit of reading while still being able to accomplish things. So I recommend it whether you go to the library, you can download audiobooks from the library, you know, put them on your phone, plug in your headphones, put them in your pocket. I use wireless headphones and I play it from, I use audible, which I'm always like, why am I paying for these audio books? My poor husband, when he gets the Amazon audible bill, because I'm listening to almost a book a day. It's outrageous how many books I listen to, so I need a library

card and I need to start downloading those. But the point is, it can be really motivating. It's motivating for me and I know it can be motivating for you too. So thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you're feeling inspired to clean something today. I really recommend, you know, getting your wet dust, your favorite multi-purpose cleaner out there in a rag, throwing on your headphones, even if it's a podcast that you're listening to. That's great. And get wet dusting your house today. And I can't forget that today, no, tomorrow, Saturday. I don't know when you're going to be listening to this, but Saturday, Facebook. February, the 25th is the very last day to join that pre-order mailing list where you're going to

get a coupon for free printables for life. You're also going to get a lot of exclusive content coming up in the future. All you have to do to get on that list is pre-order my book. You can pre-order it from any bookstore you want, that they're available and all of them online, and then go to my page at www.clutterbug.m.m. and go to the book page where you'll find a form at the bottom. Just take a few seconds to fill that out with your receipt or confirmation number. No dash is just the numbers from wherever you've ordered the book. They will give you a confirmation number or receipt number. And then you'll get your code instantly for free printables for life. I'll email you a coupon code. You'll also get an instant download and you'll be on that

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