What are your tips and tricks when it comes to keeping your home spotless?

Question

Any and all ideas are welcomed. Thank you.

Answer 1

whatever is spilled clean it up immediately! I use water with vinegar for everything. For hard stains I mix together: 1C Water, /1/4 C. dishsoap, 1/2 C.baking soda, 1T. vinegar(add last). It makes a homemade soft scrub cleanser. It will clean the shower glass door so clean, you won't believe it. I feather dust once a week, then vacumm. If you can get others to clean up after themselves, you are have-half way home. Dishes, don't let them pile up. I keep a dish pan of soapy water ready at all times in the sink. Once a year I do the windows, hose the house off, clean out the closets. Those big things can wait until you are really jazzed to do them.

Answer 2

Once understand the importance of having a simple, organized home, and have taken steps toward creating an atmosphere that aids home relaxation, and have your home the way you want it, you’ll want to hold onto the sense of peace and order you’ve created. It’s easy for busy people to backslide into messy surroundings after a few weeks, so the following steps may be needed to guard the gains you’ve made:
Clean Regularly: This sounds like the obvious solution to having a mess, but it’s not always easy to do when you have a busy life. However, if you keep a schedule and clean a different room of the house every few days, and do a ‘clean sweep’ before you go to bed each night, you can keep your surroundings clean with minimal effort.

A great website that can help is:
www.flylady.org.
Stay Organized: As you accumulate new things, be sure you’re also regularly donating and tossing things you no longer use. Also, be sure everything you own has a ‘home’, so you can put things away quickly and find things easily.
Hire a Helper: You may also want to have someone clean your house once a week or twice a month, which will help you feel like you’re not alone in your efforts, and make it easier to keep things clean the rest of the time.
Having peaceful surroundings can give you a sense of peace that comes from having a haven from the outside world. Here are some additional tips for creating and maintaining a Low-Stress Zone in your home:

Create Peaceful Zones: If you haven't already, you may want to continue organizing and decorating your space as time goes on. Perhaps you can create a place for journaling or meditation, perhaps a home spa area in your bathroom, or a space for yoga practice in your living room. Think of what areas you would have in an ideal vacation spot, and see if you can re-create them in your home.
Use Your Machine: Do you find dinner, conversations, and leisure time interrupted by the phone? If you want some peace in the evenings, don’t be afraid to let phone calls go to the answering machine or voice mail. It might feel strange at first to just let calls go unanswered when you’re home, but you may be surprised by how much stress you can avoid when you’re not jumping up to get the phone all the time when you’re trying to rest. Be good about getting back to people, and they shouldn’t mind.
Avoid Telemarketers and Junk Mail: If you haven’t already, get yourself on the Do Not Call list. This can greatly reduce or eliminate the amount of annoying calls you receive from telemarketers. And if you find yourself buried under an avalanche of junk mail, writing to these people would be a really good idea. You can really cut down on the amount of mail you have to sort through and shred, which will also reduce more stress than you may realize.
Automatic Bill Payment: Another thing you can do to cut down on mail and save yourself time is to sign up for automatic bill payment. Many of your bills can be deducted from your checking account each month, or at least paid online, which will cut down on time spent writing checks mailing letters, and money spent on postage.
Don’t Stress Over a Little Mess: If you have small children or another situation that makes keeping a clean house especially difficult, give yourself permission to have a little clutter. While it’s great to have minimal clutter, sometimes stressing about an inevitable amount of mess can cause more stress. So, work toward order, but don’t obsess.

Answer 3

The best way to keep your house spotless is to de-clutter it. Get rid of anything that you are saving for no good reason. Put everything else away, give old clothes that don't fit to the Salvation Army. Then clean your house really good. Clean under the refrigerator, too. That is always my idea of deep cleaning, otherwise it is surface cleaning. It is easy to keep your home spotless if you get out the clutter. Even if it isn't perfectly clean, no one will notice if everything is tidy. My house is really tidy and everyone thinks it's spotless. It isn't and it would never pass the "White glove test" for dust but it looks that way because I got rid of all the clutter.

Answer 4

Keep a swiffer duster handy, A Mr. clean Magic Eraser, bottle of Clorox cleanup, and vinegar. These things will cut down on cleaning time and expense. If you want to clean everyday, then odds are the house will not be spotless, but just keeping things organized and put up in their place it is easy to keep things looking clean. Then if you choose a couple of days a week or weekend to really do a number...then clean all areas thoroughly. Really there is no easy way to clean...just do it everyday as you go along.

Answer 5

I'd say it depends how many people are in your house! I live with a man, a 15 yo, an 8 yo, and 6 yo boys. The boys are messy but I get them to clean up pretty easily by telling them to put the stuff where it's supposed to be. Sounds stupid but if they get out of hand, that's all I have to say.

I'm not of much help to you because I'm pregnant and not working, so I'm home all day, but I just put stuff back when I'm done with it. Everyone knows where everything is at. We don't have a dishwasher so dishes are done at every meal. I have all hardwood floors so I have a swiffer.

Answer 6

Well...spotless is virtually impossible, if you actually live there.

My plan is that I do two things to clean up every night after work. Sometimes it's empty the cat box and wash a load of laundry...sometimes it's wash the dishes and vacuum the family room floor. My house is never perfect...but it's always quite respectable.

Answer 7

Steam. I have a steam mop and a steam "Shark". They are fast, sanitary and cut though most crud.

"Goof Off" will remove just about anything from super glue to stains.

My home is a dust trap. Endust keeps it halfway under control.

Keep glass cleaner and a roll of paper towels in the kitchen and bathrooms.

Have at least a dozen soft, lintfree cotton rags on hand.

Answer 8

I shop my place of living spotless. Dishes each and every night vacuum and dirt as quickly as each and every week make my mattress each and every morning etc... my cats on the different hand want the lived in seem. when I went living house for lunch that they had rearranged for me. All my place of work work for my taxes replaced into everywhere in the floor. My coasters that I shop stacked on the bar have been in each and every single place and q tips everywhere in the showering room. Ugggg i comprehend what i would be doing this night.

Answer 9

Throw out anything you don't use for more than 6 months (clothing, books, magazines, dvds, vcr tapes, costume jewelry, etc., etc.) -- by throw out I mean get rid of: give to Goodwill for tax deduction, give to someone who needs it, etc. The idea is to keep clutter to a minimum! Put all important papers & paperwork through scanner 7 load to disks! This makes for a lot less paper to be stored!!!
Keep valuable books or autographed books, etc. on display & insured separately if worth over $500!
Clean from the top down: dust cieling fans and lampshades 1st: use a feather duster or very soft, long-bristled brush on lampshades. Use wet rags to clean fan blades and (cool) lightbulbs. Clean ONE ROOM at a time or even one area of the room at a time. Do one room per day if that helps you from being overwhelmed!!!
Clear-off tabletops/dressers, etc. and then dust the furniture. Clean, edit (give-away), and put fewer things back onto furniture. You should put "like" things together to make a "statement" or an "impact", instead of spreading them all over the room. Keep out only a few of you FAVORITE FRAMED FOTOS and switch them out seasonally. Change beds, wash sheets, and put them back on bed to save from folding. Carry a cleaning carry-all that contains: window cleaner, damp rags, paper towels old newspapers(for cleaning mirrors & glass for streakfree shine -- wad up paper & un-wag til soft enough to wipe with). Sort through closets & drawer and give-away things you dont need, want or cant wear anymore. NEVER SPRAY WINDOW CLEANER onto glass or mirrors or TV or Computer screens as it will ruin them eventually -- spray the liquid cleaner onto the newspaper or rags and then clean surfaces.
If you can afford it go on-line and get that new set of SCOOBA & IT'S MATCHING VACUUM ROOMBA -- THE ROBOTS. iT WILL CLEAN YOUR FLOORS (MOP) AS OFTEN AS YOU WANT WHILE YOU DO OTHER THINGS. i'VE HEARD THEY WORK WELL AND ARE STRONGER VERSIONS OF THE IN-STORE MODELS, YOU CAN MAKE PAYMENTS TOO. i'M GETTING THEM AS i NEED THE HELP! aND i LIKE TO HAVE CLEAN FLOORS ALL THE TIME!
i USE GROCERY BAGS IN MY WASTE BASKETS TO SAVE MONEY, KEEP CANS CLEANER, AND i PUT 2 IN BOTTOM OF EACH CAN SO THAT WHEN i REMOVE GARBAGE i HAVE A NEW BAG AVAILABLE -- SAVES STEPS!
Those new SWIFFER DUSTERS AND MOPS WORK WELL TOO AND SAVE TIME. tHERE ARE SOME PLACES SCOOBA CANT GET TO IN THE BATHROOM ESP., BUT IF YOU HAVE LOTS OF HARDWOOD FLOORS OR TILE A SCOOBA is essential for time saving!!!
I clean the shower while I'm showering, just dont use harsh chemicals, you'll breath them in & that is bad! Use baking soda to scrub grout and tile!!! And mixed with vinegar cleans shower doors really well, good for enviroment too !!! As a matter of fact you dont need anything more to clean with except for three items: baking soda, vinegar, amonia. You may need some bleach and some borax to add to some laundry occassionally. But you can clean anything with the BIG 3!!! And of course the bleach for mold or heavy stains and ground-in soil on whites, but I try Borax 1st! NEVER MIX BLEACH with AMONIA !!! It's a DEADLY COMBINATION!!! It creats AMONIUM-CLORIDE and can blowup into your face and lungs -- as I said it can cause death ---- so NEVER MIX THEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yOU CAN SHINE COPPER WITH TOOTH PASTE AND ALSO THE CHROME FAUCETS (you can do it while you're brushing your teeth -- a time saver!).
I hope this helps & sorry for caps , some were intended -- others I forgot to turn off! Sorry.
Cant think of any other short-cuts right now. Aunt Barbie

Answer 10

the old saying doing two things at once, looking while you are working, for the next thing that needs to be done. Your on a roll ,the next , the next, the next.