The Home Cleaning Routine

You can shave precious minutes off the home cleaning routine by taking a more focused approach to each room. Here is how to get housecleaning done right—and fast.

The Home Cleaning Routine 101

The way Mom taught you to do dishes—wash lightly soiled cups and plates first, scrub the dinner pans with baked-on food last—works equally well as a cleaning routine for your home's surfaces.

Scrubbing with murky water or soiled sponges redistributes dirt instead of removing it.

Your house-cleaning routine should similarly start with the lightly soiled bedrooms, dining room, and living room. After you've completed those areas - and with a sense of accomplishment - work your way into the more challenging kitchen and bathroom cleaning.

Dust, tracked-in dirt, and clutter are the primary culprits in the bedrooms, dining room, and living room.

To clean each of these rooms, you'll use essentially the same method: move clockwise around each room, working your way from top to bottom.

The Clockwise Cleaning Routine

Move clockwise around each room, putting away surface clutter or mislaid items. Stash anything that doesn't belong in the room outside the door.

Then dust shelves, windowsills, miniblinds, lamps, tables, bureaus, and TV screens with a clean, damp cloth. (Dusting with a dry cloth can eventually scratch or dull the finish on porous surfaces such as wood.)

When you run out of clean areas on the rag, either get a fresh cloth or rinse the used one clean, then twist it dry to remove any excess water.

Make your mirrors and windows shine using glass cleaner (or a vinegar-and-water solution) and a squeegee.

Vacuum upholstered chairs and sofas, and take decorative pillows outdoors to shake the dust and airborne dirt out of them—or fluff them up with a 10-minute tumble in the dryer. Vacuum-clean curtains or drapes, and change bedroom linens.

Finish each room with a quick surface vacuuming, and spend a few extra seconds near the doorways.

Basic Cleaning Products and Tools

Gather cleaning products in a portable bucket or caddy.

Shift into high gear for the home cleaning routine by stocking up on essential cleaning products and supplies for the quick-and-dirty jobs ahead.

Gather cleaners, rags, paper towels, sponges, and scrub brushes in the kitchen and bath, so you won't have to backtrack between rooms to get what you need.

By keeping a permanent stash of supplies in each room, you'll always be prepared to tackle those last-minute cleanups quickly and efficiently.

The Home Cleaning Routine Schedule

One quick and easy weekly housekeeping schedule is to break down the big jobs into small, manageable tasks and tackle them day by day. Clean the microwave and toilet on Monday and Tuesday. Mop the floors on Wednesday, and tackle the tub on Thursday.

By Friday, your big target areas—the kitchen and bathroom—are nearly done. With a few minutes spent on surface duty on Friday, your home is clean—and the weekend is yours.

You can also quicken the pace of your weekly cleaning routine by focusing on a different type of cleaning each week. Choose an all-purpose cleaner this Friday, and spend several minutes spritzing and wiping the main surfaces of your kitchen and bathroom.

Use a disinctant cleaner next Friday, spraying on countertops, in toilets, and in the tub or shower. Then go read the mail or relax; return to flush the toilet and wipe clean the countertops and tub or shower.

Dust this week, vacuum the next. This simple routine means no juggling cloths and paper towels, switching spray bottles, or putting away dust rags as you pull out the vacuum. You focus on just one thing at a time.

If you have better things to do this week or can't summon the energy for housework, it's OK to take a break from your cleaning routine.

Going two weeks between disinfecting and dusting won't cause any irreparable harm, and taking a rest may be beneficial.