While your regular house cleaning schedule worked fine before the pandemic crisis struck, you probably find that it’s taken on a whole new dimension now. Keeping your living and working spaces super clean, hygienic, and tidy is vital for your physical and emotional health.

With most couples working from home and kids out of school, there’s a need to rejig your routine. This is the time for the whole family to pitch in and take the strain out of this boring but essential chore.

Professional cleaning is a solution, and there are several top quality, reliable home cleaning services available if you can source them carefully.

There are six smarter ways to tackle the job, ensure that your home stays sparkling, fresh, and sanitized more quickly and easily so that you don’t waste time and effort.

1. Take A Tour

Before you start, take an hour to analyze the job. Tour your entire house, room by room, and make notes. Jot down the tasks to be completed in each room, the supplies you’ll need, and allot an approximate time required to complete every room. Prioritize the tasks in descending order of difficulty to get the hardest and most tedious ones done first. Once you have your checklist, you can decide which jobs must be done every day, on alternate days, or once a week.

2. Organize your Supplies

Keep a caddy or pail filled with all the stuff you need to clean your bathroom or kitchen and store them in the designated rooms. You won’t find yourself running up and down when you need a cleaning cloth or a squeegee brush this way.

3. Natural, Homemade Hacks

Avoid using harsh chemicals and cleaning products, especially if you have small children, pets, or seniors in the house. Amazing results can be achieved with vinegar, baking soda, denture cleaner, lime juice, salt, slices of raw potato and rhubarb, and much more. Look for simple organizational tricks to store cleaning products and supplies out of sight, but accessible when you need them. Keep baskets in each room to catch the clutter as you clean up in the morning. You can put everything back in order later. Use newspaper instead of paper-towels on glass surfaces to save money.

4. Multi-Tasking

Get your cooking started, switch on your washing machine, dryer, and dishwasher before you begin your cleaning routine. This way, you save time and feel great to sit down to a hot lunch with a clean set of dishes. Make beds as soon as you wake up, clean your computer and phone screens when you sit down to work, invest in house-slippers for everyone so that they don’t trail in mud and grime when they come in from outdoors. Spray cleaner on tubs, sinks, and mirrors soon after you shower so that you can combine wiping them dry with cleaning them too.

5. Set A Time

It’s a routine – look at it like that. Choose a time when there’s no work pressure or errands to run. Once you fix the time for cleaning, ensure that it’s unchanged as far as possible. Get into the habit of doing dishes as they get dirty, wipe down the tub and sink after your shower, squeeze in a few minutes while your tea or coffee is brewing to fold clothes.

6. Big Projects

Assign a day for big projects like cleaning out your oven, microwave, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, refrigerator or freezer, garage, basement, attic, etc. Balance this out with a lighter regular cleaning routine so that you’re not exhausted at the end of it. Ensure that you purchase your groceries/fruit and veg/meats etc. the day before so that you can stack everything away neatly in a clean larder or refrigerator.