After hours of cleaning over the weekend, your home will literally sparkle with cleanliness. The beds are made, there are no dishes in the sink, and the remains of food that have been there for a week have finally disappeared from under the sofa. But by Wednesday your house again turns into a real nightmare - and you again wait for Sunday to spend it putting things in order. But how is it that your neighbors are always clean, even if you drop by without warning them? 
What is their secret? Here are a few things people who know how to clean do.
They clean as they go
Instead of waiting for the evening or a specific moment, you are better off using the free moments while cooking. Wash bowls and wipe down counters - it only takes a minute, so just do it while you wait for your dish to cook.
They do a little every day
When you have a deadline looming and you don't get enough sleep, the last thing you want to think about is cleaning the windows. But if you spend twenty minutes cleaning every day without having to spend three hours deep cleaning on Sunday, you can spend your weekend the way you want.
They give jobs to everyone
Distribute responsibilities among all family members. And if the task was successfully completed, you can give out rewards (this works not only with children).
They make it fun
Naturally, no one says that cleaning a bathroom for two hours can be something fun. However, if you turn on your favorite music and dance and sing along while scrubbing the plumbing, the time will fly by twice as fast.
They check the house before going to bed
Before you go to bed, check the little things - are your shoes put away, are your clothes put away in the closet, are the pillows on the sofa level, is the coffee table clean? This five-minute cleaning session will bring you a lot of joy when you wake up in the morning.
They adhere to the "two minute rule"
An ingenious productivity technique perfect for cleaning. If a task takes two minutes or less to complete, don't think about it, just do it. So don't worry about when to wipe the sink and when to push the chairs back. Just do it!
If it doesn't work they hire a cleaner
There is nothing wrong with hiring a cleaner or contacting a special company that will help you in this endeavor. Moreover, now high technology has developed so much that you can download an application to your smartphone, with which you can quickly and inexpensively select the ideal person for cleaning.
If something has been sitting on a shelf untouched for a month/year/ten years and has never been used, throw it in the trash. If it seems to you that you have everything in order, impartially inspect the mezzanine, balcony and area under the bed - you will definitely find the inkjet printer you printed on thesis, or a set of souvenir matches from your first foreign vacation. Throw them away and the next morning you won't even remember you had them. As for clothes, make it a rule when buying a new item to get rid of one old one - this way there will always be the same number of things in the closet, for example 50.
Apply the theory of small things
Place a vodka sprayer next to the toilet and wipe the seat according to your mood. Wash off any toothpaste foam as soon as it drips onto the edge of the sink. Wipe down the table immediately after breakfast. Clean up outerwear in the closet after coming home. Wash your shoes as soon as you enter the house after walking in the mud. Place and put things back in their place. Do not forget to unload the washing machine after washing (or better yet, wash in small portions so that fussing with the laundry does not take more than 15 minutes). Dust large surfaces every couple of days. All this will save time during spring cleaning and leave more time for more enjoyable activities.
Change all rags to disposable ones and buy microfiber
Replace the ever-wet and stinking table rag, the rag you use to wipe dust, and the shoe clump that has lost all appearance with a pack of disposable penny rag napkins or - even better - paper towels. It's more hygienic, prettier, and ultimately more effective: you don't have to wash the rag before you use it to wipe anything. And leading the disposable squad should be a cool microfiber - it leaves no marks and is as versatile as possible.
Firstly, it’s convenient: you don’t have to fly around the whole apartment looking for some brush or lipstick. Secondly, it helps to assess at a glance how many things of the same type you have and, if necessary, get rid of unnecessary ones.
Learn to fold clothes
There are a million and one ways to stack things in piles and rolls. Many of them were not invented in vain: for example, they speed up the process, save space, and make it easier to find the right thing. Just spend 10 minutes studying the tutorials, and your life will never be the same.
Get rid of unnecessary surfaces
Take a critical look at your apartment: has any of the furniture turned into a trash bin? Left with school years a sofa, a former canary’s cage, a squeaky chair in need of repair with springs sticking out of it, you definitely don’t need it anymore, and if this thing has spontaneously created a warehouse of smaller things, that’s +100 points in favor of getting rid of it.
Use caustic food
The vodka left after guests leave is a multifunctional thing. Besides the obvious, it is an antiseptic and a budget alternative to window cleaners. And aqueous solution apple cider vinegar will also replace a pile of cleaning products. You can use it to remove grease from kitchen appliances, wash the hob and tiles in the bathroom. A bowl of this infernal solution, microwaved at maximum power for 30 seconds, will turn washing it from a task for half an hour into a five-minute waving of a rag. Vinegar will help remove lost cat hair - to do this, add a little to the water for washing the floor. Bonus tip: To remove limescale from your shower head, attach a bag filled with vinegar to it and let it soak thoroughly.
Use things for other purposes
You can remove the ubiquitous cat and dog hair from your carpet with a rubber glass scraper. The obvious disadvantage of this method is the need to almost crawl around the room on all fours. Activated carbon in the refrigerator will help get rid of unpleasant odors, and toy cat brooms also make useful pipidastras (that is, tools for brushing off dust). Plus, a drop of antistatic applied to household appliances from the dustiest side will help repel all kinds of fine dirt that constantly sticks there.
Distance yourself from certain processes
There are things that do not require your participation. For example, washing the toilet: pouring cleaning agent into it and going about your business is not a sin, but an example of effective time management. The same applies to all processes that involve waiting. The hob can easily get wet without your intervention, delicate clothes that you washed by hand can be rinsed under a strong stream cold water, and the robot vacuum cleaner can run around the apartment while you work. Enjoy being idle while you can.
We have selected several universal advice, following which you can maintain your home in perfect condition every day and less often remember the need to spend general cleaning.
1. Leave it to the professionals
Just a couple of years ago, finding a cleaner for your home was extremely difficult: only recommendations from friends or special cleaning services could help with this, which did not always work with individuals and most often did not offer the most comfortable, including financial, terms of cooperation .
Today, hundreds of private cleaning specialists are at your service, with whom you can negotiate directly through various online household services (for example, the Russian YouDo.com), and on terms that are favorable to you. This means that you can order a separate service (cleaning carpet or furniture, washing windows or a refrigerator), or a set of works needed specifically in your apartment (rather than taking a standard package, as is customary with cleaning services). Another plus is the ability to choose a cleaner based on price, examples of work, ratings and reviews of previous customers. The latter is especially important because, by letting in stranger into our home, we want to be confident in its reputation and integrity.
You can order either one-time or regular cleaning (for example, weekly). By spending only 2000-4000 rubles a month, you can forget about the need to spend your weekends “huddled” with rags and mops. In addition, a qualified cleaner always uses a special household chemicals, which “works” much more efficiently than what we buy in supermarkets and does not harm our health. It's worth booking a professional spring cleaning at least once just to see your kitchen appliances, furniture and bathroom restored to their original condition.
2. Get rid of unnecessary clutter
We regularly buy clothes, equipment and household items, but, as a rule, we use only some of them. At the same time, it’s difficult for us to force ourselves to throw away this or that thing: there will always be excuses why this particular dress should be left in the wardrobe, and this broken chair will still come in handy around the house. Meanwhile, our closets are full, and the mere thought of putting them in order makes us shiver, and all this collects dust for years, taking away our energy (it’s not for nothing that Feng Shui experts advise getting rid of things that we don’t use for one year ).
Don't like throwing things away? No problem: sell them on Avito, there will always be a buyer there who just needs a hairdryer that is lying idle. Or use the "Dump" service. A team of movers will remove and sell all the junk you don’t need for free, and the service administration will give you a bonus. In addition, part of the proceeds from the sale of your items will go to a charitable foundation. What's not a plus for karma? And in your personal space there will be room for new things and energy.
3. Organize storage correctly
If your clothes regularly end up piled on the back of a chair instead of hanging on hangers in your closet, it's time to reconsider your storage system. Maybe traditional closets just aren't for you: sell yours and make room for a couple of clothes rails or modular storage systems like those found at IKEA. Cheap, convenient and multifunctional!
4. Find out how to clean your house once and for all
If you haven’t heard of the KonMari system yet, and clutter is a common state of your home, it’s time to read Marie Kondo’s acclaimed book “The Magic of Tidying Up” or at least. Marie is the world's most sought after decluttering consultant and author. revolutionary method, which will help you do the cleaning just once and forget about it forever.
In addition, the author of the book promises that along with order in the house, you will also bring order in your head. Many of Marie’s clients radically changed their lives after her training: they quit their boring jobs, opened their own business and started doing exactly what they had dreamed of since childhood.
1. Control the number of things. Don't bring flyers into your home that end up in your mailbox, avoid duplicates (don't buy a third comb and tenth mug if you realize that the ones you already have are enough for you), don't buy containers until you know exactly what you will store them in them. Before you buy a new sofa, think about where you will put the old one.
2. Involve the whole family in the cleaning process, Don't put everything on your shoulders. Turn the routine into a game in which everyone in the household will participate. This could be a competition for speed, or for earning magical “points” that they can then spend on something nice. The only limitation here is your imagination.
3. Create kits: put everything that will help solve a specific problem in transparent boxes. Store all creams and sponges in the shoe care box, and pliers, screwdrivers, glue, etc. in the repair box. This will speed up the search for what you need and reduce clutter in your closets.
Did you have the feeling that you came to visit and saw how the owners had everything clean and tidy, and what about you? Some kind of chaos... And yet people have enough time to clean, cook and work! It's actually simple.
1 secret to a clean house:
We need to get out!!! Just to clean, and not to pretend that you are doing it, as often happens: you come up, wipe the computer, you want to turn on music, suddenly you hang out on social media. networks, and then I want to watch a movie... and so on...
2 secrets of cleanliness in the house:
Cleaning in a circle. Cleaning clockwise or counterclockwise doesn’t make much difference, but after walking around the circle and reaching the end, you will suddenly find that the room has gotten rid of junk!!!
3 secrets to a clean house:
Don’t move everything from one place to another, but immediately put this thing where it belongs. Otherwise, it turns out that you seem to be cleaning, but after a couple of minutes you look back, and nothing has changed.
4 secrets to cleanliness in the house:
Distribute your work. In the end, you and I are not living in the Stone Age. Nowadays there are a lot of tools and equipment that make cleaning easier. For example: dishwashers, which can significantly save your time and effort when putting things in order in the kitchen. Or robotic vacuum cleaners that, without your help, will perfectly clean the floor even of animal hair.
5 secrets to a clean house:
Don't put things in bags hoping that you can rake them later!!!
6 secret of cleanliness:
Throw away an item rather than regret it if you haven’t used it for more than 3 years and are not yet sure that you will ever use it.
7 secret of cleanliness:
Do not spend more than 1.5 hours on cleaning. Otherwise, you will get tired of it, and you will resort to it quite rarely!!!
And of course, don't forget involve children in cleaning. Each child, depending on his age, should have his own responsibilities at home. Naturally, the child will often be lazy to do the task assigned to him. If there are no serious grounds for releasing the child from duty, there should be no concessions. Otherwise, the child will quickly figure out how to manipulate you. This is the only way you can raise a responsible, clean person.
How I wish it were possible to maintain cleanliness and order in the apartment, like in a fairy tale. Remember how in one of the Harry Potter films, Ron Weasley’s mother calmly received guests, and in the kitchen she washed the dishes and knitted a sock... But in life, unfortunately, this is impossible. And the entire burden of household chores falls on fragile women’s shoulders. How not to drive yourself into trouble while maintaining order in the house? Let's find the answers in the article.
Order is order, but a woman is also a person!
Guests on the doorstep - joy for the owners! - says popular wisdom. But if, after hearing over the phone an offer to come in from relatives who were passing by completely by chance, the owners begin to panic, the issue of cleanliness in the apartment is relevant. Instead of putting herself in order, the housewife begins to rush about: from the living room to the kitchen, from the toilet to the bedroom. Extra things scattered around the apartment, unwashed dishes, a layer of dust on the furniture, an unmade bed... All this is not for prying eyes. Therefore, you need to constantly maintain cleanliness so as not to feel like a worthless hostess and sincerely rejoice at the arrival of guests.
It’s easy to say: you need to keep your house clean because you are a housewife, a mother, a wife. Many who say this forget that a woman is also a person. A person who works equally with her husband, cooks food for the whole family, washes and irons clothes, and raises children. Therefore, it is so important that a minimum of time is spent on maintaining order in the apartment.
Advice: if housework gradually turns into a punishment that awaits a woman upon returning from work instead of taking proper rest, it is necessary to urgently change the approach to cleaning.
Well, there is no need to talk about the importance of maintaining cleanliness and order. A dirty apartment not only looks unpleasant, but is also a source of illness, illness and bad mood. According to Feng Shui, clutter and chaos do not allow you to move freely positive energy around the apartment, which in turn brings troubles into the life of the owners, both with health and in personal relationships, can negatively affect work and create other problems. Well, in a clean house you can breathe easier, rest brings strength, and quarrels happen much less often. Therefore, follow 5 rules to help keep your apartment clean and tidy.
Rule #1 - Divide things into “seasons”
Quarterly affairs
Quite often, a woman can, for the time being, give up on minor problems that disrupt the order in the house. So they sit in the corners, waiting in the wings. And when this “hour” comes - a day off, the arrival of guests, pre-holiday cleaning before Easter - you have to redo so many things that your head is spinning, and by the evening your legs are giving way. Therefore, all activities for establishing and maintaining cleanliness should be divided into “seasons”, namely, certain housework should be performed:
- daily;
- weekly;
- monthly;
- quarterly.
For example, what things should be done quarterly? This includes disassembling wardrobes, pantries, balconies, washing curtains, washing windows, chandeliers, beating carpets, airing bedding, washing hard-to-reach places (under the refrigerator, behind the stove, etc.). These cases can be timed to coincide with certain dates, for example, Easter, New Year or other dates, and not calculated according to the calendar. The listed to-do list is not a plan for one day. You can set aside several days within a week to complete it.
If the house was very cluttered, then redoing everything for the first time will have to work hard. But then half of the work described can be done once or twice. For example, the balcony was dismantled in the fall, it was practically not used in the winter, and there will be no blockage there in the spring. Or, for the first time, they washed off the accumulated stuck dust under the refrigerator, using maximum effort and cleaning products, and the next time they cleaned, they simply wiped the floor with a damp cloth and let it dry.
- Monthly, weekly and daily tasks
The list of monthly tasks consists of thoroughly cleaning doors, kitchen facades, wall mirrors, walls in the bathroom and toilet, radiators, exhaust grilles, tidying up the refrigerator with washing shelves and drawers, and cleaning the interior of the microwave oven. Also, to keep kitchen utensils clean, you should bathe pots, ladles and pans once a month.
The list of work in the house carried out weekly may include washing plumbing fixtures (bathtub, washbasin, toilet), wiping the doors of the refrigerator, microwave oven, washing machine(especially if it is installed in the kitchen), thoroughly washing the floors, including the most inaccessible places under the bed, under the sofa (it may have to be moved), under armchairs, etc.
Daily housework to maintain order should not be numerous and time-consuming. At a maximum, cleaning should take 20-30 minutes and include dusting, sweeping, mopping, airing and humidifying rooms. But often every day, when a woman comes home from work, she may be faced with other worries. She can expect a mountain of unwashed dishes, clothes and toys scattered around the apartment, various places cluttered with “trifles”: a shelf in the hallway, a computer desk (or other workplace), TV-bedside table and others, which every housewife is well aware of.
In order not to face daily unnecessary problems who disrupt the order in the house, follow the other rules. They are aimed specifically at maintaining cleanliness in the apartment, which should be cleaned according to rule N1.
Rule #2 - Everything has its place
You can get rid of the problem of scattered clothes and various “trifles” accumulating in certain places, as well as clutter in general, by making it a rule to put everything in its place. In other words: put it where you took it. Even in a hurry, try to follow this rule, otherwise the problem of clutter will grow like a snowball. If you don’t have time to put everything on shelves, create a neat “sort out” box in the hallway where you can temporarily put this or that item. But don’t wait too long until you have to return things to their places.
Rule #3 - Finish everything to the end
You can often see the following picture: there are 2-3 pairs of unwashed shoes in the bathroom, the sink is full of dirty dishes, the bed is not made, clean, unironed linen is piled on the bed or something similar. All these are the results of unfinished business. We decided to clean up the shoe closet, found several pairs of dirty shoes and sent them to the bathroom to wash. Or, while cleaning out your wardrobe, you noticed that your dress, sundress and shirt needed washing.
We washed them, but didn’t get around to ironing them and hanging them back in the closet. So bring every task, even if it is designed to maintain order in the house, to its logical conclusion.
Advice: for those who want to spend no more than half an hour a day on cleaning and at the same time maintain perfect order in the house, it will be interesting to familiarize yourself with the FlyLady housekeeping system, which was developed by Marla Cilley in 1999. Besides the fact that this is a rather interesting system, according to women who have tried it on themselves, it really works.
Rule No. 4 - Systematicity
If maintaining order in the house is really very important for a woman, then she simply needs to follow rule N4, which states that all of the rules listed above must be followed systematically. It is believed that a habit is developed in 21 days. That is, for three weeks you simply need to force yourself to complete the list of daily and weekly chores around the house, return everything to its place and bring the things you started to the end. For some, it may take more or less time for the rules that help you maintain order to become a habit. The main thing is to form a useful habit.
Rule No. 5 - The rules are the same for everyone
If a woman is happily married and there are already children in the family, then she needs to be able to introduce rules for maintaining cleanliness and order in the house. Agree, it will be useless for only the hostess to follow the rules. It's like a motorist who behaves on the highway according to his own rules, unknown to other participants. traffic. An accident is guaranteed. That is, each family member should be taught to clean up after themselves and given some responsibilities due to their age. It is better to teach kids to clean up after themselves from childhood, and the best proof of this need will be your own example.
The fact that a woman is a human being must first be remembered by the woman herself. Don’t accumulate fatigue from daily hassles, which will gradually develop into hatred towards your loved ones, but spend a little time analyzing the amount of homework. Make adjustments to the distribution of responsibilities and follow the described rules and techniques. And you will see that life will become easier, and the world around you will be more beautiful!