How to Clean Your House FAST
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It’s easier than you think to learn how to clean your house quickly and efficiently! Follow this step by step tutorial to clean your house in just one hour!
So you have company coming in an hour and the house is a mess? Or maybe you’ve just been putting off those chores and want to get it over with as quickly as possible. So, how do you clean your house fast?
Don’t have a full hour? Use this guide to faking a clean house when you have unexpected guests!
Tricks from a former hotel maid & housekeeper
When I was in college I worked a couple of summers as a hotel maid and in residential house cleaning. I picked up a few tricks and I’m telling you that yes, you can clean an ENTIRE average size house in an hour but it takes hustle and focus!
No getting distracted while gathering up those old magazines, or checking your phone for the latest on Facebook. If you keep moving and follow this guide you’ll have that house sparkling in no time!
Note: We aren’t deep cleaning house right now, this is a surface clean with the most bang for your buck when you’re short on time!
When you have more time be sure to check out my tutorial for cleaning a front load washer, top load washer, dryer, or how to clean a keurig with vinegar.
Tips to Clean a House Fast!
Start at the Top – No matter what room you’re cleaning, clean from the top down so that dirt and dust from higher surfaces falls on lower surfaces that haven’t yet been cleaned. Dust ceiling fans, then furniture wiping dirt directly on the floor. Clean all of the floors as your last step to remove the dirt and dust.
Batch Clean – Clean all bathrooms at once, save the floors of the entire house for the last step of cleaning your house.
If you try my guide, please click the star rating below to let me know that it helped!
How to Clean Your House Fast
It's easier than you think to learn how to clean your house quickly and efficiently! Follow this step by step tutorial to clean your house in just one hour!
Materials
- Dust spray
- Microfiber Cloth
- Bathroom Cleaner
- Toilet Cleaner
- Paper Towels
- Toilet Brush
- Vacuum
- Glass Cleaner
- Sponge
- Dish Soap
- Hardwood Floor Cleaner
Instructions
Bedroom-6 Minutes per Bedroom
- Strip linens and remake beds. When making beds rather than hunch over tucking bottom sheets under the mattress use one hand to lift the corner while tucking the sheet with the other.
- Clear all clutter, if you’re in a hurry gather clutter in a spare basket or bin for later organization and tuck out of sight in a closet.
- Wipe down furniture with a dusting spray and microfiber cloth, working top to bottom.
Bathrooms-7 Minutes per Bathroom
- I like to clean all of my bathrooms at once-make a quick trip around all the bathrooms in the house to clear counters and spray counters and tubs with cleaner, allow to sit while you clean toilets and wipe down the outer toilet surface.
- Go back and wipe down counters and rinse tub then clean mirrors.
- Come back to clean the floors when cleaning the kitchen floor.
Living/Dining Room-7 Minutes
- Clear all clutter.
- Starting in one corner of the room and working around dust all surfaces top to bottom. (If you have blinds and/or ceiling fans, dust those first.)
- Use an upholstery attachment and vacuum upholstered furniture.
Kitchen-12 Minutes
- Load all dirty dishes in the dishwasher and fill sink with hot soapy water. If your stove top has removable burner pieces that need to be cleaned, place in water as well.
- Clear counters.
- Dunk sponge in hot water and squeeze out excess, wipe down cabinets, counters and other surfaces again working top to bottom. Rinse sponge in hot water as you clean.
- Wipe down appliances.
- Finish cleaning any stove pieces and replace.
Floors-15 Minutes Whole House
- Vacuum carpeted rooms work your way backwards out of the room, moving quickly and without too much overlap to save time.
- Vacuum, don’t sweep hard floors-use an attachment to get corners where dust and pet hair can accumulate.
- Steam mops or Hardwood Floor Cleaners also make cleaning hard surfaces much faster than traditional mops, so I highly recommend investing in one of those to keep your cleaning quick!
Notes
- Always clean from top to bottom so dirt and dust falls on uncleaned areas.
- Clean floors as the last step after all other cleaning is finished.
- Vacuum all carpeted areas in one session, then vacuum hard surfaces. Finish by cleaning all hard surface floors in one session as well.
- Tools such as a steam mop or hardwood floor cleaner can make cleaning faster.
Use tricks to make cleaning easier moving forward:
- How to Remove and Prevent Fingerprints on Stainless Steel
- Prevent Water Spots on Chrome
- Clean & Refresh Grout to prevent discoloration
Do you have any additional tips? This is obviously not a deep cleaning your home tutorial but a general day to day surface clean. For deeper cleans check out my Spring Cleaning Checklist and Fall Cleaning Checklist, you can also see my Daily Cleaning Checklist if you prefer to work a little each day!
Want a printable flow chart version of this cleaning plan to help you clean your house fast? Become part of our community for a subscriber-only Printable One Hour Cleaning Flowchart!
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great article ,nice tips i’ll follow it,thank you.
Really an amazing cleaning tips. One more thing that I want to notify that people should have to pay attention to the management of the stuff, It is as important as cleaning otherwise after cleaning, still your house will look messy. So, make sure to place every stuff on its perfect place. Anyways, thank you for sharing your views with us, Keep up the good work!
Love the room-by-room checklist. Thanks a lot for the great content! Your site has been added to mine as one of the best.
garbage article. 1 HR? Liar. This article is bait for views because you are proclaiming a pipe dream. You wouldn’t dare be able to prove that you could do this.
The times given per chore are about as realistic for the average person as the expectation of caramelizing onions in 2 minutes on the “Dinner in 20minute” sites.
Everything has to have a place. This concept works for me and my family. thanks for sharing!
I just found this info today as i was in a rush for time and needed to clean my 3bdrm, 3bath, 1500sq ft house in a major hurry! i liked the idea of all the tips, however, it still took me 1hr and 20 min to clean the whole house (1bdrm is a sewing room so just vacuumed,, and a 2nd is the responsibility of my kid, so i don’t clean it). i don’t know what i’m wasting time on, but is there a way to get faster? I have two dogs so i keep up the cleaning all the time (also have OCD tendencies if i’m honest, lol). When i clean I switch all the linens, dust, wipe down all furniture with animal friendly cleaner, windex all glass, clean the bathrooms (excluding tub and shower, hubby does those), vacuum and wash floors. I do a thorough job, but want to find out tips to it better, faster. i don’t have 2hrs to clean each week, i need it down to an hour. Any ideas? from Anyone? Much appreciation for anything! 🙂
Cleaning your whole house in an hour?! That’s impressive! I guess I get distracted too easily – it’s usually all an-day thing for me. I’ll definitely use these checklists.
Great tips for cleaning home. Actually I am working women and I have to clean my home as fast as possible. Thank you so much for sharing.
I live by the “if you don’t touch it once in 365 days get rid of it” rule. So, if I want to keep something, I have to use it, wear it, dust it, wash it, or wipe it at least once a year or it’s history. That way every item in my house is clean because it has to be attended to at least once a year. My other rule is only three items on any flat surface, because that’s all I’m willing to pickup and move when I dust. As for my kitchen I try to organize and clean one thing daily (1 shelf, 1 drawer, etc.) after I clean the kitchen for the day, it only takes a few minutes, and it never seems difficult because you’re only cleaning for a few minutes. One drawer or shelf a day and your kitchen cabinets never get disorganized because you constantly keep on top of it. Same with my pantry, freezer, fridge, one shelf at a time all the time.
Fantastic method-I love that idea to be constantly working on varying areas to ensure the entire house stays clean and organized, thanks for the tip! ~Melissa
I use a lot of these ideas. Like the spraying down the bathroom one. It makes it so much faster to just let it “soak” as opposed to scrubbing it. Some really good tips here. However what really caught my eye where the check lists. I LOVE them! Thank you.
Melissa, your tips are inspiring! Thank you! Now I just need to follow them……
That’s always the hardest part Jan, even I go through phases where I just don’t feel like it! Routines are the best way I’ve found to keep things up though, it’s easier to make a habit of small actions than try to take on huge tasks every now and then! Take care, ~Melissa
That can’t happen in an hour in a 3000 sq ft, 4 bedroom, 3-1/2 bath house !
Our house is 3000 sq feet, 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath and I *CAN* do it in an hour but I’m sweating my you-know-what off when I’m done! The first few times you’re trying to get the routine down it will take longer but I promise that it can be done (I’ve done it live on twitter before!) But again, this is a quick surface clean not a deep clean-I always tell people this is what you’d do if you found out your inlaws were coming to stay for the weekend and you needed the house clean in an hour!
I think the most full proof way of making sure the house is cleaned quickly is to get help. Not necessarily a cleaning service, although if you can get one, why not, I mean making sure you get help from your kids and significant other. It cuts cleaning time in half. I normally split the chores with my wife and one of us runs through the house picking up clutter while the other follows behind to dust and vacuum. I do really appreciate your tips on cleaning the bathroom and kitchen faster though.
After you finish each room, close the door. It is finished.
How in the world do you you do all your floors in fifteen minutes? I use a symphony that vacuums and mops simultaneously and it still takes me 20 to 25 to do the main floor and that’s having prepped first. That’s not including the upstairs and downstairs kids rooms vacuuming. Just curious. My main cleaning tip is “if I’m cleaning you’re cleaning”with the kids. Even the two year old can dust and pick up toys. That way there are no fights to break up and all I have to do is the floors that need mopping, tubs, and toilet bowls. You’d be amazed at what a nine, seven, five, and two year old can accomplish in thirty minutes!
When I had a smaller home (1700 sq. ft,) I had what I called a “15 minute walk-through”. It involved Windex and paper towels. The bathroom the guests would use came first. Just squirt and wipe. I figure this is the most important room to clean, then the kitchen. Tidy the other rooms, pick up and sling onto your bed. Wipe down the furniture with damp paper towels. Spray upholstery with Febreeze. No time to vacuum in the abbreviated version. Just open the door and smile!
That is VERY similar to what I do with last minute guests Mary! That’s the bare bones version of this plan! Thanks for sharing!
This is an AWESOME post and has me totally INSPIRED!! I am not in the mood to clean, but I am making myself!! lol.. I can’t take this house another minute.. I work full time 12 hour shifts (graveyard shift too) and I am usually so tired after work, the only thing I can think about is getting some sleep.. But I can’t take this MESSY house! This post has got me ready to get this DONE!
I’m so glad Amy! It’s an intense hour of work but it’s amazing what you can accomplish when you have a plan!!
Sorry Melissa, but I don’t buy it.. Cleaning a bedroom in six or seven minutes? There’s no way you can clean a bedroom in that amount of time unless you’re running behind the vacum and doing a lousy job of dusting. I can spend five minutes just changing and making our king size bed!
,
I get a lot of non-believers Melody but it can be done! If you’ll note in the post-I don’t count vacuuming in the bedroom step-we do the entire house flooring in a later step all at once-that’s a time saver rather than doing one room at a time! This is my experience and what works for me-we don’t have a lot of knick-knacks or other decorations that might require more extensive dusting, it literally takes me a minute or two to wipe down everything in my bedroom when I’m “in the zone” working quickly!
Great tips, and ones I will be sure to use! A word on clutter… we’ve lived in the same house for 23 years. Over those years we’ve accumulated LOTS of useless, sentimental clutter. Well, ths past summer I realized no matter how CLEAN my house was it just never LOOKED clean. I rented a medium sized dumpster, had it placed in our back yard, and painfully, systemically, went through bedrooms, closets, the space under the stairs, cupboards and cabinets. If an item wasn’t seasonal or I hadn’t used it within six months, if it was outdated or looking worn… into the bin. It’s an amazing feeling and my house looks wonderful!
Wow-I’m sure that was hard to do Dee! I’m lucky that with our military moves every couple of years we naturally seem to purge extra “stuff” but once my husband retires I’m sure it will be a different story!
I loved the cleaning and de-clutter tips from this article and I only think I’d like to donate rather than discard. (Unless of course its totally gone) but remember one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Find your local donation store and drop it all off where it can be appreciated all over again with a new family.