Cleaning Tips and Hacks

Cleaning never seems to end which is why you’re likely looking at this blog post for tips, hacks and whatever else will make your life easier. I’m making this post as it’s hard to remember and also have time to clean on top of studies, or work, or both of those things. I found it impossible until I learned these things, so, below are my top 10 time saving tips, app recommendations and just general nuggets of wisdom I’ve picked up over the last few years.

1- App Rec: Tody

This is the app that my partner and I use and I honestly would recommend this to anyone and everyone. It’s got an easy to use design which is also really appealing. I want to go onto this app and see the tasks we’ve got to do.

Tody (which I keep misspelling as Tidy and smiling to myself) is a smart cleaning assistant; you can track each task in each room and see when and what needs to be done. It helps you clean enough rather than certain bits too much or too little but gives you the control over how often a task is due.

For me, I sweep the floors once a week because that’s what I’ve got time for and because certain rooms don’t get as messy as others. What this means is that I can put in all the “sweep X room” tasks for once a week but if I do a room sooner than that I can check it off and feel confident that my routines aren’t affected. Honestly it’s made cleaning so much simpler for me to know what I need to do and when.

2- Break every room into sections, and break those sections into smaller tasks

While I may put in Tody to “tidy room” I know I mean to pick up the rubbish which is the first task, second is to put everything back in it’s correct place and the third is to just straighten everything up and make sure it looks presentable. So the task of tidying the room is broken down into sections and then for each of those listed I’ll focus on a particular area. I like to use floor, surfaces, objects and misc.

3- If you don’t have time for everything just do one thing

This is the one I struggled with for so, so long. I thought if I had to clean the bathroom then I had to have time to clean all of it and if I didn’t have time for everything then it wasn’t worth doing it just yet. That’s not true. Instead now I do one thing like wiping down the sink or the shower (another tip on this later!) and then another the next time I’m in there. It’s surprising how quickly you end up with the entire bathroom being clean by doing one task at a time like this.

4- Space saving hack: over the door hangers

Okay so these are something that I logically knew were there but when it came to my own place I totally seemed to blank out their entire existence. These are essential, to me at least, if you’re needing to save space, like if you’re in a flat or your kitchen is small and so on.

There’s over the door racks you can get for towel and clothes storage space. There’s over the door racks that can go in your cupboard in the kitchen and give you spaces to put your pot and pan lids. There’s over the door hooks that can keep your bath robes in the bathroom. There’s … you get the picture.

There’s so much can be done with over the door storage and so many different styles to it as well that I recommend you go and look up your own and see which ones you think would fit and put them to good use. They can make that not-used-space be something useful instead of just wasted and accumulating dust.

5- Space Saving Hack #2: Create your own mini-shelves

So if you have a lot of heavy plates that are balanced on top of each other you probably don’t want to have to do that thing where you lift all of them down to get to the bigger ones underneath, right? Well if you get (or make!) a small table like thing to go in your cupboard you can separate out those plates. There’s some types that you can get that attach to the shelf above and can hold plates, mugs, whatever you want to store in there.

This not only makes it easier to get to these items but it also means you’re saving space by storing things vertically as well. You’re taking that bit of space above the plates and are using it for different things.

6- App Rec #2: Wunderlist

I know this is more of a to-do app but if you’re not wanting to get an app solely for cleaning then this is a great alternative. You can tag tasks, I do it by #GeneralTypeOfTask #Room #SpecificTypeOfTask. So mine looks like this – ” #cleaning #hallway #sweep ” and this makes each task filterable by location, type of task and all that.

As a side note I also use Wunderlist for my grocieries list as I can tag it by type of food so like #meat #vegetables, for example, but I also tag #food #supplies #hobby #other and then by priority. It makes it so much clearer for organising and also allows you to keep up with what cleaning supplies you have and need.

7- Never underestimate the power of a good toothbrush

So when you’re going to chuck out an old toothbrush, pause. Give it a rinse/ wash in boiling water and then you have a tool for getting into the awkward spots in the bathroom with much more ease. I’d use one in the shower and on the sink as well as reaching those awkard places if there’s pipes in the way.

8- If you’re giving your space a really good, thorough clean don’t be surprised when it looks messier at first

This is something that really demotivated me. I would start to clean, see all of the clutter and mess and then feel like I was just making everything worse. Push through this feeling and then put your things back neatly and organised and you would be surprised how much of a difference it makes.

It’s like when you first move and you bring lot of boxes into a place. You have to start unpacking them which means things everywhere but over time it’ll settle back down and you’ll soon see an organised home.

9- Never leave a room empty handed

By this I mean if you’re going through to the kitchen to get a drink then take that bit of rubbish or that plate out and put it in the bin or sink. If you’re going to the bedroom then take back things that need to be in there. It doesn’t feel like you’re tidying up much and it soon becomes a habit to start bringing things back to where they need to be.

10- Create some routines that work for you

Personally I love sweeping in the mornings, it’s my small win for the day and yes it will get messy again as the day goes on so there may not be much sense in it, but for me it’s allowing me to look at a nice space to start the day with. I’ll do this in the kitchen when I bring my plate there after breakfast, or I’ll sweep the living room when I get back from the kitchen. I hoover at sensible hours because sound carries and I don’t want to disturb neighbours but I’ll tie that into picking up the things in the bedroom and sorting them out.

I’ve got my own little routines and times that I like to do things and once you figure these out it becomes a lot more natural. You’ve just got to give it some time, patience and see what works for you.

I have a morning routine and a bedtime routine for myself. I wanted to get into more self care type things recently so I would be taking proper care of myself. This is my time, this is not cleaning time, but cleaning time can come just after my morning routine and just before my bed time one. It doesn’t have to be heavy or a lot of work but it’s just little bits.

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Hey! Tara here and thanks for checking out my blog. I update every Tuesday with posts about studying tips, advice and talk about productivity and organisation too. If you want to keep up to date with my latest blog posts I’d love it if you subscribed to this blog.

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