Time-Saving, Easy House Cleaning Tips For Every Week
Whether it’s Spring Cleaning or Fall Cleaning, or any cleaning in between, doing a good job of making a house look spotless is always the goal. For this, I have a list of easy house cleaning tips, learned from my Polish grandmother, which will save you some time and hassle.
My house is not always spotless.
It’s impossible with a job and little messy kid at home and a blog coaching business.
The goal, as my mother says, is to have only a layer of fresh dust each week.. not months worth of it.
Before we delve into these magical, easy house-cleaning tips from my Babcia, I’m sharing one tip with you:
Don’t feel like you need to have a perfectly cleaned house. Just have one where you feel like you won’t be embarrassed when somebody pops in for a visit.
OK… so now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the list!
House-Cleaning Tips For Busy People: Lessons From Babcia
For the Polish grandmother, a clean house is a must. There are always various tricks and methods used, but they all have the same outcome: a spotless home.
Babcia had to run a farm and household from the time she was a very young woman. So she picked up some cleaning hacks along the way.
Living under Communism, she learned to be thrifty and smart about keeping a home.
All of this knowledge she passed down to my mom and me.
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Top 10 House Cleaning Tips From Babcia
According to Babcia, there is an art to house cleaning once a week.
You can do it so that all major areas of the home are dirt and dust-free in a matter of a few hours with these easy house cleaning tips.
However, something I’ve adapted to work with my busy schedule is to break up the tasks over a series of evenings if your weekends are busy.
- Clean furniture first: remove dust, crumbs, and dirt here first, before you vacuum or sweep floors.
- Use a mop covered with a dust cloth or a Swiffer with a dry sheet to get rid of dust and cobwebs on the walls and where the wall and ceiling meet.
- Clean light fixtures with a dust cloth to make the light brighter.
- Dust off all picture frames and glass to make images vibrant.
- Use a vacuum with a small brush attachment to clean off the baseboards of dust.
- Use a soft, damp rag to dust off railings, wainscoting and any details on furniture to remove accumulated dust.
- Wipe down and disinfect doors and door handles.
- Clean the bathroom after your bath or shower on a house-cleaning day. Touch-up during the week with a quick wipe down with a disinfecting wipe. Parent tip: while your kid is having a soak in the tub, clean the sink and toilets. Make sure to use natural cleaners to reduce exposure to chemicals.
- Clean the key areas of your kitchen after every use. Once a week, pull away all items from corners to dust and disinfect.
- Shake the dust out of anything that can be dusted out: small carpets, blankets, and runners can be shaken outside to remove accumulated dust.
A Few Other Time-Saving Tips
Over the years, I’ve adapted some of Babcia’s house-cleaning hacks to shave off time from this often unwelcome task.
- The vacuum is your best friend – use the attachments to clean hardwood floors, baseboards, furniture, and other fixtures.
- Do a thorough once-a-month cleaning, pulling back cupboards and tables to get at corners and areas underneath. This reduces the amount of work you need to do each week.
- Caked-on or sticky dirt on kitchen floors can be gently scrubbed off by using a dish and pot-scrubbing pad.
- If you have a stuck-on piece of food or sauce, place a small, wet and warm piece of paper towel over the top of it for a few minutes. The residue will loosen up for easy removal.
- While you’re waiting for something to cook, clean off the top of your fridge to remove dust. You may want to clean the cupboard doors of any dust and grime at the same time.
A Few Other Odd Polish House Cleaning Tips And Tricks
There’s something about Polish grandmothers and moms and their cleaning habits.
These cleaning tips have been passed on to generations of women. They may seem odd at first, but they actually do make sense. Here are a few that stand out that you might go, “huh?” over. But trust me, they seem to work.
- Something that helps keep a down duvet smelling fresh is airing them out. The Polish pierzyna (down duvet) was often found draped over chairs, sunning itself. Sunshine is a powerful disinfectant and makes things smell better.
- Runners are a great way to decorate but also keep dust from settling on furniture. All you need to do is shake off the dust occasionally.
- Keep a stash of old rags, as you never know when you’ll need some for a messy spill.
Supplies I Always Have On Hand
There are a few things that I always have in supply for my weekly cleaning.
- Pledge – it’s been a long-time favourite to clean and shine furniture
- My home-made vinegar-water and orange diffuser oil-scented cleaner in a spray bottle
- Dust cloths: these can be recycled old shirts or microfibre dust cloths
- Vacuum cleaner bags
- Vinegar
- Swiffer sweeping refills
That’s it!
Have Fun!
My final easy house-cleaning tip – MAKE IT FUN! Play tunes. New tunes, old tunes…. doesn’t matter. Music makes the process much better.
I’ll always have fond memories of cleaning the house while listening to Dancing Queen by ABBA.
So enjoy the process. It will make it so much of a better routine!
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QUESTION: What are your house cleaning tips and tricks that work for you?
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Oh man what great tips! Sharing with my family for sure
Thank you! Happy cleaning!
I loooove vacuuming the baseboards! And really, everything ;). Especially because we have dogs, and the hair everywhere seems inevitable LOL
My house is definitely not this clean! As a busy working mom, I will definitely use some of these tips and try to do a couple a week.
I hear you. I’m the same way. I usually do the quick version with the vacuum. The dust cloth comes out once a month or so!
Dusting is my absolutely least favorite house chore haha but you’re right, it makes the house look so much better when there’s no dust.
Oh, I hear you! I’m allergic to dust. Sometimes I just want to wear a mask when I dust. But yes, the outcome is all worth it.
This is a great post! I am of Polish descent too, and I have learned a lot from my grandparents about the art of cleaning! =) I loved learning your cleaning tips. Using a Swiffer on the walls to get rid of dust and cobwebs is a brilliant idea! Cheers.
The Swiffer is a multi-tool in Polish homes! :) Glad you liked the tips. Happy cleaning!