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. The goal, as my mother says, is to have only a layer of fresh dust each week.. not months worth of it.

So the before we delve into these magical, easy house cleaning hacks 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!

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Learning 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.

1. Clean furniture first: remove dust, crumbs, and dirt here first, before you vacuum or sweep floors.
2. 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.
3. Clean light fixtures with a dust cloth to make the light brighter.
4. Dust off all picture frames and glass to make images vibrant.
5. Use a vacuum with a small brush attachment to clean off the baseboards of dust.
6. Use a soft, damp rag to dust off railings, wainscoting and any details on furniture to remove accumulated dust.
7. Wipe down and disinfect doors and door handles.
8. 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 Lysol wipe.
9. Clean the key areas of your kitchen after every use. Once a week, pull away all items from corners to dust and disinfect.
10. Shake the dust out of anything that can be dusted out: small carpets, blankets, and runners can be shaken outside to remove accumulated dust.

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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.

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A Few Other Odd Polish House Cleaning Tips And Tricks

There’s something about Polish grandmothers and moms and their cleaning habits. Many tips have been passed on by generations of women and 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. While it may not kill off germs, it certainly helps it smell a whole lot 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.

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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
• Dust cloths: these can be recycled old shirts or microfibre dust cloths
• Vacuum cleaner bags
• Vinegar
• Swiffer sweeping refills

That’s it!

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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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For A Deep Clean…

Check out Heather Behrend’s post on her blog Made In A Pinch, on tips for deep cleaning areas of the house that are always overlooked during quick cleaning sessions. Her list is great for a Spring Cleaning or Fall Cleaning.

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QUESTION: What are your house cleaning tips and tricks that work for you? 

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