As time goes on, I get more passionate about cleaning tips and how easy it truly is to keep a clean house. Here are some quick cleaning tips that will help you get and keep your home clean and organised.

Cleaning tips when you need to get your home clean in a fast and easy way

I am updating this article as I am traveling a lot with my family, and over the last couple of months, I have learned a ton of cleaning tips that you can implement in your home.

As we are moving around on a week-to-week basis, whilst rewriting this article, I noticed that in many rentals, the actual cleaning tools are dirty. How are you expected to clean a space if your tools are dirty? One of the first cleaning tips is to have clean tools. As I write in my book, dirty tools are completely counterintuitive as they allow you to spread dirt, not remove it, and clean a surface.

Cleaning tips start by cleaning your tools:

Dirty broom, first remove the hairs in the broom, if need be with a comb or a fork (I have had very limited success with this). Then soak the broom in hot soapy water for a while, rinse it out and let it dry.

Dirty dustpan, use kitchen towel, wet wipes or if space allows a bucket with hot water to remove the dirty layer on the dustpan.

Bins, again remove chunks of dirt, soak it in hot water, rinse and let it dry.

Dishwash sponges in 9 out of the 10 places we visit I bin the dishwash sponge and replace with a clean one. I also use a scrub mommy which helps with handwashing.

Cleaning tips for luxury items:

Vacuum cleaners in our travel in south America I have only seen two very mediocre vacuums who were not cleaned since their first use. If you are using vacuum cleaners they need to be cleaned, rinsed and dried regularly. There are many videos online with details cleaning tips on how to do this. Not only will it increase the life of your vacuum cleaner it will increase the quality of its use.

Dishwashers in most of our travel accommodation dishwashers are not present. If you have a dishwasher, one of the key cleaning tips is to make sure you rinse it out every couple of weeks with a cleaning cycle and remove build up gunk.

Microfiber cloths – I have recently opted for colour coordinated microfiber cloths they are great for drying things (after you use the above cleaning tips and removed the dirt with a broom, vacuum, damp kitchen or toilet paper). The cloths add a level of comfort to the kitchen and bathroom sinks and more. I even use them as bathmats as they dry quickly and are easy to clean in the washing machine.

Cleaning tips - Disinfect key areas

When we enter a new property, I go through a process we call “nesting” it is about an hour of time in which I use most of the cleaning tips in this article. I use alcohol wipes or alcohol spray and paper towel to wipe down all light switches, doorknobs, intercom and remote controls. If literally feel my blood pressure drop when I know those areas are clean and only my families’ germs are on them.

Cleaning tips frequently used items: Use paper towel, wet wipes and temporary gloves

Where possible I would opt for a biodegradable option, the throw away nature of these items means you can remove dirt and be done with it.

Cleaning tips for the bathroom

In the bathroom I use toilet paper to first remove the dirt, an alcohol wipes to disinfect and another dry piece of toilet paper to remove the last bit of fust and hair.

Here is one of my ninja-level cleaning tips: To get a perfect clean toilet, I use gloves and a toothpick to get into the grooves that have built up waste.

Cleaning tips for the floor

Still in the bathroom, on a daily basis, I stare at the floor when I visit the loo and look for hair or dust. After each visit, I wet a piece of clean toilet paper and wipe up the buildup, dust and hair. It is amazing what builds up in 24 hours. Using this as one of your cleaning tips means that most of the time, your bathroom floor is very clean.

I recently discovered one of my key cleaning tips, and it works like magic: I use kitchen paper for the floor.

Instructions: Take two sheets and fold on the serrated edge, make the folded side wet (around 1-2 centimeters) you can now lay this in a kreese in the floor or fold it over the dustpan you cleaned early. The line of wet paper allows the dirt from the floor to fly straight onto the dry part of the paper. Once the sweeping is complete you fold, scrunch and bin it.

Cleaning tips when you need to keep the space clean and tidy

You know all this stuff, but in case you need extra motivation and inspiration:
Make your bed within minutes of getting out
Wipe the bathroom floor to remove dust and dirt daily (use a piece of damp toilet paper it is so easy you can’t not do it)
Dry the bathroom floor when you're done with your shower
Keep your bathroom floor towels drying in the air to remain fresh, dirt and dust-free.
Tidy the kitchen before bed and after use; the older the family members, the more everyone can pull their weight.
Take the bin out at least every second day.

Beyond cleaning tips doing a quick tidy up

Your living room and kitchen are the two busiest spots in most homes. If everything is organised in these two rooms you like it and feel comfortable. Unfortunately, life tends to get busy. We run in and out of our homes, leaving times scattered in our path. If we have other people sharing our living spaces we have this confusion multiplied. In the space of a few days, the kitchen and living room can look like a bomb has hit them (I speak from experience here).
What can you do? Let’s do a quick tidy-up.

A dog running towards the camera, tidy up?

The quick tidy-up technique after you have used the cleaning tips

The technique goes by many names: crisis cleaning*, room rescues, clutter buster or tidy-ups. Nowadays, I like to call it a tidy-up, and it’s very easy. All you need is a timer and possibly a bin, bag, laundry basket, etc.

Firstly, pick the area you are going to target
Select the time you will spend on this (I would say anywhere between 5 - 15 minutes. Do not go more than 20 minutes for 1 space as you will burn yourself out).
Set the timer and gather all rubbish, all shoes, all laundry, all books (all items that you can somehow group together).
Put the items in their spot immediately (within the allotted time).
After your time is up, check your progress. Then, change to another area or room. Do not do two crisis cleaning sessions in one spot.

*Technically, this is tidying, as with the above cleaning tips, your space should be clean.

Don’t aim for perfection with a quick tidy-up

It does not have to be perfect, if the space looks better than before your started you have succeeded. If you regularly spend half an hour to an hour on this, your house will look so much better in a very short period. The only trick is that everything needs to have a "home". If you have a massive pile of papers and no allocated spot to keep them, you need to create a spot, otherwise, you will just move items rather than put them back in place. It sounds so easy, but this was a major point for me. Before getting organised, I did not have "homes" for items. As a result, stuff would just "live" anywhere I had dropped them.

The ideal situation would be if we can use the cleaning tips and do a tidy-up every day. However, this is not always possible, some days we are in and out the door and too exhausted to do anything by the time we get home. I hope these simple cleaning tips and the quick tidy up helps in those busy weeks when you need to get some order back into your life and you need it fast.