Clean House Faster: 7 Tips to Speed it Along (2024)

Anyone else tired of giving up their entire weekend to clean? Life is busy enough. We deserve our weekends and relaxation, so let’s make cleaning house faster.

These are the tricks I use to make cleaning both speedy and convenient while still doing a good job. After all, learning to clean house faster shouldn’t mean learning to live with a mess.

1. Ensure easy access.

Housework will always take longer if you have to race around looking for stuff. So, when organizing cleaning supplies, keep a stash where it’s convenient to grab what you need.

Maybe that’s a cleaning stash in each bathroom and kitchen, or one well-stocked caddy you can carry to every room.

I even keep a microfiber cloth tucked under my sofa cushion so I can wipe up messes in the living room pronto when I need to.

2. Make every step count.

You’ve heard to clean house top to bottom, but that doesn’t mean you start with the upstairs.

It refers to moving dirt down from high to low surfaces in a room, so you aren’t messing up what you just cleaned.

It also means doing a task all the way around the room before you move onto the next.

For example, you’d pick up trash all the way around the room then set the bag outside the door. Next, you’d start dust all the way around the room, then vacuum all the way around, etc.

3. Pre-clean to make cleaning easier.

4. Don’t waste dwell time.

Some products need time to work, like disinfectants and de-greasers. Since it’s dangerous to use different cleaning products at the same time, use the wait to get other things done.

When you’re cleaning the bathroom or bedroom, take the linens to the laundry room. In the kitchen, use the time to toss out leftovers or tidy up your shelves.

But whatever you do, don’t check your phone. I have lost track of how many times “just a quick check” of email turned into a half-hour of watching videos while disinfectants dried out on my sinks. No more.

You wouldn’t try building a house using a shoe for a hammer, and the same common sense applies to cleaning the house, too.

That doesn’t mean you have to buy whatever gadget your favorite influencer is selling, though.

Look for multitasking cleaning tools, like cordless vacuums with dust brush attachments that fit the canister or long-handled dusters with universal ends so you can swap out attachments.

6. Maintain your equipment.

Keeping your cleaning tools in good shape helps you clean faster because you won’t have to go over the same spot repeatedly. Maintaining your equipment keeps it working like new.

So after each use, clean your sponges, scrub brushes, and microfiber cloths. Then, refill your cleaning sprays so they’re ready for next time.

Also, check your vacuum’s roller for threads and wipe it off and deep clean your vacuum monthly.

7. Clean consistently.

It’s counterintuitive, but cleaning before things look dirty helps you clean faster.

Think about it, though: wiping a recent spill doesn’t take as much time as scrubbing a crusty one.

Cleaning your shower and toilet weekly even if they look clean enough takes less time than catching up on removing soap scum or scrubbing toilet stains from hard water that’s sat there.

And some aspects of cleaning help other areas stay clean. Shaking off welcome mats daily means less dirt tracked onto your floors. Vacuuming high traffic area routinely helps reduce dust everywhere in your home.

So, even though cleaning may never be something any of us look forward to, there are ways to clean faster so it’s less of a chore.

Need some structure to do it? Check out my free speed cleaning checklist.