How to Clean Your House FAST
It’s easier than you think to learn how to clean your house quickly and efficiently! Follow this step by step tutorial to clean your house in just one hour!
So you have company coming in an hour and the house is a mess? Or maybe you’ve just been putting off those chores and want to get it over with as quickly as possible. So, how do you clean your house fast?
Don’t have a full hour? Use this guide to faking a clean house when you have unexpected guests!
Tricks from a former hotel maid & housekeeper
When I was in college I worked a couple of summers as a hotel maid and in residential house cleaning. I picked up a few tricks and I’m telling you that yes, you can clean an ENTIRE average size house in an hour but it takes hustle and focus!
No getting distracted while gathering up those old magazines, or checking your phone for the latest on Facebook. If you keep moving and follow this guide you’ll have that house sparkling in no time!
Note: We aren’t deep cleaning house right now, this is a surface clean with the most bang for your buck when you’re short on time!
When you have more time be sure to check out my tutorial for cleaning a front load washer, top load washer, dryer, or how to clean a keurig with vinegar.
Tips to Clean a House Fast!
Start at the Top – No matter what room you’re cleaning, clean from the top down so that dirt and dust from higher surfaces falls on lower surfaces that haven’t yet been cleaned. Dust ceiling fans, then furniture wiping dirt directly on the floor. Clean all of the floors as your last step to remove the dirt and dust.
Batch Clean – Clean all bathrooms at once, save the floors of the entire house for the last step of cleaning your house.
If you try my guide, please click the star rating below to let me know that it helped!
How to Clean Your House Fast
It's easier than you think to learn how to clean your house quickly and efficiently! Follow this step by step tutorial to clean your house in just one hour!
Materials
- Dust spray
- Microfiber Cloth
- Bathroom Cleaner
- Toilet Cleaner
- Paper Towels
- Toilet Brush
- Vacuum
- Glass Cleaner
- Sponge
- Dish Soap
- Hardwood Floor Cleaner
Instructions
Bedroom-6 Minutes per Bedroom
- Strip linens and remake beds. When making beds rather than hunch over tucking bottom sheets under the mattress use one hand to lift the corner while tucking the sheet with the other.
- Clear all clutter, if you’re in a hurry gather clutter in a spare basket or bin for later organization and tuck out of sight in a closet.
- Wipe down furniture with a dusting spray and microfiber cloth, working top to bottom.
Bathrooms-7 Minutes per Bathroom
- I like to clean all of my bathrooms at once-make a quick trip around all the bathrooms in the house to clear counters and spray counters and tubs with cleaner, allow to sit while you clean toilets and wipe down the outer toilet surface.
- Go back and wipe down counters and rinse tub then clean mirrors.
- Come back to clean the floors when cleaning the kitchen floor.
Living/Dining Room-7 Minutes
- Clear all clutter.
- Starting in one corner of the room and working around dust all surfaces top to bottom. (If you have blinds and/or ceiling fans, dust those first.)
- Use an upholstery attachment and vacuum upholstered furniture.
Kitchen-12 Minutes
- Load all dirty dishes in the dishwasher and fill sink with hot soapy water. If your stove top has removable burner pieces that need to be cleaned, place in water as well.
- Clear counters.
- Dunk sponge in hot water and squeeze out excess, wipe down cabinets, counters and other surfaces again working top to bottom. Rinse sponge in hot water as you clean.
- Wipe down appliances.
- Finish cleaning any stove pieces and replace.
Floors-15 Minutes Whole House
- Vacuum carpeted rooms work your way backwards out of the room, moving quickly and without too much overlap to save time.
- Vacuum, don’t sweep hard floors-use an attachment to get corners where dust and pet hair can accumulate.
- Steam mops or Hardwood Floor Cleaners also make cleaning hard surfaces much faster than traditional mops, so I highly recommend investing in one of those to keep your cleaning quick!
Notes
- Always clean from top to bottom so dirt and dust falls on uncleaned areas.
- Clean floors as the last step after all other cleaning is finished.
- Vacuum all carpeted areas in one session, then vacuum hard surfaces. Finish by cleaning all hard surface floors in one session as well.
- Tools such as a steam mop or hardwood floor cleaner can make cleaning faster.
Use tricks to make cleaning easier moving forward:
- How to Remove and Prevent Fingerprints on Stainless Steel
- Prevent Water Spots on Chrome
- Clean & Refresh Grout to prevent discoloration
Do you have any additional tips? This is obviously not a deep cleaning your home tutorial but a general day to day surface clean. For deeper cleans check out my Spring Cleaning Checklist and Fall Cleaning Checklist, you can also see my Daily Cleaning Checklist if you prefer to work a little each day!
Want a printable flow chart version of this cleaning plan to help you clean your house fast? Become part of our community for a subscriber-only Printable One Hour Cleaning Flowchart!
Can’t wait to start cleaning Thanks
You’re welcome Christine! I hope it helps!
Great article..!
helpful ideas, thanks for sharing.
Seven minutes would not BEGIN to clear the clutter in my living room! Maybe I’ve let it go too long….
It may take longer the first time you do it Lynn but I promise it will speed up!
Excellent article, I’ll be giving this a try, it should save me hours!
Let me know how it goes Rhian! Take care!
My house is currently a WRECK! I’ll be using these steps to get things back in order tomorrow 🙂
very nice sharing with good techniques and experties. Clean Connect follows such type of method for cleaning services. https://www.cleanconnect.com.au
Thanks for this….I am so behind on cleaning for a very long time, (2 deaths in the family; months ago, but I can’t seem to “get it together”). I’ve been so overwhelmed that I don’t know where to start. This will do that for me. Blessings to you!
I do the mirrors first in the bathroom because the lights get the mirror hot. If you wipe it hot, it streaks.
Ashley I don’t know if this will help you with the dishes and not having a dishwasher but my Aunt always had a plastic dish pan under her sink to place them in and do them in the evening.
So.. whats your trick for the kitchen if you DON’T have a dishwasher.. cause I dont. 🙁
Ugh, Ashley, I feel your pain on that one, we didn’t have one when my husband was stationed overseas and I HATE handwashing dishes! For me I had to wash the dishes immediately as they were dirtied…I can’t stand having dirty dishes stacked up so it was just a matter of making myself keep on top of it. :/
Paper Plates?????
Thanks for the tips! My living room and dining room will take longer than 7 minutes, but still … I am short so I always cleaned from the bottom up. I’m going to do it top down now because it makes so much more sense. I feel like it’s a big DUH moment. LOL Thanks again!
Glad it could help Lisa! Have a great weekend!
I was taught to start in each room by thinking, “go left to right”, and like you stated, “top to bottom”. I wonder if I might move even faster if I put a stop watch when cleaning each room? 😉
Funny you said that, alot of times I will set the timer on my stove!;)
I am sorry but putting things in a basket to sort later is not cleaning. It is the equivilent to putting all items under your bed as a kid. Put it away!
I agree Joanie but the intent of the post is only having an hour to have your house presentable. I get emails all the time from readers who get overwhelmed by the clutter and can’t get their entire house clean so I offered that option for those that may have more clutter about on a regular basis and just need a presentable home as fast as possible! For more thorough cleaning I have Spring and Fall Cleaning Checklists that are very thorough!
I go thru house with wicker laundry basket and put things in it, if I have someone coming and put basket in my closet. .i sort thru it and put away, throw away later when I have more time! I’m sure this is what she is talking about, remember you have guest coming real soon! Not a complete cleaning!
I do the exact same thing. My 3 kids all have their own basket that I tell them to collect their random toys,homework papers, crayons, sports equipment etc. in and then THEY put it away while I’m cleaning. Keeps them out of my hair.
To be honest though I sometimes don’t get around to those baskets in the closet for weeks. By then I just dump it in the trash if it’s not obviously important.
My husband cleans out his truck the same way, everything gets dumped in a box and stacked in the garage to be sorted later. There are like 20 boxes waiting to be sorted out there lol!!! Heaven forbid you touch one of his boxes though!
At least the truck is clean!! 😉
That was just so fast! Thanks for making this with a timeline. Now I don’t have to spend more time thinking how many hours I’d spent cleaning my space. It’s soooo much doable with your post.
I don’t know if my house is bigger or dirtier but I can’t keep your time frames… I only got my master bedroom and one bathroom done in an hour, and that’s with a 1 year old and the floors not done yet…
Hi Keeya, My home is about 3000 sq foot-but like I mentioned in the post to do it in an hour you really have to move out-no distractions. And keep in mind this is a surface clean, not a deep clean, think of what you would do before having guests to make sure your house was tidy and presentable, not spring cleaning. I’m probably faster from having done the same routine numerous times as well!
For surface cleaning you can use pressure washer surface cleaner, it will give you comfort.
Same! And I was moving fast too!
This is not unusual, it takes me 4 hours to clean my 4-bedroom house. My daughter is old enough now to help me so sometimes we break it down between two of us but when I am cleaning it my myself I am trying to be really fast and still it takes at least 4 hours. Hmmm…
Woo hoo,sounds great, except try doing this with 4 little boys around. They make mass faster thank you can clean.
That’s why I have to clean so fast Beatri-I have three boys of my own trying to mess things up as fast as I can clean! I use this list when expecting company usually-put on a movie for the kids upstairs and do a fast clean of the house just before guests arrive!
Use pledge it works wonders on stainless steel
Hi Melissa, I’m curious to know what your trick is for keeping finger prints off of appliances? I saw that you mentioned it as something to do when you have more time to clean, but didn’t see a link or anything.
Thanks!
Katie
Katie, If you click on the red font it’ll take you to her posting where she talks about cleaning SS appliances! To answer your question, incase it won’t work 4u, she said she cleans 1st with something like Windex, u could use vinegar for hard 2remove smudges) then go back & applies thin coat of Turtle Wax & buffs off & Voilá, Done! 🙂
Great tips for quick cleaning! I’m a Norwex girl so I prefer to wipe my surfaces with their microfiber cloths, to clean everything off the surfaces. Sponges always get funky fast. Dusting with their tools keeps the dust from flying around, so less to clean up later. The Norwex mop system is great for getting all the dust off your floors and cleaning them quickly with no chemicals! I’d love to share more, but don’t want to hijack your great post.
I’ll have to look that up Paula, I haven’t heard of those before, thanks! ~Melissa
Norwex is fabulous, it’s Swedish, high standard, antibacterial cleaning cloths/products, the cloths actually kill bacteria (silver fibres), you can just get them wet and clean anything, even raw chicken. This post btw is a fabulous guide, thanks so much for sharing these steps!
I had my own cleaning business for years and we used “Spray Away”, it originally came out as a commercial glass shower door cleaning spray used by shower door installers, eventually it became available to the public. It’s a glass cleaner but no ammonia & can be used for cleaning almost any surface, works great with no smears unless the surface is really greasy to begin. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get the old SS cleaners off, but so well worth not using them. I hate SS cleaners. Also, another thing I used is actually furniture polish, mainly on SS sinks. I use a lemon scent endust, a little more expensive then pledge or behold but I use less, smells great, & a shiny finish without the greasy feel. I’ve taken a sink from a move out clean the owner thought he would have to replace, clean it with a magic eraser, takes off crud, stain, brings back the stainless finish, helps with scratches, ect, gets it very clean but still a dull look. Then I dry the sink, spray some endust, not too much, and then with a dry towel/paper towel, shine the sink. It can look like a brand new sink in a few short minutes. My customer could not believe his sink looked almost better then when he first purchased it!
Please let me know your company address?
Woohoo! I’m such a nerd for cleaning tips. I’m feeling so inspired to run around cleaning my house right now!
This is not reasonable. Six minutes to clean the bedroom? It takes 10 minutes just to make the bed. I have to see that the top sheet and blankets are even, Also in the kitchen you forgot cleaning the fridge and the microwave oven. It takes a good half hour to clean the kitchen. Also what about the laundry room?
I’m pretty sure this is just a quick clean, not a full, regular cleaning so it seems very reasonable for me.
You’re just slow then.
What a rude comment. No wonder you are anonymous.
Your obviously a dirty pig who doesnt clean proply
Great tips, Melissa – I am absolutely pinning this as our schedule gets busy with ball games and holiday events!