Spring Cleaning Shortcuts for Lazy People

Let’s be honest, no one really likes spring cleaning. It does feel good to have a clean house at the end of the process, but who loves dusting and cleaning and organizing? If it was that much fun, we’d have summer, fall and winter cleaning routines too.

We’ve come up with a few spring cleaning shortcuts for the truly lazy person in all of us. If you have the time to scrub and toil, by all means, go for it. If you don’t, however, try these cleaning secrets and spend the time you saved doing something fun with the people you love.

CARPETS

You could spend hours scrubbing floors and steam cleaning carpets properly. Or you could just sprinkle baking soda on your carpet, let it sit for half an hour to absorb odors, and then vacuum it up. You can also hire a company to clean your carpets (and furniture) for you.

BATHROOMS

No one likes to clean bathrooms. You probably should use a sponge or brush and some good cleaner or a bucket with a bleach solution to disinfect everything. But if you want to skip the labor, just grab a can of disposable disinfecting cleaning wipes and wipe everything down. You can also use disposable toilet scrub brushes. It’s a little more expensive, but a lot faster.

DUSTING

Take out that Swiffer mop (if you are lazy, you definitely have one), add a dry disposable cloth, and use it on everything – walls, bookshelves, the ceiling – anything that has dust on it. Your house will be dust-free in minutes. For delicate things, use a plain disposable electrostatic cloth and wipe things down by hand.

ORGANIZING

Spring cleaning is the time when many of us try to deal with clutter, and reorganize spaces in our home. This can be time consuming and stressful, and buying shelving and bins can get expensive. We use a simpler approach to this task which involves the following advice: “If you don’t need it, throw it out, give it away, or recycle it.” If you have less stuff in your home, there is less to clean (whenever you do get around to cleaning).

An organized home is also a more secure home. With a wireless alarm system in your home and no cluttered areas, you’ll be able to monitor if something valuable is missing or if a basement has been burglarized. If you house is filled with clutter and there are spaces you never enter, you may miss an unlocked door or a broken window. Clutter can also provide a great place for animals to hide inside your home, and can hide flooding and mold. If you remove the clutter, your home will be safer, more secure, and you’ll have fewer unwelcome surprises. 

Our lives seem to be moving at a faster pace than ever before. Few of us have time in our busy schedules to devote several days to cleaning our home from top to bottom. It’s OK to skip the cleaning chores once in a while, spray some air freshener, and spend a few minutes thinking up excuses for why our home is a mess.